Network Printing

Printing with NetWare Clients and Servers

Microsoft has three products that provide printing compatibility with NetWare systems: File and Print Services for NetWare, Client Service for NetWare, and Gateway Service for NetWare.

Printing Documents from NetWare Clients

A print server that is running Windows 2000 Server can process print jobs from NetWare print clients if the File and Print Services utility is installed. File and Print Services does not run on Windows 2000 Professional. The NetWare clients can be connected to the print server's network directly or through a NetWare server.

Windows 2000 File and Print Services also allows NetWare clients to print to NetWare-compatible printers that are attached directly to the Windows 2000 network.

Prerequisites

You must ensure that communication with NetWare is enabled by means of the NWLink protocol (in full, NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Compatible Transport). File and Print Services installs NWLink software automatically if it is not already present on the Windows 2000 print server. NetWare connectivity over TCP/IP is not supported.

Printer Search Facility

With File and Print Services, the Windows 2000 print server appears to the NetWare client like a NetWare 3.x-compatible file and print server. File and Print Services presents the same dialog boxes to the client as a NetWare server uses to process a print job from a client. The printers on the Windows 2000 print server are displayed and searched for like NetWare print queues.

Directing Output

To print by means of File and Print Services, NetWare clients must download the printer driver, duplicating the shared printer as a local printer. They cannot use the RPRINTER printing method, although they can use both PSERVER and LDP. Ports must be specified as follows:

For a printer attached to the Windows 2000 print server, select port LPT1.
For a networked printer, select either the NetWare_Pserver_0 or NetWare_Pserver_1 port.

Sending Documents to a NetWare Network

Gateway Service for NetWare allows Windows 2000 Server to send print jobs to printers using Novell PSERVER technology on a NetWare network.

When using Gateway Service for NetWare, requests from Microsoft networking clients are processed through the gateway so access is slower than direct access from the client to the NetWare network. Clients that require frequent access to NetWare resources must run Client Service for NetWare to bypass the Windows 2000 print server.

Prerequisites

To use this capability, do the following on the server that is making the connection from the Windows 2000 network:

Ensure that the NWLink protocol is installed on the computer. Gateway Service for NetWare installs it automatically if it is not already present.
Install Gateway Service for NetWare on a computer running Windows 2000 Server. To install these utilities, open My Computer, Control Panel, Network and Dial-up Connections, and then right-click Local Area Connection. Click Properties, Install, Client, Gateway (and Client) Services for NetWare, and then click OK. Click Close.

Note

Client Service for NetWare is also installed automatically on the server so you can test your installation by sending a print job from the Windows 2000 server to the NetWare printer.

Add a NetWare port. This requires you to install the NetWare remote port monitor, Nwmon, which manages communication between the Windows 2000 print server and the print device.

Printer Search Facility

With Gateway Service for NetWare, you can view available NetWare printers in the Add Printer Wizard or by using net view.

Connecting to the NetWare Printer Share

Gateway Service lets clients connect to a NetWare printer share the same way they connect to a printer share on the Windows 2000 network. Windows 2000 downloads the printer driver. Printer settings, such as paper size, are not retrievable on a NetWare print server, so you need to adjust them on the client.

Unlike Windows 2000, the NetWare printer driver is not automatically kept current on the client. Use the Add Printer Wizard to update it.

Print Processing

In Novell PSERVER processing, the server grabs the document from a passive print queue, rather than the print server driving the transport of the document.

The Microsoft NetWare print provider, Nwprovau, performs the document transfer. If Nwprovau recognizes the printer name when the print router on the Windows 2000-based print server polls it, it takes control of the print job and sends a message to the NetWare Workstation Service (Nwwks), which in turn passes control to the NetWare redirector. The NetWare redirector sends the print job to the NetWare print server, as shown in Figure 4.14.

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Figure 4.14 NetWare Print Provider