00250: How to capture a printer port under older versions of Windows

Title:

How to capture a printer port under older versions of Windows

Description:

If the alias line is set up as follows: 

alias LP /dev/lpt1 “printer” CR 

in the config.bbx but the actual printer is a shared network printer, you must capture the lpt1 port to be redirected to the network printer. Here’s how to do that in Windows For Workgroups: 

Instructions for capturing a printer port in Windows For Workgroups 

If you are using a “direct” alias line in the form of: 

alias LP /dev/lpt1 “Dot Matrix Printer” CR 

but the actual printer is a network printer, you will get mixed output when printing from BBx and Windows applications. To prevent this behavior, capture the printer port when configuring the network printer at the Windows level. The steps are roughly as follows: 

1. Set up the alias in the CONFIG.BBX 
        alias LP /dev/lpt1 “Dot Matrix Printer” CR 

2. In Windows, select: Control Panel, Printers 

3. Set up the printer if it’s not already listed 

4. Select: Connect 

5. Pick the port that needs to be captured, i.e., whatever was listed in the alias line (lpt1 in our example) from the Ports: list 

6. Select: Network 

7. Select the Windows for Workgroups machine which physically has the printer to be shared. Note that the printer MUST be configured as shared from that workstation. 

At this point, all output that is redirected to lpt1 will be captured and sent to the network printer. 

Last Modified: 05/01/2002 Product: Visual PRO/5 Operating System: windows

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