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Sharing printers over domains.

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by public 1 view

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Heya folks.

I want to bang something off everyone.

Heres the situation, simple and to the point.

PC1 -Win2k Professional. Belongs to SWWR Domain.
PC2 -Win2k Professional. Belongs to RREE Domain.
PS -Print Server (win2k server) on SWWR Domain.

Obviously, a domain user logging in with PC1 will to the SWWR domain be able to access PS and do his printing. No biggie.

However, we get visitors ALL the time. People with all types of setups. Win95, 98, Win2k, WinXP etc.

Now lets say a Vendor visitor comes and he has a win2k pro machine. He is on the RREE domain. He logs into his win2k machine using cached credentials (since he is no longer connected to his domain). Now I want to set him up to print from the PS print server on the SWWR Domain.

Sometimes, if they use win95 or win98, I can add them LOCALLY (dont want to add them to the domain after all) on the PS and they will be able to access JUST that print server with no problem.

However, this doens't seem to work if he has a win2k pro machine.

Oh yeah, and I dont want to use domain trusts. There is no way I trust vendors to access my entire domain.

Any suggestions? Explanations? Salutations? etc etc etc.

-public

11 replies

by sgt_shultz

what about creating a 'guest' account. give it rights to the printer. have visitors login as guest in your domain to print?
or, what if you gave 'everyone' full access to print on the print server. would that work...?
they are not having connectivity issues, just permission issues? they can ping the print server?

by public

I wouldn't mind creating a limited "guest account" on my domain to allow them access to the print server. However, remember, they are logging into their domains via cached credentials. If i create a guest account in OUR domain, i have to dump themoff THEIR domain, have the win2k pro machine join OUR domain, then they'll get a whole new profile on their machines.

Now remember, they have their email settings, their my documents, their favorites (everything profile specific) etc etc in theirold profile. It is not nice to dump people out of their profiles, especially since they are going back to their companies in 3 or 4 days. Then their MIS department has to REJOIN the machine to the domain etc etc etc. I dont see this as an option.

Yes, this is a permissions issue. I can ping the print server just fine. There is nothing complicated, the print server is on the same subnet as all the PCs. When i try to use netbios to access it \\PS\ it gives me a security error.
Thanks for trying.

by myndkrime

This works for workgroups to be able to print to domain printers, I have not had to do this with another domain but it should still be able to work. Try the following:

Configuring computer in a workgroup to use shared printer on Win 2K Server that is a member of the domain, for this example the domain is called MYDOMAIN and the machine in the workgroup is called WIN2KBOX.

Open a command prompt on the computer that is in the workgroup then type in the following information.

NET USE \\WIN2KBOX\IPC$ /U: MYDOMAIN\ADMINISTRATOR

After hitting enter you will get a prompt saying that the password is incorrect; please enter the password now

Enter the password for your Administrator account (Admin account on the domain)
Press enter
Now you will be able to use the Add Printers Wizard to add the shared printer in the domain.

To avoid the user losing the associations when they restart the system add the following to the command line above: /PERSISTENT: YES

This command will now be permanent as long as the NET USE command is not deleted.

by cul8rm8e

I could be away off here but here goes anyway.

If you have IIS running on this server with only web service running(locked down for obvious reasons)try running from your browser http://PS/printers which should allow you to see printers on this server and download and install from this point!

Also i suspect permissions would also be an issue.

As i said i could be a mile off.

good luck!

by jimcim

Hi,
If you are using a Jet direct try this...For XP and 2000 machines you can create a local port on their pc's and print to the printer using the visitor's pc as their own print server. It is setup like this..
Click on Add a printer wizard>local printer (Uncheck automatically detect and install)>next>create a new port>hit drop down menu go to Standard TCP/IP Port>next>make sure device is turned on>type printer IP Address on top line (Leave port name as default-it doesn't matter)>next, from here it is basic select printer manufacturer and type>next give it a name and that should do it. Hpoe this works for you, Jim

by rvickers78

Like the answer states above, if its a networked printer with a IP address, let him print to a IP port on his local machine without going through a server (any computer) If the printer is connected directly to a PC, buy a print server (you can get ones that connect directly to the Printer port on the printer) and assign it a IP. That way the vendor authenticates on his own machine and can only print to an IP, just remember to not restrict IP's or users in that print server.

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