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  • #2091753

    redirecting LPT3 output

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    by 115147.455 ·

    In our situation here we have some legacy software running on windows 3.1 .The software was originally written for all post script printing to be done off of LPT3 and sent to a network printer which has worked fine for the last ten years. Now we wish to hang some postscript printers off of LPT1 and print to these instead. However, the code references more than 40 different places where LPT3 is printed to for postscript printing. How can I redirect printing such that all printing to LPT3 comes out on LPT1 without scouring a bunch of outdated source code (Clipper and DBIV) and without buying LPT3 cards?

    Thanks,
    Paul J. Karlok

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    • #3881926

      redirecting LPT3 output

      by simonchan ·

      In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

      Please check your PC hardware manual first. Some PCs allow you to configure the LPT setting. In other words, you may set your default LPT port to LPT3 instead of LPT1.

      • #3881828

        redirecting LPT3 output

        by 115147.455 ·

        In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

        The problem is that LPT2 and LPT3 are network printers, LPT1 is not. Without forcing me to stop what I’m doing, spend two weeks tracking down every occurance of LPT3: in 50,000 lines of code, I just want to make a quick fix that will work. Thesoftware is written to print postscript to specifically LPT3. Changing the printer to LPT1 will have no effect because the software will print to LPT3.
        How can I print to LPT3 and have it come out on LPT1 ?

    • #3881908

      redirecting LPT3 output

      by don christner ·

      In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

      Use the DOS Mode command. I can’t remember which port to call out first, but if you go to a DOS prompt and type mode /? it will give you the help info for the mode command.

      At a DOS prompt you would type, mode lpt3:=lpt1: and it will then tell you lpt3 redirected to lpt1.

      Don

      • #3881829

        redirecting LPT3 output

        by 115147.455 ·

        In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

        I type at the dos prompt…

        C:\>Mode lpt3:=lpt1:

        and get and “Invalid parameter – LPT1:”
        response because the command is

        MODE =

    • #3865082

      redirecting LPT3 output

      by wgirid ·

      In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

      Hi!
      The mode command is (among other things) used for redirecting printer output from parallell to serial port; transfer between parallell ports is not supported, unfortunately. If I remember correctly, LPT ports are given their number by BIOS as it searches for them. If these machines are not quite modern I think you would need to install two new LPT ports to get a physical LPT3 – that might be a challenge what with IRQ etc. If all your machines are on a network and you really want to give each its own printer (on LPT1) but software only wants to print to LPT3, you might of course share each printer and direct printing on machine A to network printer on machine B by using LPT3 as the output port for network printing, (and vice versa) andcreate the required number of such pairs of computers. Not an elegant solution at all though…. but I don’t think there is a quick and easy fix to this.
      Regards
      /WGIRID

      • #3868430

        redirecting LPT3 output

        by 115147.455 ·

        In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

        This was the answer I had originally arrived at but was hoping that I didn’t have all of the information at my disposal. Thanks for confirming what I already suspected.

        Paul

    • #3868429

      redirecting LPT3 output

      by 115147.455 ·

      In reply to redirecting LPT3 output

      This question was closed by the author

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