[X4U] Mac printing through a Win 2003 Server

[Stroller]

[...CONTINUED]

> Second is accessing the printers through a Windows 2003 print  
> server. I’ve
> been to the Apple site and it says this is possible but for  
> whatever reason
> nothing is showing up in the Printer Setup Utility in the Windows  
> Print
> Server tab. The dual IP thing is still not setup so this is  
> “normal” Windows
> printing.

I'm guessing this is either because the printers aren't advertising  
themselves, or advertising (read: broadcast packets) is blocked, or  
because you're not authenticating as a user on the domain.

What does a Windows user have to do to print to these machines? Can  
they print if they bring along a laptop from home with a standard  
install of XP and connect to the network? Or do they have to use a PC  
that has been imaged with the standard campus install of Windows,  
logging in (with their password) as "student1942" or whatever?

Whichever, this would appear to be irrelevant if the "dual IP thing"  
will subsequently break the configuration.
(although on reflection I think it's maybe the most important advice  
I can give you - get the "dual IP thing" setup & then study how a  
Windows box successfully prints to these printers).

> Bonjour does not work with this printer even though it is supposed
> to.

Even connecting the Mac directly to the printer with a single  
ethernet cable? (don't forget to make sure both machines have  
addresses on the same network)

> In the long run Bonjour will be disabled anyway as an option for us  
> for
> security and policy reasons.

Indeed.

> Does anybody have any experience printing in a
> mixed environment like this?

Yes indeed. Would you like to fly me out there for a week's consultancy?

> This is extremely frustrating. Also does
> anybody know in general what a print server does and why we need  
> one? I’m
> trying to wrap my head around what the print server does and how it  
> does it?

Hmmmn... back in the old days printers were slow and a computer  
connecting directly to a printer had to wait, using computing  
resources, while the job completed. A computer used as a print server  
allowed several computers to access a single printer, and if one job  
was already printing then it would store any addition print requests  
in its queue (in its memory or on its hard-drive), so that those  
would print out later. Meanwhile the "client" computer (in the  
"client - server model" that's the computer that had submitted the  
job) can get on with doing other things and its user can go collect  
the print out later on.

Now that modern printers have network cards & a decent-sized internal  
memory, I think the advantages of a print-server are permissions- &  
accounting-based. A print server might allow a student to print only  
50 pages per day but leave a professor with no such restriction; it  
might prevent Joe Student bringing in his laptop from home &  
anonymously printing out War & Peace; it might prioritise small jobs  
so that a single-page letter is queued in front of a long  
dissertation and so that staff get precedence over students.

The print server might keep a copy of every job printed, so that in  
the event of a security breach you could determine that the lab  
technician with the spiky hair & the earring had printed out a map of  
the cosmetics-testing building a week before it was raided by the  
Animal Liberation Front (it wasn't me, guv! I prefer to get my  
bunnies from <http://www.rabbitpal.com>). Finally you can determine  
in a centralised manner how many pages are being printed on each  
machine, cost-per-page and that sort of thing; colour laser printers  
are particularly expensive to run, even when printing only black, and  
I recall one sysadmin complaining that the sales director had run off  
a large print-job at 20p per page when only one page was colour (and  
when the larger black & white printer cost a fraction of a penny per  
page to run).

But I digress... if you're running a print-server then it's  
irrelevant if its multi-homed ("dual IP thing") - you just address  
the IP of the server itself, whichever IP is on the same network as  
you. If you're NOT using a print-server then you just address the  
printer using the printer's normal protocol, but using whichever IP  
address has been allocated (as forwarding) to it; in this case the  
printer may not advertise or broadcast & may not be visible in  
printer setup utility, but if it's available on the network you  
should be able to access it by typing in its IP.

Stroller.