Removing a printer port

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsxp.print_fax (More info?)

Hi All,

A friend has recently upgraded his PC from Win95 to XPHE. He has an old DOS
based application that prints to a matrix printer which works fine but it
will only print on LTP1,2, or 3.

The new PC only has USB connections so he bought a PCI card which connects
the printer to a USB port and this works from a window application where
you can choose the printer. The DOS application will only print to LPT1,2,
or 3. I suggested he needs to re-install the card and assign it to on of
these ports but he can not delete an existing LPTx port to assign it to the
card. He keeps getting an error saying the port can not be removed.

Can anyone tell me how he can remove the port on either LPT1,2, or 3 ?

TIA
John Theone

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsxp.print_fax (More info?)

"The One" <TheOne@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94FF5978F9F38TheOnenowhere@207.46.248.16...
> Hi All,
>
> A friend has recently upgraded his PC from Win95 to XPHE. He has an old
DOS
> based application that prints to a matrix printer which works fine but it
> will only print on LTP1,2, or 3.
>
> The new PC only has USB connections so he bought a PCI card which connects
> the printer to a USB port and this works from a window application where
> you can choose the printer. The DOS application will only print to LPT1,2,
> or 3. I suggested he needs to re-install the card and assign it to on of
> these ports but he can not delete an existing LPTx port to assign it to
the
> card. He keeps getting an error saying the port can not be removed.
>
> Can anyone tell me how he can remove the port on either LPT1,2, or 3 ?
>
> TIA
> John Theone


I doubt you will be able to make the USB printer directly visible
to an old DOS-based application.
But here's a trick that _may_ work...

We are going to access it via the network redirector,
even though it's not on a network, it's on the local machine...

-Ensure the printer is working from within windows;
-Share the printer, even if you are not on a network;
( if there's no physical LAN card in the machine,
you may need to install the 'loopback adapter' to
get file and print sharing options to appear.)
-Give the printer a share name.
-Then issue the command:
net use LPT1 \\pc-name\share-name

Then issue the command "net use".
Look to see if it worked.
This is the output on my machine, see how LPT1 is now
mapped to a shared printer on the same machine...

Status Local Remote Network
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
OK LPT1 \\rons-pc\epson Microsoft Windows Network


Printing from the dos app to LPT1 should now be captured and sent to
the network printer which just happens to be on this same machine.

No guarantees, but worth a try.

--
Best Regards,
Ron Lowe
MS-MVP Windows Networking

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsxp.print_fax (More info?)

You first say that the PC has no (physical) parallel ports and then say you
need to remove three (LPT {1, 2, 3}). Very confusing to say the least.

If I assume you are talking about logical devices then typically you just
share the printer and in the DOS program point LPTx to
\\computername\printersharename. If you want to use the LPT1 logical printer
port then you need to disable the (physical) LPT1 port in device manager BUT
given that you say the computer has NO physical LPT ports then this won't be
necessary.

--
Ross
"The One" <TheOne@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:Xns94FF5978F9F38TheOnenowhere@207.46.248.16...
> Hi All,
>
> A friend has recently upgraded his PC from Win95 to XPHE. He has an old
DOS
> based application that prints to a matrix printer which works fine but it
> will only print on LTP1,2, or 3.
>
> The new PC only has USB connections so he bought a PCI card which connects
> the printer to a USB port and this works from a window application where
> you can choose the printer. The DOS application will only print to LPT1,2,
> or 3. I suggested he needs to re-install the card and assign it to on of
> these ports but he can not delete an existing LPTx port to assign it to
the
> card. He keeps getting an error saying the port can not be removed.
>
> Can anyone tell me how he can remove the port on either LPT1,2, or 3 ?
>
> TIA
> John Theone

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general,microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware,microsoft.public.windowsxp.print_fax (More info?)

I have shared the printer using the following and used net use to re-
direct the printer output as follows:

net use lpt1: \\computername\printersharename

and this appears to work but there are two problems.

1) You need to re-issue the net use command from a dos box every time
the box is re-booted. If you type net use it says the LPT1 is
unavailable. I have tried putting a batch file in the start folder for
all users but it does not work. Running the batch program from a dos box
works.

2) There is a considerable delay when printing

I do not know if these two issues are related.

Can anyone add any advice on overcomming these issues ?

TIA John



"Ross Durie" <rdurie@caverock.net.nz> wrote in
news:jzfwc.579$GB4.18363@news.xtra.co.nz:

> You first say that the PC has no (physical) parallel ports and then
> say you need to remove three (LPT {1, 2, 3}). Very confusing to say
> the least.
>
> If I assume you are talking about logical devices then typically you
> just share the printer and in the DOS program point LPTx to
> \\computername\printersharename. If you want to use the LPT1 logical
> printer port then you need to disable the (physical) LPT1 port in
> device manager BUT given that you say the computer has NO physical LPT
> ports then this won't be necessary.
>
> --
> Ross
> "The One" <TheOne@nowhere.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns94FF5978F9F38TheOnenowhere@207.46.248.16...
>> Hi All,
>>
>> A friend has recently upgraded his PC from Win95 to XPHE. He has an
>> old
> DOS
>> based application that prints to a matrix printer which works fine
>> but it will only print on LTP1,2, or 3.
>>
>> The new PC only has USB connections so he bought a PCI card which
>> connects the printer to a USB port and this works from a window
>> application where you can choose the printer. The DOS application
>> will only print to LPT1,2, or 3. I suggested he needs to re-install
>> the card and assign it to on of these ports but he can not delete an
>> existing LPTx port to assign it to
> the
>> card. He keeps getting an error saying the port can not be removed.
>>
>> Can anyone tell me how he can remove the port on either LPT1,2, or 3
>> ?
>>
>> TIA
>> John Theone
>
>
>