Member Avatar for bettynew

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to print through a local printer from a Windows 2003 server enviroment? The printer I am trying to add is installed on a local machine and shared on the local network but it is not a network printer (e.g it does not have its own IP address but is shared through a host PC).

I have tried to add local printers to our new servers but it only seems to give me the option to add by supplying the IP address of the device.
I hope this is poosible as all of our printers in the company are basic desktop printers which aren't networked!

Thanks in advance :-)

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by bobbyraw

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Member Avatar for DimaYasny

if it prints locally, it can be used over network

Member Avatar for bettynew

Thats great news.
Any idea how I can set this up? We usually share printers locally by the netbios name.

Is it just a case of starting the printer setup wizard and entering the netbios name there eg \\name ?

Any chance you could guide me through it? Beleive it our not, our company hosted 3 linux servers on site, we have now swiched to 5 windows servers off site, we have no experience setting up Windows servers or active directory and we have been offered no training! :-O

Member Avatar for DimaYasny

first of all - just share it out from 2003 the way you would do it on XP. no real difference there.
you will be given an optin to publish the printer in active directory, that will make the printer visible through LDAP searches.

Member Avatar for bettynew

Sorry for being dumb but I'm a bit confused. How can I share it if the server can't even see it?
The printer I was trying to add is hosted by a PC, not the server. How can I add the locally hosted printer to the remote server?

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

when you start the add printer wizard from the server do you get the option to select between a local or or network printer.? then you browse for the printer. it is pretty straight forward, if the printer is shared properly. you might want to go back to the pc that that printer is shared from and add additional drivers

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