Printing from VMS to PC

[Manny DeAssis]

I have a user who, while VPN into our network and telnet'd to a VMS host, wishes to submit a VMS print job to a VMS print queue and have it printout on his parallel (LPT1:) printer that's connected to his PC. Has anyone out there had to configure something like this before? What's the most straight forward way to do this? Even in concept how would this be done? Thanks in advance.

-md

[Ian Miller. · Accepted solution]

I guess you would have to run a LPD service on the PC and adjust the firewall/VPN to allow the connection.

[Jan van den Ende]

Manny,

This is one of the functionalities of Advanced Server, so that is one (and the easiest) option.

The second option is somewhat more complex, but does not require any licences.

You will need to compose all modules from your queue setup in one file. (on a PC this is done by having a diffrent driver for each brand/model/type of printer)
Print queus are especially designed for that.
Print it to a spooled (eg, LAT) device, which has an LPD queue to the PC's IP. The PC should be set up as a print server.

Drawback:
if your print to the LAT is successful, the PRINT command reports COMPLETED. But that IS the phase with the least chance of trouble, ie, PRINTs will "always" be successfully completed, and any troubleshooting on the LPD and/or the print server will be largely "stumbling in the blind".

We have a similar setup under test right now to implement "secure printing"; ie, "secured" prints can only be output if the user enters his personal code on the access panel of the printer, to guarantee sensitive prints are not printed unguarded.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

[Thomas Ritter]

We have this capability. We have a modified printer symbiont written in macro. In brief, users submit print job, users terminal emulator is locked for the duration of the print operation. Using agreed escape codes embedded in the print stream the output is directed to the default window printer. We do not require more than 6 execution queues per node. The queues look like this.

Generic printer queue NODED_SLAVE_LAND_PRINTER

Printer queue NODED_SLAVE_PORT_1, idle, on NODED::, mounted form DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)

Printer queue NODED_SLAVE_PORT_2, idle, on NODED::, mounted form DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)

Printer queue NODED_SLAVE_PORT_3, idle, on NODED::, mounted form DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)

Printer queue NODED_SLAVE_PORT_4, idle, on NODED::, mounted form DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)

Printer queue NODED_SLAVE_PORT_5, idle, on NODED::, mounted form DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)

Printer queue WIZ23_SLAVE_PORT_5, idle, on WIZ23::, mounted form DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)
/BASE_PRIORITY=2 /DEFAULT=(FORM=DRIFT_PORTRAIT (stock=DEFAULT)) /LIBRARY=VMS_SLAVE_DEVCTL /OWNER=[SYSTEM] /PROCESSOR=SLVSMB
/PROTECTION=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S)

The actual SLVSMB is modified version of code avaiable in the public domain. The code was written in 1990. Typing out the header we have

type COMMON:[SYSTEM.UTILS]SLVSMB.MAR
;DECnotes Reply 783.7 in Conference decpc_portables on ics
;
;``SLVSMB.MAR (from CompuServ)'' by HERCUL::MOSER (REVENUE? How do I JV that!?)
;on Wed, 08 Sep 1993 23:13:23 EDT
.TITLE SLAVE_SMB - An symbiont for terminal slave printers
;
;+
; This printer symbiont routes print jobs back to the user's terminal
; for printing on the terminal connected slave printer (if there is one
; and if the user is still logged on). This enables slave printing to
; be seamlessly integrated into the VMS system as a queue. If it is
; likely that more than one user will want to use this facility, then
; several such queues should be set up, all fed from the same generic
; queue. The symbiont is multithreaded, supporting up to 16 streams.
;
; Note, however, that there is a complication in the case of clusters.
; The generic and multiple execution queues should (in the homogeneous
; case) be duplicated on each node with cluster unique names. The slave
; queue complex should therefore be referenced through a cluster common
; logical pointing to a node's specific slave generic queue.
;-

;+
; Modification history
;
; 24-JAN-1990 : Created.
;



We have had this capability since 1996. The queues sometimes crash and require restarting. We have the restarts automated.

Thomas.

[Manny DeAssis]

It appears that we do not allow LPD service through our firewall. Case closed. Thank you for your responses.