Re: AS/400 printer sharing printing from PCs

Hi Jim

I have been here before and it can be quite frustrating, but it does work.

First thing - you will need to check your PTF's; there are specific
Netserver PTF's and you need to locate, download and apply them all of
them. They certainly weren't all on the cume tape (a misnomer these days if
ever there was one) and it can be a bit of a hunt.

Second, get the Netserver Advantage redbook it is pretty helpful especially
with the trouble shooting aspects. Also locate the Netserver homepage
(Ignite400 has a handy portal type page that includes it) as there is some
good information and resources on there as well.

I found that it worked fairly predictably once I had done the work to get
the printers into the network neighbourhood. This involved some messing
around with the LMHOSTS file. You need to get the domain information
consistent to get this to work appropriately.

The profile you established should be configured in the Netserver as the
guest profile - this way individuals don't have to log on to the AS/400.
One thing that can cause problems is if the windows user exists on the
AS/400 - it will expect the passwords to match and will not use the guest
profile. I believe the guest log on must be able to log on so you will need
to check that aspect of the profile. I recall giving my guest profile
INLPGM(*NONE) and INLMNU(*SIGNOFF) so that it would not be able to get a
screen (yeah I know there are FTP and other network issues - they are
catered for separately)

You will need to set up the printers in the same way as a network printer -
that is, add a printer in windows, follow the network connection etc etc.
I'm not sure why you are mapping  them or using "net use" the way you are
doing it  - I took the view that the printers were shared just the same as
another nt server and therefore I added the printer, loaded the drivers etc
etc.

You should (if possible) ditch QDLS completely it merely complicates
things; not only does it require additions to the directory to allow access
but it is slower. I don't know why you would need to map a drive to get
connected (I'm really having trouble picturing what it is you are doing to
make these printers work)

One thing you will possibly need to do is to check that the outqueue and
printer you are sharing have appropriate authority. Once netserver is
started you should check the shares by exploring the server - there is a
list of printer and folder shares in there and also client connections.

It would also be worth checking what system name you have set netserver up
with - the manual strongly recommends that it be different from the system
network name if you are using client access.

I hope this helps get you started, once again let me stress that the
Netserver redbook is a very helpful resource. It may well be worth ditching
what you have done and starting again with some appropriate prints from the
redbook.

Regards
Evan Harris

PS I'm doing this from memory so apologies if there are any factual
inaccuracies :) Like I said - get the book don't use my suggestions as
gospel just as a mudmap !

>We have some shared AS/400 printers set up in Ops Nav.  We are trying to
>print to these from Windows NT 4.0 workstations and having mixed luck.
>
>It seems that if the user has Client Access installed, there's not really
>a problem.  We may have to map a drive to the AS/400 to establish the
>connection, but it works.
>
>The problem is with PCs that do not have Client Access installed.  It is a
>royal pain to establish a connection to the AS/400 so that the user has
>access authority to the printers.  I have created a user with no rights,
>can't even log in, but if a connection to the AS/400 is made with this
>profile, such as mapping a drive to \\192.168.0.99\QDLS then the user has
>rights to print to the AS/400 printers, which is what we want.
>
>The problem is, the AS/400 does not seem to remember the users connection,
>so each time they log out and in (go home for day and come back) they can
>not print to the AS/400 printers unless they remove the share and
>re-establish it.
>
>NET USE X: \\192.0.0.99\QDLS USER /USER:USER
>
>This is fine, the user can browse the AS/400 at 192.168.0.99, and can
>print to the printers.  They log off, X: is still mapped but they can't
>browse or print.  I've tried net use x: /delete first then mapping, same
>thing.  Once user is logged in fully if we net use x: /delete and remap,
>now they can print.
>
>How do I get the AS/400 to allow people to print to the shared
>printers?  The AS/400 is not visible to the internet, and really it
>doesn't matter if they don't use a user name or password at all, I would
>like anyone to be able to print to these printers, but I can't find any
>type of permission settings in the Ops Nav for shared printers.
>
>I've been fighting with this a long time, and we've been printing to our
>NT Server printer as a work around, but the NT Server and the AS/400 fight
>over this printer and sometimes print outs get half printed.
>
>Regards,
>
>Jim Langston