Configuring iPrint Printers on Windows Workstations

Configuring iPrint Printers on Windows Workstations

Test Objective Covered:

4. Print with iPrint.

With the iPrint Client installed, the Driver Store configured, the iPrint Manager implemented, the Printer Agents configured, and the iPrint maps created, you're ready to start configuring iPrint printers on client Windows workstations.

This is done using the map HTML file you created and copied to your iPrint server. To access this map and install the printers it contains, you need to do the following:

Warning

These steps are written using Windows XP Professional. If your organization uses a different version of Windows, the steps may be slightly different.

1. Verify that the iPrint Client has been installed on your Windows workstation. To do this, you can do the following:
   
   

   1. Select Start , Control Panel , Add or Remove Programs .

   2. Verify that the Novell iPrint Client is displayed in the list of installed programs, as shown in Figure 9.27.

      Figure 9.27. Verifying that the iPrint Client is installed.

      

      
      

   3. Close the Add or Remove Programs and Control Panel windows.

2. On your Windows workstation, run Internet Explorer and navigate to http:// your_server_IP_address /ippdocs/ your_map_file . For example, if your server's IP address is 192.168.1.36 and the filename of the iPrint map you created is map.htm , you would enter http://192.168.1.36/ippdocs/map.htm . The map you created previously is displayed, as shown in Figure 9.28.
   
   

   Figure 9.28. iPrint location-based printing map.

   

   
   
3. In the map, click the printer you want to use. The dialog in Figure 9.29 appears.
   
   

   Figure 9.29. Selecting an iPrint printer.

   

   
   
4. When prompted to install the printer, click OK . The screen in Figure 9.30 appears.
   
   

   Figure 9.30. Installing an iPrint printer.

   

   
   
5. When prompted that the printer has been installed, click OK .
   
   
6. Verify that printer was installed correctly by selecting Start, Control Panel, Printers and Faxes . You should see an icon for the iPrint printer.
   
   

You can now use the iPrint printer just as you would any other printer. When you select File, Print in any application, you can select the iPrint printer to send the job to.

On occasion, I've had students express the opinion that configuring iPrint is somewhat complex and represents a fair amount of work for the network administrator. To that, I agree. It does take a little more work than going into the console of a Windows server and sharing a printer.

If you've ever worked as a help desk technician supporting user printing, however, you'll immediately see how helpful iPrint can be for end users.

Face it: If you're an experienced Windows user and you know something about computer networking, setting up a network printer isn't very hard.

Most employees at any given company, however, are not experienced Windows users, nor do they know anything about networking. With iPrint, you can give users a URL that they can browse to (something most employees are very good at). There they can simply click the printer they want to use, and all the network configuration information is automatically done. Yes, iPrint does take a little bit of work to get set up. But once done, it will save the network administrator huge amounts of time after that in the form of reduced support calls.

This solution tends to be very popular with help desk personnel. Help desk incidents related to printing are usually the most common calls help desk techs must deal with. iPrint reduces these calls because it only requires the end users to know where the printer exists in the office; it doesn't require them to know where it resides in the network.

Enough talk; let's spend some time configuring iPrint on your server.