Once the printers and print server are configured, it's tempting to consider the job finished, but in reality, managing printers and print servers is an ongoing process. Fortunately, Windows 2000 makes the job of managing printers and print servers fairly easy and flexible. A Windows 2000 print server or hosted printer can be managed by any Windows 2000 machine, or even from any system using a Web browser, as long as Internet Information Services (IIS) or Peer Web Services is installed and Web-based printing hasn't been disabled using the Group Policy snap-in.
This section focuses on some common management chores such as connecting to a printer and viewing the print jobs, managing print jobs in the queue, and transferring print jobs from one printer to another—all from either a Windows 2000 machine or a Web browser.
You can use any machine running Windows 2000 to manage printers shared by a Windows 2000 or Windows NT print server. In fact, you'll probably administer the printers from a remote machine instead of the print server. Managing printers in Windows 2000 is similar to the process in Windows NT 4, so if you're familiar with managing printers in Windows NT, you can skip this basic information.
To view the status of a printer and jobs in the printer's queue, follow these steps:
You might want to create a folder containing shortcuts to all the print servers you manage. To do this, create a folder wherever it's convenient for you, and then drag the Printers folders for each print server into the newly created folder.
Figure 8-20. The print queue window.
Use the Print Monitor window to pause, cancel, or restart any or all documents waiting to print, provided you have Manage Printers permissions. (See the section entitled Printer Permissions Levels, earlier in this chapter, for more information on permissions.) To do this, follow these steps:
Sometimes a print job appears stuck in the queue and cannot be deleted. In that case, you can try turning the printer off and then on again, or you can stop the Print Spooler service on the print server and restart it.
In addition to starting and stopping print jobs in a printer's queue, you can also change the priority and schedule of individual print jobs as well as the person who is notified when the document finishes printing. To do so, follow these steps:
Figure 8-21. The General tab of a document's Properties dialog box.
Use the Schedule feature to set a large document to print only during times when you anticipate the printer to be free.
When a printer makes crackling sounds and zaps anyone who touches it, it's time to call the repair person and move all print jobs to another printer that can use the same driver. To move all documents from one printer (usually because the original printer encountered problems) to another printer that can use the same printer driver, follow these steps:
To connect to a printer using LPR instead of using the Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor, select the Custom option, click Settings, choose LPR, enter the name of the print queue on the LPD server in the Queue Name box, and then click OK. This procedure is covered in greater detail in the section entitled Adding Printers on an LPR Printer Port, earlier in this chapter.
A currently printing document can't be moved.
Windows 2000 lets you manage the printers from any browser, provided you have IIS installed on the print server and have sufficient privileges; Peer Web Services works if you're using Windows 2000 Professional as the print server. (In either case, you might be prompted for the user name and password.) This feature can be extremely useful, providing the ability to manage printers from remote locations.
You can also print across the network or Internet from a Web browser, but to use this feature, you need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 or later. Print to an Internet Printing-enabled printer by opening the printer in the Web browser and then clicking the Connect hyperlink to download and install the appropriate drivers for the printer on the computer. Then use the newly downloaded printer drivers to print the documents. To prevent clients from using Web-based printing, use the Group Policy snap-in, discussed in Chapter 9.
To view the status of a printer and jobs in the printer's queue, follow these steps:
You can add print servers or printers to the Favorites folder or add a bookmark just as you can with a Web page.
You can use the Document List page to pause, cancel, or restart any or all documents waiting to print. To do this, follow these steps:
Figure 8-22. The Document List page for a printer.