Printing with Macintosh Clients and AppleTalk Printers

Print Server for Macintosh allows Macintosh clients to connect to printers shared on computers that are running Windows 2000 Server. The AppleTalk protocol also installs Macintosh Port Monitor (Sfmmon) which allows computers that are running Windows 2000 Professional or Server to print to AppleTalk print devices. Windows 2000 can only send print jobs to a Macintosh computer using AppleTalk when there is third-party software running on the Macintosh.

You only need install the AppleTalk protocol to print to AppleTalk printers on a network. If there are Macintosh clients on the network that need to spool print jobs to the Windows 2000 server, install Print Server for Macintosh on the server.

Printing Documents from Macintosh Clients

Macintosh clients can print to a print server that is running Windows 2000 Server with AppleTalk and Print Server for Macintosh. To the Macintosh client, the Windows 2000–based computer looks like an AppleTalk print device on the network.

Printer Search Facility

Macintosh clients can browse all printers available on the network by using the Chooser dialog box. These printers can be distributed over several Windows 2000 print servers. Macintosh users do not have access to Active Directory.

Prerequisites

No reconfiguration of the Macintosh client is required. You must install Print Server for Macintosh to receive the print jobs on the print server. Installing Print Server for Macintosh also installs the AppleTalk protocol.

Print Server for Macintosh is installed from Control Panel. Select Add/Remove Programs, Add/Remove Windows Components, Other Network File and Print Services, and then click Details. Click Print Server for Macintosh, click the check box, click OK, and then click Next.

Data Types

Setting up Print Server for Macintosh installs a print processor, Sfmpsprt, that assigns either of two data types, listed in Table 4.2, to a document.

Table 4.2 Data Types for Print Server for Macintosh

Data Type	Instructions to Spooler	Use
RAW	Print the document with no changes.	For all documents targeted to PostScript printers
PSCRIPT1	Convert the document to rasterized images, or bitmaps.	For all documents targeted to non-PostScript print devices

The PSCRIPT1 data type means that the document file is Level 1 PostScript code from a Macintosh client but the target printer is not a PostScript printer. The spooler sends the PostScript code through a Microsoft® TrueImage® raster image processor, which creates a series of one-page, monochrome bitmaps at 300 dots per inch (dpi) maximum. The printer driver returns a print job that prints the bitmaps on the page.

Because the monochrome, 300-dpi limitation is in the raster image processor software, it applies even if the driver supports color or higher resolution. (PostScript printers are not affected.) For those who need a higher-end raster image processor, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Win32 raster image processor packages are commercially available for Windows NT 3.1 and later versions.

Note

Do not send binary PostScript jobs to a server running Windows 2000. Because Windows 2000 is not designed for this type of input, all output is garbled.

User-Level Security

Native Macintosh networking supports security for files but not for printers. AppleTalk has no mechanism supporting client user name or password. Thus Macintosh print clients cannot identify themselves on a Windows 2000 network, and the print server cannot impose user-level security on them. If a Macintosh client is physically able to send a job to the printer, it has implicit permission. However, you can set user-level permissions for all Macintosh print clients as a group.

To limit user permissions for Macintosh print clients

1. Create a new user account for the group, to take the place of the System account, giving this account the print permissions that you want the group to have.

   By default, the Macintosh MacPrint service logs on as the System account. That account has print permission on all local printers and thus gives Macintosh clients access to any local printer on the Windows 2000 server.

2. Set the MacPrint service to log on using the new account.

Tip

This procedure can be used to bypass a restriction of the System account, that is, the inability of a System account on one computer to access resources on other computers. Thus MacPrint, logging on as System, cannot send print jobs to printers that forward jobs to other print servers. The solution is to give the new user account permission to print on all print servers to which print jobs are forwarded.

Sending Documents over AppleTalk

Windows 2000 has a Macintosh port monitor, Sfmmon, that sends print jobs to remote printers such as the Apple LaserWriter family using the AppleTalk protocol. It also lets you send jobs to AppleTalk spoolers regardless of the printer to which the spooler is attached. This monitor also enables any computer running Windows 2000 to send local print jobs to AppleTalk printers. Macintosh clients can also send local print jobs to AppleTalk printers but might not share these printers with other clients.

Note

Some printers misprint non-PostScript documents if these documents are received over AppleTalk; others misprint PostScript documents containing binary data if they arrive over any protocol but AppleTalk. These problems result from restrictions in those printers and do not mean that Windows 2000 is transmitting documents incorrectly.

Prerequisite

For a computer running Windows 2000 to print to a remote Macintosh device, the AppleTalk protocol must be installed on both the sending computer and the receiving print device. If the sending computer running on a Windows 2000 Server configuration has Print Server for Macintosh installed to provide access to Macintosh clients, AppleTalk was installed automatically.

Printer Capture

A captured printer accepts print jobs only from the Windows 2000 print server, thus giving you complete control over the printer. In general, it is best to capture a printer unless another source (such as a Macintosh server) prints to it. If a printer is used only by Windows 2000, it is recommended that you capture it.

Capture ensures that users do not accidentally bypass the print server and send print jobs directly to the printer or reset the printer, which might cause spooler problems. It also prevents job contention caused by the client preparing the printer to accept the same level of PostScript printing that the driver on the client supports. This can cause excessive cycling of the printer, taking up excessive time and stressing the print device.

If a printer is not captured, both Windows 2000 Server and Macintosh users can send print jobs to it. You can enable or disable printer capture by rerunning the Add Printer Wizard and answering No or Yes to Do you want to capture this AppleTalk printing device?

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