Tag Archives: mainframe

Mainframe Printing Method

(Where do I change my printer settings?)

Normally a user requests a print job from her terminal session, but that does not mean the Winet terminal program will handle print job. There are usually three methods that a mainframe or Unix server can use to get a report or job to print at your PC using Winet.

  1. The print job is sent to the Winet LPD print server program using the selected queue setup.
  2. The print job is sent to the Winet (socket or IP) Print Server program.
  3. The print job is sent to the Winet terminal program (E.g. InetVTx00 or Inet3270) using either

  1. the “80 Column Host Printer” setup (primary or default jobs)
  2. the “132 Column Host Printer” setup (secondary or compressed jobs)
  3. the “RTF Host Printer” setup (when RTF data is detected)

If you need to change something for your printer, you need to change it in the correct Winet program. So you need to know which Winet program receives the print jobs.

The easiest way to find out is to start both InetLPDHID_LPD_OVERVIEW and InetPrintServerHID_PRINTSERVER_OVERVIEW (socket), request a print job, and watch to see which program shows a new job or attempt to print. If the job prints with no activity in either print server, it is most likely your Winet terminal emulator (e.g. InetVTx00 or Inet3270) that has handled it.

Font changes:

Some types of printing don’t support font selections. Only with GDIPrintingTypeGDI (with Use Device Font not selected) and Inet FormatPrintingTypeInet (with Default Font used) you may specify the fonts from within Winet. (See Types of printing used by WinetPrintingTypes for more detail.)

See also some hints on configuring your 3287 printer3287printer.

More at:

Printing general informationPrintingGenInf and Multiple printing configurations (Which printer do I have to set up?) PrintingConfig.

Remote Printing

There are various ways to send a print job to a remote printer. The mainframe itself may be set to send your print jobs to a printer in another room or you may use Winet to redirect a print job arriving at your PC to another PC or printer.

LPD is a very old and well-established standard to use across many different platforms. Winet offers you the “LPR” printing method that will send the print data to an LPD print server at another IP address. Some LPD printers are very specific with case sensitive queue names, which must correspond exactly at both the client (LPR) and the server (LPD). So take care when you type the LPD queue namesLPDterms. Winet will pass the data on without any changes to it – no formatting is done at your PC.

Using Winet’s “DirectPrintingTypeDirect” type of printingPrintingTypes to shared network printers may fail under certain circumstances. Microsoft reduced their support for this type of printing in their newer operating systems (post Windows 98). Normally it works between 9x machines and NT machines, but it doesn’t work between two NT machines! We have also found that some network-enabled printers connected directly to a LAN may loose data.

There are a number of ways to workaround these problems. In this section we’ll call the PC with the printer or the network printer itself, the “printserver” and the user’s PC the “desktop”.

1. This is only an option if the source of your print jobs is a spooler on your mainframe or Unix box: Run InetLPDHID_LPD_OVERVIEW or InetPrintServerHID_PRINTSERVER_OVERVIEW on the printserver and direct your printouts from the mainframe to the IP address of the printserver. (Now you don’t need an LPD or Socket Print Server on the desktop. This is the simplest case and recommended way if you can change the IP addresses on the mainframe.)

OR

2. Run InetLPD on the printserver (or some network enabled printers include their own LPD server). Change the type of printingPrintingTypes at the desktop (either in InetLPD, InetPrintServer or the terminal’s screen or host printer) to LPRPrintingTypeLPR. The setup of this LPR HIDD_LPR_PRN_SETUP printing must specify the IP address of the printserver and the lpd queue name at the printserver.

OR

3. Install the printer driver as a local printer on the desktop, and let Windows capture or redirect the LPT1 port to the shared Windows printer on the printserver. To achieve this you may try the Windows command: net use LPT1 or the Novell alternative which is the capture command. Windows 9x often offers a “Capture Printer Port” at printer properties.

OR

4. (Similar to 2 but use the Windows LPR instead of InetLPR on the desktop.) Run InetLPD on the print server. Install a local printer on the desktop and create a new “Standard TCP/IP port” with Custom Settings to make it an LPR client. Keep the type of printingPrintingTypes as DirectPrintingTypeDirect at the desktop (either in InetLPD, InetPrintServer or the terminal’s screen or host printer), but select the local printer connected to the new “Standard TCP/IP port”.

More at: Printing general informationPrintingGenInf.

Printing

Printing is one of Winet’s strongest points. We supply both robust printing methods and highly configurable options to accommodate the widest variety of needs expressed by our clients. The printing is not a case of “one size fits all”. Therefore it would be very valuable for a system administrator or support person to read through this whole section.

  • No printer installed
  • Stand alone print servers:
    • LPD/LPR – Popular printing method (from the Unix world)
    • Print Server (Socket printing) – a.k.a. IP printing
    • 3287 printer3287printer – for session bound printing from an IBM mainframe
  • Developer’s notes on formatted printing
    • Merge printing for developers of formatted printing
    • RTF notes for developers of formatted printing
    • Inet Format escape sequences for developers of formatted printing