I have not had time to try this. Has any one seen this or tried

it.

USB Printers

USB-only printers (i.e. printers that do not have a parallel interface) pose a special problem: they cannot be addressed in any way directly from an MS/DOS environment. All the products listed above will solve this problem for you.

An alternative solution is described below. It works in Windows/2000 (and presumably /XP, but this has not been verified). It also works on Windows/NT, but as NT does not support a USB port, there is little point of doing this in that operating system .

Define the USB connected printer in Windows

Configure it to allow sharing on a network.

Map LPT1: to this network printer: so something like: NET USE LPT1 \\mycomputer\myusbprinter

Apparently this will only work if your PC is connected to a network. If you have a stand-alone PC, you have to set the following registry entry manually to make the above work. Before attempting to do so, you should be aware of the following warning issued by Microsoft:

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

The following information has been taken from.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;239924

Where more information can be found, including side effects. Although the parameter mentioned below seems to imply that it only has an effect if DHCP is used, it should also be set if you have a PC with a fixed IP address.

Use Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe) to view the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Add the following registry value:

Value Name: DisableDHCPMediaSense

Data Type: REG_DWORD -Boolean

Value Data Range: 0, 1 (False, True) Default: 0 (False)

Description: This parameter controls DHCP Media Sense behavior. If you set this value data to 1, DHCP, and even non-DHCP, clients ignore Media Sense events from the interface. By default, Media Sense events trigger the DHCP client to take an action, such as attempting to obtain a lease (when a connect event occurs), or invalidating the interface and routes (when a disconnect event occurs).

Restart your computer.

Any additional information on this topic would be appreciated.

In February 2002, the topic of parallel to USB converter cables was discussed on comp.lang.clipper. The conclusion was that there are cables that convert a USB PC port to a parallel connector that can be plugged into a printer. But no cables that convert a PC parallel port to a USB interface.

Any further input on this subject will be appreciated.

Try

DosPrint

http://www.andtechnologies.com/dosprint.html

The license is free. It has a nice tray icon that allows you to change printers easily.

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