Laserjet M506 Enterprise in Win NT4 VMWare Guest

[ChrisMr1]

Hi Guys,

I tried to find a solution by myself for a few days now but I couldn't get it working and also didn't find something on Google so I hope you can help me. Here's my problem:

I have to install a new (replacement) network printer (LJ M506 Enterprise) in an Win NT4 enviroment. Upgrading the OS is no option as there is software running that is not available for newer systems and it's also not required as all the NT4 machines are in a completely isolated network. All the Machines have been virtualized and run on Win7 Pro as VM-Ware guest. Everything worked fine so far but as the printer had the same age as the old PCs we replaced it too. 

On the hosts I am able to print without any issues. I also was able to share the printer and then find it from all the NT4 guests in the "add printer" dialogue. 

I was not able to find an NT4 driver for the M506 so i tried to get another PCL5/PCL6 driver working but wasn't able to get it running. Selecting a universal printer driver results in an error and I can't install it further. 

Did anyone have similar problems and got it running or maybe can explain what to try next? 

Thanks in advance for any replies. 

Regards, 

Christoph

[ChrisMr1]

Update: 

I got the Printer working on the NT4 Server (VMWare Guest also) by using a Laserjet 4200 driver.  I installed the Printer in Windows 7 and shared it with everyone without security as it is an isolated network. 

Then I entered the following command:

net use LPT3: \\<HOST_MACHINE>\<PRINTER> /user:<HOST_MACHINE\username> <password> /persistent:yes

and then installed it in Win NT as a local printer at LPT3 with LJ4200 driver.  

This solved the issue partially as I am able to print at the NT server now. I shared the printer in NT again and tried to add it on the other Win NT machines, which also worked fine. But I still can't print from other machines then the server. I get an error "Access denied" for LPT3 everytime I start a print job on one of the clients. 

Any further ideas?

[ChrisMr1 · Accepted solution]

Hey Guys, 

Just for Information:

I found a solution which is not really nice but is working for me. There were 3 possible ways to add the printer to my guests, so i tried them all. For all solutions before running any script I had to add and share the printer on my server's host indeed and also had to place a compatible PCL6 driver (in my case Laserjet 4200) on the guest NT4 so I could reach it via network.

First Try:

I created a batch with the following content on the NT4 server and planned to let it run on every client:

@echo off
echo Release LPT3...
net use LPT3: /delete
echo Add connection to MY_HOST_SERVER via LPT3...
net use LPT3: <\\MY_HOST_SERVER\SharedPrinter> /user:<MY_HOST_SERVER\Username password> /persistent:yes
echo Install printer driver and set new printer as default
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /if /b "HP LaserJet M506" /f "\\guest_server\c$\lj4200pcl6winnt4\hp4200p6.inf" /r "LPT3:" /m "HP LaserJet 4200" /u /w /z /Mq /n "HP LaserJet M506"
rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /y /n "HP LaserJet M506"
echo Finished.
pause

This solution failed as printui.dll has no entry "PrintUIEntry" on NT4.

Second Try:

I found an older solution called "con2prt.exe" which is really difficult to find but should work for NT4 as it was part of the NT4 Zero-Administration-Kit. So I placed this .exe on my NT4 Server and tried the following batch:

@echo off
echo Install printer driver and set new printer as default
con2prt.exe /cd \\MY_HOST_SERVER\SharedPrinter
echo Finished.
pause

 This solution again faild. The problem was that con2prt.exe wants a NT4 Printer share and I guess the host system shared its printer on an other way? However, this was not working for me.

Third Try:

I finally used just the first part of my first batch and afterwards added the printer manually as local printer on LPT3 and used the driver located on the NT4's shared folder. 

@echo off
echo Release LPT3...
net use LPT3: /delete
echo Add connection to MY_HOST_SERVER via LPT3...
net use LPT3: <\\MY_HOST_SERVER\SharedPrinter> /user:<MY_HOST_SERVER\Username password> /persistent:yes
echo finished.
pause

This way was a bit more work but as it was a one time job to replace the printer it was ok for me. 

If you need con2prt.exe by the way, I finally found it here:

https://www.maffert.net/con2prt-exe-netzwerkdrucker-via-befehlszeile-hinzufugen/

I hope one of this solutions maybe helps someone later, it took a bit of time to get it going.

Have fun, 

Chris