ThinPrint – Getting Started

ThinPrint prints with its own printer ports (ThinPrint Ports) which will be automati­cally created during installation. Thus, ThinPrint does not affect printing with conven­tional printer ports, such as Standard TCP/IP Ports.

This chapter describes configuration of the ThinPrint Engine with special attention to adding ThinPrint Ports and adapting them to specific requirements for print job transmission. The Port Manager offers the following options for ThinPrint Ports:

• Add a ThinPrint Port – local and remote
• Configure a ThinPrint Port – local and remote
• Delete a ThinPrint Port – local and remote
• Send port configuration to other Windows machines on which a ThinPrint Engine is installed
• Export and import port properties
• Encryption settings

Starting Port Manager

• Open the ThinPrint Configuration console.

starting ThinPrint configuration

• In case of remote configuration: In the ThinPrint node, click Add and specify the computer address.

opening a remote configuration for ThinPrint components

starting remote configuration or ThinPrint components

Setting up ThinPrint Ports

To create new ports use the buttons New ThinPrint Port or New ThinPrint Connection Service Port in Port Managers menu bar. Choose the port settings: port type (protocol) and bandwidth and (optional) encryption.

Note!In principle, there is no limit to the length of printer port names. Some old applications, however, only support port names with a length of four or six characters; if longer port names are used, this could cause problems (printer is not visible in the application, etc.).
Pool not more than 20 to 25 ports because each printer of a pool must be assigned to all ports. Because of Windows restrictions the general rule is:
Length of port name x Number of ports < 200

Configuration

• To configure ports, select from the Console Tree on the left: ThinPrint→ ThinPrint Engine→ Port Manager.

ThinPrint Ports in Port Manager

• Double clicking a port name will open the port configuration.

Configure tab

ThinPrint Port settings: Configure tab

You can also select the TCP port (default: 4000) for TCP/IP (Sockets) and Use Virtual Channel Gateway print protocols (see the table above). With TCP/IP (Sockets), the TCP port numbers of the ThinPrint Clients (see Advanced tab) must be the same as those of the ThinPrint Ports. With Use Virtual Channel Gateway the TCP port numbers of the Virtual Channel Gate­way(s) must be the same as those of the ThinPrint Ports.

For LPD printing, see LPR/LPD printing with Linux, Mac or Windows CE clients.

Save

• Confirm changes with Apply or OK.

Advanced tab

ThinPrint Port settings: Advanced tab

Under Advanced, you have the following options:

Client control: Bandwidth

If this option is enabled, each user can set her / his own bandwidth value (in the ThinPrint Client Manager).

Client bandwidth settings must be lower than server-side settings; otherwise, ThinPrint Port settings are applied.

Connection retries (TCP/IP and LPD only)

Enter the number of times ThinPrint Engine should attempt to establish a con­nection to the client.

Net Send Service

Net Send Service is used to notify users if ThinPrint experiences print errors. If this box is checked (= default), ThinPrint Engine will send error messages to the relevant account.

Note: This function can become irksome if several users are logged on using the same account.

Naming convention

You can select for each ThinPrint Port whether the address information is at the beginning or the end of the printer name. Examples:

Job Statistics tab

Print statistics can be activated per ThinPrint Port.

• Select the relevant ThinPrint Port; click Properties→ Job statistics and then High (every second), Normal (every 10 seconds), Low (every 30 seconds), No update, or Statistics off (default) under Update speed.

Note! Use this function only part-time, as it may affect print performance. See also ThinPrint Tracking.

ThinPrint Port settings: Job Statistics tab

• Save your settings by clicking OK or Apply.

Distributing port configuration

The following strategies are available for creating the same configuration for ThinPrint Ports on multiple servers:

• Remote configuration of ThinPrint Ports (Starting Port Manager)
• Copying port properties with Copy&Paste (see below)
• Export to an .xml file and import to target servers (see below)
• Sending port configuration to target servers (see below)

Copy-and-Paste

•  Open the ThinPrint Engine configuration console (Starting Port Manager).
•  Mark a port in a server’s Port Manager (e. g. ts020) and select Copy from the context menu.
•  Mark the Port Manager of a target server (e. g. ts012) and select Paste from the context menu.

copying a port on a server

pasting the port onto another server

Export/Import

The following export and import functions are available:

exporting, importing, or sending all ThinPrint Ports

Sending port configuration

The Send Port Configuration function sends ThinPrint Ports to other servers or server groups. There are various modes:

ThinPrint Ports that already exist on the target computer, but not on the sending com­puter remain unchanged.

Procedure when sending

• Selecting the send option will open the dialog.

dialog for sending properties

•  To improve clarity, first select Object Types, and disable Groups. Click OK to confirm.
•  Select Advanced and then Find Now.

Limiting the selection to computers

determining target servers

• Mark all target servers and click OK to confirm.

Caution! You are influencing the configuration of remote computers. Check once more that you really want to send the configured ThinPrint Ports to the selected servers. A confirmation prompt gives you the option to cancel the pro­cess.

selecting target servers

Note! If you receive an error message when sending, create a connection to the target computer with the MMC, using the relevant ThinPrint Engine node for remote configuration (Starting Port Manager) and repeat the send process from the source computer while keeping the console open.

creating a connection to the target computer with the MMC (in this example: arrow to CPS47) and repeating send process from source computer (in this example: CPS50)