ThinPrint – Getting Started

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

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

General information about ThinPrint Ports can also be found in the technical descrip­tion ThinPrint Ports.

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.

Open 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 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.).

Configuration

• To configure ports, select ThinPrint→ ThinPrint Engine→ Port Manager on the left.

ThinPrint Ports in Port Manager

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

Configure tab

Port settings: Configure tab

The ThinPrint Ports can be configured as follows:

You can also select the TCP port (default: 4000) for the TCP/IP print protocols. The TCP ports of the ThinPrint Clients (see Advanced tab) 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

Port settings: Advanced tab

Under Advanced are the options:

Client control: Bandwidth

If this option is enabled, each client user can set 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. This func­tion is only available if bandwidth control has been enabled.

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:

Note! Furthermore, you can determine that the address information of print­ers created by AutoConnect will be stored in the Windows Registry. On this, see the Printers tab section.

In this case AutoConnect writes the address of the ThinPrint Client to hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\control\print\printers\<printer-name>\PrinterDriverData\TPAddr [reg_sz] and the printer ID to ...\TPID [reg_sz].

Job Statistics tab

Print statistics must be activated per 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 Tracking.

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
• 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.
• 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.

Copy a port on a server

Paste the port on 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 on the target computer which do not exist on the 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

Finding 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 allows you to cancel the process.

Selecting target servers

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

Create a connection to the target computer with the MMC (in this example: arrow to TS66) and repeat send process from source computer (in this exam­ple: TS55)