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.

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

Creating 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.).

Connecting printers to ThinPrint Ports

ThinPrint Ports each consist of a pair of two printer ports:

• 1. a classic ThinPrint Port ‒ in the following screenshot for example with the denominations ThinPort: or RDP1:
  2. a v4 driver port ‒ in the following screenshot with the denominations \\.\pipe\TPv4_ThinPort: or \.\pipe\TPv4_RDP1:

Printer objects that use a native v3 printer driver or the TP Output Gateway are connected to the classic ThinPrint Ports ‒ in the following screenshot the printer object HP Color LaserJet (s2) and the printer templates _#RDP and _#ThinPrint Output Gateway

In contrast, printer objects that use a native v4 printer driver are connected to the v4 driver ports ‒ in the following screenshot the printer template _#Samsung ML-2525

Note: The pairs of printer ports introduced with ThinPrint version 13 ‒ consisting of a classic ThinPrint port and a v4 driver port ‒ allows ThinPrint to use both v3 and v4 printer drivers (aka type-3 and type-4 printer drivers, respectively). This linking of pairs of printer ports is ensured by the ThinPrint Transport Service (TPTransport).

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

In Print Management, you can view whether the native drivers you are using are Type 3 or Type 4 drivers (or v3 or v4 drivers respectively).

Configuring ThinPrint Ports

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

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.

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.

Save

• 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 and select Copy from the context menu

• Mark the Port Manager of a target server and select Paste from the context menu.

Export/Import

The following export and import functions are available:

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.

• To improve clarity, first select Object Types and dis­able Groups. Click OK to confirm.

•  Select Advanced and then Find Now.

• 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.

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.

Port pooling

Pooling printer ports with ThinPrint means you can attach printer objects to several ThinPrint Ports – also known as printer pooling. Since ThinPrint does not connect multiple printers, but only one printer object with multiple ports, we call it port pooling. This has the fol­lowing advantages:

• Improved performance
• Little chance of blockage from very large or “hanging” print jobs
• Fewer printer ports on the server (because multiple printers can be connected to a few ports)
• Bandwidth limitation is more clearly defined

Port pooling increases the availability of printers

ThinPrint Port pooling is supported by:

• ThinPrint Ports
• Output Gateway
• AutoConnect
• Connection Service

Port pooling is mainly used to improve print performance. It should be considered, though, that all ThinPrint Ports in a pool should have the same settings. Port pooling with ThinPrint Ports in combination with Output Gateways and AutoConnect, how­ever, brings more than maximum performance; it also makes administration particu­larly easy and convenient.

When setting bandwidth, note that the bandwidths of a pool are added to each other when all ThinPrint Ports print simultaneously.

With the installation of the ThinPrint Engine the printer template _#ThinPrint Output Gateway is connected to a port pool containing the ThinPrint ports ThinPort1: to ThinPort5:. This allows five print jobs from different sessions (from Windows clients) to occur simultaneously on a remote desktop computer.