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This page includes basic advice for using WPDOS 5.1 or 6.x on a Windows network that uses Microsoft Networking under Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, or XP. Your network can use any protocol supported by Windows networking (NETBEUI, TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, etc.), and WPDOS will use the network in exactly the same way. The instructions are divided into two sections: (a) printing to a "shared" printer that is directly connected to another computer on your network, and (b) printing to a printer directly connected to a print server (and that typically has its own IP address) instead of to another computer. The page also includes information on printing to Netware print queues.
For information on networking DOS computers with Windows networks, see the page on the DOS Client for Microsoft Networks at the World of Windows Networking site.
Use these instructions if the networked printer is directly connected to another computer on the network and is "shared" by that computer. (Help! How do I "share" a printer on a Windows network?) If the printer is directly connected to a print server, use the separate instructions below.
Note: If you use TrueType for WordPerfect or PrimeType for WordPerfect and need help printing to a network printer, please contact me. Full instructions will be posted here in the future.
If you can print to a remote "shared" printer from standard Windows applications, you will be able to print to the remote printer using WPDOS. (The same basic advice applies to OS/2 networks.) Depending on your system, you may or may not need to start WPDOS with this command-line switch: /NT=4 If you cannot print to a network printer without using this switch, you may want to reinstall WPDOS and choose the option for network installation when installing; if you do need to choose this option, select "4 - IBM LAN Network" as the network type.
Note that if no WPDOS driver exists for your remote printer (if, for example, it is a Lexmark inkjet model), you may use this site's method of printing to any Windows printer, and, in the PrintFile utility used in that method, specify the network printer instead of a local printer.
Important note: The instructions below require that you know the share name (that is, the server name and printer name) of your networked printer. To find these names under Windows 2000 or XP, use the Start menu, then either Settings/Printers (or Settings/Printers and Faxes) or simply Printers and Faxes; right-click on the name of your printer, choose Properties, go to the Ports tab, and find the name with a checkmark next to it; you may need to use the mouse to expand the left-hand column in the list of names. To find the names under Windows 98 or Me, use Start/Settings/Printers, right-click on the networked printer, choose Properties, go to the Details tab, and find the name under "Print to the following port." Write down the full name, which may be in any of these forms: \\JEFFERSON\MADISON or \\172.16.0.10\HPLJ or \\172.16.0.10:9100\HPDJ. The name directly after the double backslash \\ is the server name; the name directly after the single backslash \ is the printer name.
Instructions for printing to a shared printer from WPDOS under Windows 95, 98, or Me: You may use either of the two methods described immediately below, or, if absolutely necessary for some reason, you may use the "net use" method described elsewhere on this page, depending on which seems more convenient:
Windows 95/98/Me method (1): Print directly to a named network port. On the Start menu of your computer, choose Settings/Printers; right-click on the remote printer to which you want to print, and choose Properties. Go to the Details tab and click on Spool Settings. Change the Spool data format to RAW (if it is currently set to be anything else), and click OK. Click the Port Settings button; check "Spool MS-DOS print jobs" but do NOT check "Check port state"; you will probably need to select "Disable bi-directional support for this printer" (but experiment for best results); then click OK until you exit the Properties dialog.
Now set up WPDOS to print to the remote printer. If you use print server software that assigns LPT port numbers to network printers, simply set up WPDOS to print to the LPT port number assigned by the server software.
If you do not use print server software, you need to learn the remote printer's share name (as described in the note above). When you know this name, install a WPDOS driver for the printer, and edit the printer selection so that WPDOS prints to a port named with the share name of the printer. Under WPDOS 5.1, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Port/Other and enter the share name in the form: \\backroom\deskjet (each name must not have more than eight characters). Under WPDOS 6.x, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Network Port/Device, and enter the share name (again, each name must not have more than eight characters). Important: If you get an "access denied" message when you try to set up or print to a sharename, print to a captured printer port, as explained below; you will almost certainly need to use the captured printer port method if you use Windows NT, 2000, or XP.
Remember these important details. First, remember that server names and printer names are case-sensitive. Also, for use with WPDOS, each part of the printer's share name must have no more than eight characters. The name \\backroom\laserjet_2200 will work when printing from Windows applications, but not when printing from WPDOS. The name \\backroom\lj_2200 will work correctly from both Windows applications and WPDOS. (If your remote printer has a server name or printer name longer than eight characters, and your network administrator will not change the length of the name, you must use the method of printing to a captured printer port as explained immediately below.)
Or you may use this method instead:
Windows 95/98/Me method (2): Capture a printer port. From the Start Menu, choose Settings, then Printers; right-click on the name of your network printer, choose Properties, go to the Details tab, click the Capture Printer Port button, and select the port you want to capture and the sharename of the printer; add a checkmark next to "Reconnect at logon" if you want to use the same connection in future sessions; click OK. Click the Spool Settings button, and change the Spool data format to RAW (if it is currently set to be anything else); click OK. Click the Port Settings button; check "Spool MS-DOS print jobs" but do NOT check "Check port state"; you will probably need to select "Disable bi-directional support for this printer" (but experiment for best results); then click OK until you exit the Properties dialog.
Or you may use a variation of the "net use" method described in the next section of this page (but this is not recommended for Windows 95, 98, or Me).
Instructions for printing to a shared printer from WPDOS under Windows NT, 2000, or XP (also partly usable under 95, 98, and Me): Under these operating systems, you must use a slightly different method, in which you print to a captured printer port (so that, for example, you print to lpt3 and the network redirects the print job to \\backroom\lj2100); you may also use this method under Windows 95, 98, and Me, but it seems to be required under NT, 2000, or XP.
First, turn on the computer to which the networked printer is attached. Then, under any version of Windows (but see the next paragraph first if you run Windows 95, 98, or Me), from a command prompt, enter a command that takes this from:
net use port \\servername\printername /persistent:yes
as in this example:
net use lpt3 \\backroom\colorlaser /persistent:yes
The /persistent:yes parameter has the same effect as the "Reconnect at logon" checkbox in Windows 95, 98, and Me, and may be omitted (and must be omitted under Windows 95, 98, and Me). If the remote printer is connected to the LPT1 (or other port) of the server computer, you can use lpt1 (or other port name) instead of the printer name, although the printer name will produce more reliable results. Under Windows NT, 2000, or XP, you can substitute a numerical IP address for the server computer's share name. If a password is required to access the printer, add it to the end of the command line following the printer name. (If you want to use a colon after lpt3 so that it looks like lpt3: that is perfectly all right, but the presence or absence of the colon makes no practical difference.)
If you use this command under Windows 95, 98, or Me, you will probably have to enter it each time you start Windows (or add it to a batch file that runs WPDOS). Remember that the computer to which the remote printer is attached must be switched on for this command to work.
To disconnect a captured printer port, use the command
net use port /delete
(replacing port with the actual port name, for example lpt3 or another port).
After entering the net use command, use Start/Printers (or Printers and Faxes), right-click on the name of the remote printer (if available), choose Properties, and do the following: Under Windows 95, 98, or Me, go to the Details tab, click the Spool Settings button, and change the Spool data format to RAW (if it is currently set to be anything else); click OK; click the Port Settings button; check "Spool MS-DOS print jobs" but do NOT check "Check port state"; you will probably need to select "Disable bi-directional support for this printer" (experiment for best results); then click OK until you exit the Properties dialog. Under Windows NT, 2000 or XP, go to the Ports tab, where you may need to uncheck "Enable bi-directional support" (experiment for best results); go to the Advanced tab (or, under Windows NT only, the General tab), click Print Processor, make certain that the Default Data Type is RAW; click OK until you close the Properties dialog.
Next, install a WPDOS driver for the remote printer, and edit the printer selection so that WPDOS prints to a port specified with the NET USE command. Under WPDOS 5.1, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Port/Other and select the port name specified with NET USE. Under WPDOS 6.x, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Network Port/Device, and select the port name.
Under Windows 2000 or XP only, the technique described immediately above can be used with a printer connected by a USB cable to your own computer if your computer is always connected to a network. Assign a sharename to your printer from the printer's properties sheet in the Control Panel's printer utility. Then open a command prompt and enter a command in this form:
net use lpt3 \\servername\printername /persistent:yes
(replace lpt3 with whichever port you want to print to in WPDOS; replace the servername with the name of your own computer and the printername with the sharename of your printer).
Use these instructions if the networked printer contains an internal print server or is directly connected to a print server, not to another computer on the network. Typically, such a printer will have its own IP address in your network, something like 192.168.0.99 (or some more-or-less-similar set of four numbers). If the printer is directly connected to another computer, and is "shared" from that computer, use the separate instructions above.
Note: However, even if you have a printer that contains an internal print server or is directly connected to a print server, you may find it simpler to use the separate instructions above for printing to a shared printer if and only if either (a) you use print server software that assigns an LPT port number to use with the printer or (b) you first perform the following steps. First, identify which computer on your network is likely to be powered on most often, or choose a computer which can be left on whenever any user needs to print; assume that this computer has the network name Alwayson (I strongly recommend that the name be no longer than eight characters.) Go to that computer, and select the printer in the Control Panel's Printer applet (or use Start/Printers, or Start/Settings/Printer, or a similar route to the list of installed printers). Right-click on the name of the printer; select Sharing, and assign a sharename of at most eight letters to that printer, something like hplaser. The full sharename of that printer for use in the separate instructions described above is now \\Alwayson\hplaser.
The instructions that follow are based on the current software used with HP JetDirect print servers and assume that you are using a TCP/IP network; similar methods should work with other print servers. If you have not yet bought your print server, I strongly recommend that you use only HP print servers in any network that uses WPDOS.
Do not attempt to use these instructions until you have set up your print server and printer so that you can correctly print to the networked printer from Windows applications! If you can print through a print server from standard Windows applications, you will be able to print to the remote printer using WPDOS. Note that if no WPDOS driver exists for your remote printer (if, for example, it is a Lexmark inkjet model), you may use this site's method of printing to any Windows printer, and, in the PrintFile utility used in that method, specify the network printer instead of a local printer.
Instructions for printing through a print server from WPDOS for Windows 95, 98, and Me only: Before you begin, you must know the IP address or name of your remote printer, and the name of the printer driver used by Windows. On the Start menu of your computer, choose Settings/Printers, right-click on the name remote printer to which you want to print, and choose Properties. Go to the Details tab and write down the name that appears under "Print to the following driver"; then click on "Port Settings"; the dialog that appears should display the IP address (or possibly the name) of your printer; write it down very carefully. Press Esc or Cancel until you close the properties sheet of the printer.
Then return to the Start menu, choose Settings/Printers again, then Add Printer. The Add Printer Wizard will open. Click Next, then select Local Printer (yes, select Local Printer, even though your printer is networked), then select a Windows driver that seems moderately compatible with your printer, for example an HP DeskJet or LaserJet model (we will change this later); if Windows prompts you to Keep the existing driver or Replace existing driver, choose Keep the existing driver. At the list of Available ports, select LPT1: (we will change this later); when prompted a printer name, enter a name that begins with "WPDOS" (although the printer definition that you are creating should work correctly from Windows, it is safer to give it a name that will remind you not to use it in Windows applications). Be careful not to set the printer as your default Windows printer; click Finish or OK or whatever is the default button. If Windows prompts you to print a test page, choose No; do not attempt to print a test page or anything else at this point.
Now, return to the Start menu, choose Settings/Printers again, right-click on your new WPDOS printer, choose Properties, and go to the Details tab. Under "Print using the following driver," click the down arrow and select the driver name that you wrote down at the beginning of these instructions. Then click Add Port. In the Add Port dialog, select Other, then HP Standard TCP/IP Port (or some similar name that includes Standard TCP/IP Port). The Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard will start up; enter the IP address or name of the printer; as you enter the numbers or name in the top box, Windows creates a Port Name in the lower one; delete the port name that Windows creates and replace it with LPT2 or, if LPT2 is already in use on your computer, LPT3 (use upper-case letters: LPT2, not lpt2); click Next; then Finish.
Back at the Details tab, click on Spool Settings. Change the Spool data format to RAW (if it is currently set to be anything else), and click OK. Then continue to click OK until you exit the Properties dialog.
Next, install a WPDOS driver for the remote printer, if you have not already done so, and edit the printer selection so that WPDOS prints to the port that you named in the preceding step. Under WPDOS 5.1, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Port/Other and select LPT2 or LPT3. Under WPDOS 6.x, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit/Network Port/Device, and select LPT2 or LPT3.
If any problems occur when printing, return to the Start menu, choose Settings/Printers; right-click on the remote printer to which you want to print, and choose Properties. Go to the Details tab and click on Spool Settings. Change the Spool data format to RAW (if it is currently set to be anything else), and click OK. Click the Port Settings button; check "Spool MS-DOS print jobs" but do NOT check "Check port state"; you will probably need to select "Disable bi-directional support for this printer" (but experiment for best results); then click OK until you exit the Properties dialog.
Instructions for printing through a print server from WPDOS for Windows NT, 2000, and XP only: You must know the network name of your computer before you begin.
Note: If you do not know your computer's network name, use Start/Control Panel (or Start/Settings/Control Panel), and choose Performance and Maintenance, then System (or go directly to System), then to the Computer Name tab, and write down the "Full computer name" (not the Computer description or Workgroup or any other name). Click Cancel and close the Control Panel. For example, your computer might be named Roscoe. (If your network administrator hasn't forbidden you to change the name, you can use this dialog box to change the existing name to any name you like.)
In the example below, your computer is named Roscoe but you must of course replace this with the real name of your computer.
Use Start/Control Panel/Printers and Faxes (or Start/Settings/Printers and Faxes, or Start/Settings/Printers) and right-click on the name of the networked printer that is connected to a print server. Select Sharing from the pop-up menu. If the networked printer does not already have a sharename, give it one (with no spaces or quotation marks, and preferably only a few letters long, like dj990). Click OK and exit the Sharing tab and printer list (if it is still visible).
Use Start/Run and enter CMD, then click OK or press Enter. A DOS-like command window will open. At the prompt, enter a command that looks like this (replace Roscoe with the name of your computer and replace dj990 with the sharename of your printer):
net use lpt1 \\Roscoe\dj990 /persistent:yes
(If you already have a printer connected to your parallel port, use lpt2 or lpt3 instead of lpt1 in the command; also, if you find that this method does not work when you use lpt1 in the command, use lpt2 or lpt3 instead.) Press Enter at the end of the command, and then close the window. You may now print from WPDOS and the output will go to your networked printer. If, and only if, you used lpt2 or lpt3 instead of lpt1 in the command, then, before printing from WPDOS, use Shift-F7/Select/Edit and change the Port from LPT1 to LPT2 or LPT3.
Note: If you ever need to undo the assignment of lpt1 (or any other lpt-number) to your networked printer, so that you can use a printer connected by a printer cable to the parallel port on your computer, reverse the earlier net use command by entering this command (replace lpt1 with lpt2 or lpt3 if you used either of them in the original command):
net use lpt1 /delete
Through the "net use" command described elsewhere on this page, WordPerfect can be set up to print to three different printers that WPDOS recognizes as LPT1 through LPT3. Recent Windows versions allow you to assign networked printers to LPT4 or higher numbers, but WordPerfect cannot print directly to these printers. If you need to print to four or more (usually networked) printers from WPDOS, then use one of the methods described elsewhere on this site for printing to a USB-only printer; follow the link and use "Method B" based on the PrintFile utility. Follow the procedure exactly, but change the name of the PrintFile settings from "USB Settings" to something like "Network LaserJet Settings" or some other descriptive name. This method can easily be adapted to work with a theoretically unlimited number of printers.
Warning: I have not tested any of the instructions in this section. I am simply repeating information that I have learned from WPDOS documentation and from expert users, notably Brian Hancock.
If you can print to a remote Netware printer from standard Windows applications, you should be able to print to the remote printer using WPDOS. If you did not choose the network installation option when installing WPDOS, reinstall it now, and select "1 - Novell NetWare" as the network type. After reinstalling, start WPDOS with this startup switch, which tells WP to configure itself for Netware: /NT=1 Study the WordPerfect manual carefully for further information on network installation.
Printing to Netware from WPDOS under DOS or Windows 3.x, 95, 98, or Me: Use the procedure described in the WPDOS manual, more or less like the following. After launching WPDOS using the /NT=1 startup switch, use Shift-F7, Select, Edit, Port; then, in WPDOS 5.1 select Other, or in WPDOS 6.x select Network Port, and specify the name of the Netware printer queue (WPDOS 5.1 will ask you whether the filename is a printer queue and whether you want to suppress the top of the form, an option useful only with dot-matrix printers).
Technical note based on information from Brian Hancock: WP5.1 for DOS is network aware for various networks using the /NT=x start up switch or in the WP{WP}.env file. When it prints to a network queue it issues Start of Job and End Of Job signaling to mark the beginning and ends of print jobs so that the package can be bundle up all together. WP5.1 using the /nt=1 startup switch in DOS/Win3.x/Win9.x allows you to print to a Netware print queue by simply specifying the name of the Queue in the Printer Edit, Ports, Other where you can also specify that it is a Network queue (rather than a file name) and whether you want to suppress the top of form, which is a throw-back to dot matrix printers.
Printing to Netware from WPDOS under Windows NT, 2000, or XP: The method described in the preceding paragraph does not work, but an elegant and ingenious workaround has been discovered by Brian Hancock. First, you must use a Netware queue with no more than eight letters in its name; if your existing queue has a name longer than eight letters, create an additional queue with a shorter name, and specify that it is serviced by the same printer as the existing queue.
Next, add your queue to the list of ports in Windows; you will need to do
this on each workstation that has a copy of WPDOS. Run Windows Regedit and
navigate to the key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\Current Version\Ports
You will see entries for various standard ports, e.g.
LPT1 and
COM1. Add a New string value with the Queue name followed by a colon,
e.g. HP5_Q1:
Add similar entries for any other queues. (If you need to do this on multiple machines, use the Export function in Regedit to export the Ports key with its various values, then edit the resulting .reg file with Notepad or any other text editor; when editing, remove the entries for everything other than the new values so that only the new values will be added when you merge the .reg file with the registry on other machines; save the resulting file; store it on a floppy disk, thumb drive, or any other removable or network drive and double-click on it from any workstation to import it into the registry of that machine.) After editing Regedit or merging data via a .reg file, restart Windows.
Start WPDOS with the /NT=1 switch, use Shift-F7, Select, Edit, Port; then, in WPDOS 5.1 select Other, or in WPDOS 6.x select Filename, and Network Port, and specify the name of the queue that you created earlier, complete with the colon at the end of the name, e.g. HP5_Q1: When WPDOS 5.1 asks if this is a network queue, answer No, even though it really is a network queue. (Why? Who knows, but it works.)
One unexpected effect is that WPDOS now adds a blank page to the end of any print job. You may be able to set up your printer (using the printer's own software or control panel) to suppress the ejection or printing of blank pages. (If someone finds a way around this problem, please send feedback.)
This method has been tested under WPDOS 5.1 by Brian Hancock. I have inferred what seems to be the correct method for WPDOS 6.x, but I cannot be certain that these methods are correct. Please send feedback if you can improve on these instructions.
WPDOS 5.1 and 6.x can list, open, and save any files on a remote network drive or folder that is mapped to a drive letter on your system. You must, of course, have adequate access rights to the remote drive or folder to be able to list, open, or save files. To map a remote network folder under Windows, open an Explorer window and choose Tools/Map Network Drive.
WPDOS 6.x can open files on remote network drives using Universal Naming Conventions (UNC) names, for example, \\orem\source\wp.txt. However, WPDOS 6.x cannot save files using UNC names. If you open a file with a UNC name, you can only save it to a local folder, or to a remote folder that has been mapped to use a drive letter. Also, WPDOS 6.x cannot display lists of files in a folder with a UNC name. You need to know the full UNC name of the file you are opening before you can open it, and you will need to type in the UNC name by hand in the File/Open dialog.
WPDOS 5.1 cannot use UNC names to list, open, or save files. You must map remote network drives to drive letters.
Note: I do not of any good reason to run WPDOS from a network server with modern computers that have more than enough disk space to hold separate copies of WPDOS on every client computer. The information in this section is provided only in case you absolutely need it.
In order to run WPDOS from a network server over a Microsoft Windows network, you will probably need to choose the option for network installation when installing; if you do need to choose this option, select "4 - IBM LAN Network" as the network type.
If you are prompted for the location of WP.FIL when you launch WPDOS from a network server, modify the properties of the Windows shortcut from which you launch WPDOS. On the Program tab, the "Working" or "Start in" field should have the name of the network directory that contains the main WPDOS program file. (You will almost certainly need to use a "mapped" network drivename, with a drive letter and a colon, followed by the name of the directory; a network-style path that begins //servername/directoryname probably will not work.)
If you encounter other error messages, especially after moving WP to a different drive or server, you may need to edit the WP{WP}.ENV file originally created by the WP Network installation program. The WP{WP}.ENV file may be found in your main WP program directory; it includes two lines:
/nt=(network type)
/ps=(drive/directory path)
as in
/nt=4
/ps=f:\appl\wp51\user_set
Here /nt (network type) is a number (4 is used for Windows networks) and /ps (personal setup) points to the directory where the personal setup files are stored. If you change the location of the main WP files or user setting files, edit the WP{WP}.ENV file to reflect the changes.
To share a printer on a Windows network for use with WPDOS, use the Start Menu, then (depending on your Windows version), either choose "Printers" or "Printers and Faxes", or use Settings, or Control Panel, and then choose "Printers" or "Printers and Faxes" or any obviously similar item. Right-click on the name of the printer you want to share, select Sharing, select the option to Share This Printer, and assign the printer a name that begins with a letter and is no more than eight characters long (no spaces). Click OK until you are back at the Windows desktop. Your printer can now be used by other computers on your network. Use Windows Help or search the web for further information if needed.