Learning Windows Server 2003

Understanding Print Sharing Services

Printers and printing services are areas of Windows Server 2003 that haven’t changed very much in the migration from Windows 2000. Given that, let’s take a brief look at the relevant terminology associated with printing services and how Windows treats printing in general.

To Windows, a printer is the machinery that actually puts ink or toner on a page. There also is such a thing as a logical printer, which refers to the interface between the physical printer and the software that is instructing the printer to print. Think of the logical printer as the printer driver; you can indeed use the two terms interchangeably.

Some important points to consider:

• It is possible and practical in some instances to have multiple logical printers for every physical printer. I cover some of the scenarios in which such a configuration would be useful in this section.

• Conversely, you can associate one logical printer with multiple physical printers, creating a “printer cluster” of sorts. The technical term for this is a printer pool, and it’s most commonly used when print jobs need to be directed to the first available printer. I also discuss that a bit later in this part of the chapter.

• Different types of drivers are available for use in Windows Server 2003. Level 2 drivers are older drivers that were written for Windows NT which run in kernel mode, a function of the OS that makes the entire OS vulnerable to any instability on the part of the driver. Fortunately, ...