BACKGROUND I have an old DOS program that is vital to our business, and has worked fine under Win95 and Win98 using Novell Network. We ditched Novell for more simplified networking... THE SETUP I have two brand new Dell XP machines. I have networked them peer-to-peer as PC1 and PC2. Each has an Okidata ML320 printer attached at LPT1. Now, one printer is shared as FORMS, and the other printer as REPORTS; they are used with different forms. THE PROBLEM I created a batch file to run which captures the LPT port output from the Dos program: net use lpt1: //PC1/FORMS net use lpt2: //PC2/REPORTS (start dos program) I have used this setup with same program at another location using Win2000 and it works just fine. However, I get strange results under XP. I get PRINT ERROR in the printer dialog boxes.. I get endless printjob loops which never send output to pringer; only indicates Spooling... Printing... Spooling, etc. I have spent hours and hours trying to check cables, disable firewalls, check and recheck my syntax. I have tried using the Devcon.exe suggestion found on this forum, but the printjobs cannot find the network printers because they physically do reside on LPT1 ports. There is only one user at each CPU, and they of course have admin rights. My question is... are there inherent problems routing DOS printjobs to network printers which are attached to LPT ports? Lastly, I should note that our DOS program can route printjobs to each of the two printers... for FORMS printjobs it sends output to LPT1; and for REPORTS forms it sends output to LPT2. Am I doing something fundamentally wrong here? Any help greatly appreciated.

I don't profess to be an expert on this subject, so don't hope for a panacea, but I presume you understand that XP-Dos is not really DOS. See if this application is relevant to your needs: http://www.winbatch.com/?goog-1

hi back slashes not fwd slashes , ok dos isnt my baby ,but try it. net use lpt1: \\computername\printersharename /persistent:yes regards

net use lpt1 /d net use lpt1 \\printer share net use lpt2 /d net use lpt2 \\printer share net use lpt3 /d net use lpt3 \\printer share This is the batch file that I setup and works fine with the printer shares on my network

I have been told by my system administrator, but have not had the opportunity to try it for myself about special utility Dosprn. This is a shareware program which you can download from http://www.dosprn.com will allow DOS programs to print to the any Windows printer - including network printers, USB printers, virtual printers etc.