Capturing your printer port for Network printers with Workstations running Windows XP

In order for CFN to print from Dos to a network printer, the printer port must be captured in Windows. In previous versions of Windows (4.9 and before), the option to capture a printer port was available through the printer's properties setting. Under Windows XP, this is accomplished through a DOS command.

By default, most MS-DOS-based programs print directly to either the LPT1 or LPT2 port. However, the output is not automatically routed across a redirector to a print share unless you use the following method.

I. The DOS command Shell in WindowsXP

1. Click the Start button and select Run.
2. Type "cmd" in the command line.
   This brings up the DOS command line interpreter shell. The directory path is most likely to be c:\windows\system32\
3. Type: net use lptX \\Print Server\Printer /persistent:yes

Where X is the LPT port number you wish to capture, Print Server is the name of the server the printer is attached to, and Printer is the name of the network printer. For example, the net use command might look like this:

net use lpt1 \\Pserver\HPLaserJet3 /persistent:yes

The message "Command completed successfully" should be displayed.

II. Verify Captured Printer Port
Staying within the DOS shell, create a text file and send it to the captured printer port

1. Type: edit test.txt
2. In the DOS editor, write a test sentence or two and select FILE | SAVE and then FILE | EXIT. This returns you to the DOS prompt.
3. Type: copy test.txt lptX

III. Print from CFN
Launch Financial Navigator, select the checks you would like to print and print from CheckForm Navigator as usual.
(In case of additional printer port error, ensure that CFN was initially installed with the printer port set to the same one you have just captured. If unsure, re-install CFN and when prompted select the appropriate network printer port (e.g., File LPT1…2…3).)

Ending a printer port Capture
If you need to end your printer port capture for any reason you can do so by the following:

1. Open the cmd shell once again by clicking Start, selecting Run, and typing: cmd
2. Once in the DOS shell, type: net use lptX /delete (Where X is the captured port number)

[This message has been edited by fni_support (edited 07-02-2003).]

net use lpt1 "\\Pserver\HPLaser Jet3" /persistent:yes

Reference on net use command

Note: This also applies to Windows 2000 (Window's version 5.0)

net use

The status of devices redirected will be shown to which printers. This can be used to verify the port, the print server and printer names used.