Networked "Fake" Printer in Win98

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mjlilgui

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I realize Windows 98 is a bit obsolete, but I'm working on 2 machines running them at work... here's my problem...

I'm using a DOS program to engineer drawings using vector graphics and text. My menial task as intern is to export about 30000 of these drawings from the program into a PDF. The program is not capable of printing to a file, just to LPT1. Since it is a DOS program, it can't print to any PDF writers, nor to any Redirected Ports (RDPs). I've devised a way to network a printer and capture LPT1. The printer driver is an Apple ColorLaser 12/600, and what it does is accept the PCL from the program, parse it to PostScript, then send the PostScript to a GhostScript command line, which translates it into PDF and prompts me for a file name. The difficulty starts at the network:

The system works fine if I print to the printer on the local machine from, say, Microsoft Word, but if I try to print from the other machine, I get an error message saying the print server isn't functioning properly. Does anyone know how to fix this error message? It's taken me a week to get this far, and I hate to give up as it is my last option without printing out all the documents and scanning them one by one... I'm not looking for suggestions of alternate ways to do it, I just need to know if anyone knows why I'm getting this message, and how to fix it.

Thanks,

Josh
 
try running this command: dir > lpt1 this will send a directory listing to the printer. If this completes, then id guess the printer doesnt like all the converting of the document.
 
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