Re: Can't see local network printer from Remote Desktop session over VPN

Kurt wrote:
Philip Herlihy wrote:
Title says it all, I hope.

We have two offices connected by VPN using Netgear FVS114 firewall/routers. We want to print locally from the Remote Desktop session. Within the remote session, I can ping the network address of the local printer, and can even connect to its administrative "web" page, but I can't print to it. I've set up a Standard TCP/IP port (exactly as I did for the local machine) and I've tried a bewildering array of "workarounds", including sharing the printer from another local machine and trying to connect to that - all to no avail.

At the moment I'm considering installing a PDF pseudo-printer, printing to a local PDF file, saving that to a network share (set up using NET USE) and then printing again locally - but there has to be a better way! Anyone here know what it is? I'd sure be grateful!

Phil, London

If I understand you correctly, you're using remote desktop to connect to a terminal server at the other end, but you're trying to print directly from the terminal server to the network printer at your end (by directly I mean NOT as a terminal services "session printer"). You say you can ping the network address of your local printer from the terminal server, so I assume the printer has a network card or a print server (like a jetdirect). If that's the case, there's no reason it shouldn't work. I set up remote offices like that all the time (because the session printers can be so flaky - especially, as Pegasus says, with USB printers - sometimes they work, sometimes not). Whether it's a shared printer or directly on the network, if you can print to it using the local LAN, you should be able to print to it across the tunnel. Do you get anything? GobbeltyGook? What error is generated? Is the error generated when you try to install the printer? Or just when you try to print? Sure you've got the right driver? That's all I can think of. Good Luck.

...kurt


Thanks, Kurt. Sorry about the delay in responding - swamped with other work.

It's very significant that you've made something like this work. At one point I was seeing jobs appear in the local printer's "active" queue (visible via the web-based interface on the printer itself) but they would disappear after a number of minutes without appearing in the "done" list. I tried changing the TCP timeout setting from 30s to 300s (thought I had it when I found that) but it made no difference. Perhaps it is a question of the driver - I'll look again at this and I'll report back if I get it to work.

Phil
.

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