Problems printing via AppleTalk with a Windows 2003 print server

Question

Problems printing via AppleTalk with a Windows 2003 print server

My company is migrating from Windows 2000 Server over to Windows 2003, which is going to be the new acting print queue.

We have a mix of old and new printers (most of them HP), and our Macs have been printing to the printers via AppleTalk. With the new print server, we could not easily find the printers on the network since AppleTalk was not turned on. However, once AppleTalk was turned on, it was easy to find and add the printers. We are good so far. Before hand, I tried to add the printers via an SMB connection, but kept having problems with NT Authentication errors.

I tried printing a test page to the newly added printer, and it came back with this error:

%%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: languagelevel ]%%
%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%

This is about the best reference I've found so far which relates to this problem:
http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1167812&page=1

Most of the other suggestions I've dug up so far refer to updating firmware or drivers, but I don't think that is the problem. The drivers on the old W2K print server and the new W2k3 server are the same, so it is my opinion that something on the new print server isn't turned on or isn't installed yet.

Any ideas on what the issue is here?

400 MHz Gigabit G4 PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.4.10), 1088 MB RAM, JBL Creature, 15" Apple Display

Posted on Aug 28, 2007 2:54 PM

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Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Aug 28, 2007 5:01 PM in response to Chad Armstrong

Chad -
are the printers postscript printers?
ALL PRINTING on OS X starts as postscript, but not on Windows. So, drivers on OS X must convert the output to the printer's language, including postscript if that's what it uses.

Need more info.

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Answer 2

Aug 29, 2007 6:47 AM in response to greg sahli

Yes, I believe they are all PostScript printers.

From what little I could dig up about the error I had, it pointed to an issue with PostScript (or more specifically, the W2K3 server not handling the post script properly from the Macs.)

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Answer 3

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Aug 29, 2007 9:51 AM in response to Chad Armstrong

There are two possibilities - One that I have used that works is to re-add the printer(s) using the postscript driver on Windows - that way the print queue expects to receive postscript and works.
The other way is to find some setting in printer properties on Windows - probably called enabling raw data- that allows the Windows driver to pass through what it receives.

Please tell me which printer(s) so I can confirm if they're postscript or not.

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Answer 4

Aug 29, 2007 12:28 PM in response to greg sahli

Here is a list of the types of printers we are using:

HP Laserjet 5si
HP Laserjet 2200
HP Color Laserjet 4650

This is a mix of old and new printers. They all work fine when printing from Windows, and they worked from both Macs and Windows before we moved over to the new print server.

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Answer 5

Aug 29, 2007 3:19 PM in response to greg sahli

One other question: Do you mean re-adding the drivers on the Windows server, or on the Mac client?

I have tried several different drivers when adding the printer on the Mac, and none of them work.

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Answer 6

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Aug 29, 2007 4:16 PM in response to Chad Armstrong

Those are all postscript printers, so there should be no driver issues on OS X.
Yes, I meant re-Add the printers using the postscript driver - on Windows.

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Answer 7

Sep 13, 2007 1:07 PM in response to greg sahli

"Supposedly" the same exact drivers were installed for the printer -- the same driver that was used on the old print server. Might something else need to be installed?

I've found a few other cases where people are having the same error:

http://www.macfixitforums.com/showflat.php?Board=Forum39&Number=732031

Below is the error that is printed when I print a test page from http://localhost:631

SYSTEM Test Page
______________________________________________
%%[Error: syntaxerror; OffendingCommand: --nostringval-- ]%%
%%[Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored]%%

Below is the error that is printed when I try to print a document (I've tried Safari, Preview, and TextEdit).

(Username) (Untitled)
______________________________________________
%%[Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: ]%%
%%[Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored]%%

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Answer 8

Sep 13, 2007 1:26 PM in response to Chad Armstrong

One other thing --

If I try to print via SMB, instead of AppleTalk, I get this error:

Connection failed with error NT STATUS_ACCESSDENIED

I tried setting up the print using my username and password, but that didn't seem to work too well, either, since a job kept trying to print, never could print, but it kept pinging the server and causing my user account to get locked out.

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Answer 9

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Sep 13, 2007 3:35 PM in response to Chad Armstrong

On the Server, do you have an account that uses the same username you use on the Mac? That is the concept behind Windows client/server AND peer to peer sharing - you log in on your Mac, and that login uses the same account as you use with all servers. You also want all computers to be in the same Workgroup. That can be set in the Mac utility Directory Access.

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Answer 10

Sep 20, 2007 10:10 AM in response to greg sahli

In regards to the authentication error when trying to print via SMB, I have tried several configurations.

I have one computer that logs in via Active Directory, so that computer is on the appropriate domain. I've also tried printing just from a local account on that machine and other machines. No luck.

So, we've been trying the AppleTalk route, which lets us find the printer, add it, and try and print...but something at the print server level is throwing an error and then prints out the error that we've been receiving.

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Answer 11

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Sep 20, 2007 3:12 PM in response to Chad Armstrong

Oh, I'm sorry, somehow I thought you knew... The errors you showed us are postscript errors - the PC isn't passing unfiltered postscript to the printers - it is trying to filter/translate it.

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Answer 12

tomubu

Level 1

8 points

Sep 21, 2007 2:47 AM in response to greg sahli

http://iharder.sourceforge.net/current/macosx/winmacprinter/#step2

Try this. I'm using Win2K3 as print server and my printer is HP LaserJet 1020 and It's OK after follow the instructions in this address.

Please don't forget to share the last PostScript printer that you would have made

Good luck!

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Answer 13

Nov 7, 2007 8:42 AM in response to Chad Armstrong

We found that changing the print driver to a Universal PostScript (available by HP) seems to fix the problem to be able to print to the printers from the mac. This might cause some occasional conflicts with PCs, however, but at least this solved our printing issue.

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