Terminal Services Printing issue

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blarg

Limp Gawd
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Jul 19, 2009
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I'm having a problem with my terminal services cluster. Users connecting to one of the servers randomly will have their available printers change.

They will have something like Netprinter1 Netprinter2

And it will randomly change to NetprinterA Session 1 NetprinterA Session 2 NetprinterA Session 3
NetprinterB Session 1 NetprinterB Session 2 NetprinterB Session 3

I'm not using logon scripts the printers are just added through the add a printer wizard. In the past I had restarted the print spooler service and had the people log off and back on to fix the problem. Now it's happening a lot and restarting the print spooler isn't fixing it anymore.

EDIT gimpo jogged my memory about something. The users this is happening to have a local printer installed on the local machine with forwarding set up in the RDP settings. In terminal services they have 1 network printer and the local printer being forwarded by RDP. sorry about that
 
Last edited:
Check the remote settings on the RDP client to make sure NOT to bring the printers from local session to the remote session.

Do they have netprinter1 and netprinter2 on the workstation they are connecting from? or are they thin clients?
 
Well I never found an answer to this so I'm going to order Jetdirect cards for the printers in question and make them network printers. This was my expensive last resort but the users are still complaining and I have no answers. My best guess is that the RDP client has an issue forwarding a LaserJet 2420 regardless of the local driver.
 
Are the printers installed at the server level, or the desktop level?
 
k1pp3r said:
Are the printers installed at the server level, or the desktop level?
Click to expand...

The local printers are installed locally, forwarded by the RDP session and the network printers are installed through the network drivers on the DC. That's why it's confusing it happens to both printers even though they are totally different.
 
blarg said:
The local printers are installed locally, forwarded by the RDP session and the network printers are installed through the network drivers on the DC. That's why it's confusing it happens to both printers even though they are totally different.
Click to expand...

Disable printer mapping in terminal services,
 
blarg said:
I'm not sure I get what your saying. Where is printer mapping in terminal services?
Click to expand...

Using Terminal Services Configuration
Open Terminal Services Configuration.

In the console tree, click Connections.

In the details pane, right-click the connection for which you want to configure client device mappings, and then click Properties.

On the Client Settings tab, under Disable the following, select the appropriate check boxes:

Drive mapping to disable client-drive mapping. By default, Drive mapping is enabled (cleared).

Windows printer mapping to disable client Windows printer mapping. By default, Windows printer mapping is enabled (cleared). When enabled, clients can map Windows printers, and all client printer queues reconnect at logon. However, when both LPT and COM port mappings are disabled, you will be unable to manually add printers. When Windows printer mapping is disabled (checked), clients are unable to map Windows printers and client printer queues are not reconnected at logon. However, you will be able to manually reconnect printers if LPT port mapping or COM port mapping is enabled (cleared).

LPT port mapping to disable client LPT port mapping. By default, LPT port mapping is enabled (cleared). When enabled, client LPT ports are mapped for printing and are available in the port list of the Add Printer wizard. You need to manually create the printer to the LPT port using the Add Printer wizard. When LPT port mapping is disabled (checked), client LPT ports are not automatically mapped. You will be unable to manually create printers using LPT ports.

COM port mapping to disable client COM port mapping. By default, COM port mapping is disabled (cleared). When enabled, client COM ports are mapped for printing and are available in the port list of the Add Printer wizard. You will need to manually create the printer to the COM port using the Add Printer wizard. When COM port mapping is disabled (checked), client COM ports are not automatically mapped. You will be unable to manually create printers using COM ports.

Clipboard mapping to disable client clipboard mapping. By default, Clipboard mapping is enabled (cleared).

Audio mapping to disable client audio mapping. By default, Audio mapping is disabled (checked).

Taken from MS web site
 
I personally have issues with printers over Terminal Services/RDP with an older piece of software/server config we have around here. We recently(aka within the last year) standardized on Xerox(i want to slap someone over that but whatever) and the older system will not recognize any of the xerox global print drivers. one of the admins before me somehow fooled the older system into thinking a xerox is an HP something or other that it will pick up the driver for. dirty hack for sure, but it works and only 2 people need to use it in such a manner so its not a major issue to take up with vendors and fix completely.
 
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