How to cancel a print document from a network ?

[Seshomaru Samma]

Hi

We have 7 XP boxes in a subnet, they all share 3 HP printers - Laserjet 2550, Inkjet 1000 and Deskjet 2300. Each one is connected to a different box.

Sometimes I encounter a situation where somebody sends a heavy file to the printer which it can’t deal with. The person tries again and again and the result -the printer gets stuck. The problem is that I often can't seem to cancel the document. I try from the computer it is connected to , from the computer it was sent , from other computer but the document refuses to cancel . Only a hard reboot solves it.

A further complication is that all boxes are using a limited user account, I am not sure whether I should log into the admin account to cancel the document- it works sometimes, sometimes it doesn’t.

Also - when I open the printer's windows - it doesn't tell me where the document came from it just says 'guest' , since we have many people in the office coming and going , it would be nice if I could tell from which box the document was sent , is there a way to do it?

Generally, should I cancel the doc from the box connected to the printer or from the box the document was sent from? I usually try both, with mixed results...

Thanks

[cozofdeath]

If the printer gets stuck or jammed you usually have to get it working again before you are able to cancel and jobs in the queue. Also since the data is getting sent to another computer it could be caching it completely before printing it, plus the printers internal cache could be storing the job. So it can be very hard to stop a job while its printing. You may be able to delete the job in the spool on the print server in this directory.

%SystemRoot%\system32\spool\PRINTERS

That way the total job cannot be send to the printer depending on how big it is and how big the printers cache is. You could also try canceling the job then cold restarting the printer but you will have to remove the printer card if there is one so you don't loose your settings. I'm guessing everyone uses the printer share via the guest account. You may be able to see who is sending the jobs if make everyone login through the everyone account. Also the administrator can configure the spooling options so that this can be done easier.

[Seshomaru Samma]

. I'm guessing everyone uses the printer share via the guest account. You may be able to see who is sending the jobs if make everyone login through the everyone account. Also the administrator can configure the spooling options so that this can be done easier.

Thanks for the answer. On each box I created two accounts : one with admin rights (called 'admin') and one without(called 'user') . These are not the default 'guest' and 'administrator' account. The boxes are loged into the 'user' account at all times and I use the 'run-as' option ,if possible, to do admin stuff. But the print jobs always appear as 'guest' or 'remote' . I noticed that I can usually only cancel a job from the computer it was sent from ,though sometimes I get an access denied error. I will try cancelling from the print spool directory on the print server as luckily all printers are on the same floor (unlike the machines which are spread around the building , at least I keep fit...)

Is there a way to open a directory as an adminstrator from a non-admin account (like a 'su' for Windows)?

Can you tell me how to configure the spooling options ? Is it possible perhaps to have the machine's IP or name in the print job list?

[cozofdeath]

Sorry for no real answer. I think the runas command is basically the Windows version of the su command.

For spooling options check this page out under the Configuring Printer Spooling. It should be in the printer properties.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/w...c.mspx?mfr=true

I don't know why it would say remote for a user account.

Is it possible perhaps to have the machine's IP or name in the print job list?

I'm not sure on this. Maybe on the document properties in the print queue but I'm not sure.

I don't have a lot of experience with printers and I've never been a network administrator so I can only tell you what I read and know from experience. So I hope something here works for you. You may want to have a look at the IPP if you haven't. The user account should be under the Owner column in the jobs queue.

[rong]

Probably not any use to you, but I have an old HP 895 and it takes it at least two minutes to cancel a print job, and my previous one was the same. I don't think it is the same on all HP's as someone I help has a newer one that cancels quite quickly.

[Irene]

If you have a Server, can you cancel from there?

Also, you could try not only turning off the printer concerned, but removing the power cable from the printer as well. That has worked for me in the past.

[Seshomaru Samma]

Thanks for all the replies

at the moment i have a situation with the inkjet 1000 where i cannot delete a print job

When I open %SystemRoot%\system32\spool\PRINTERS

I see two files : both called FP00011 one is small SHD file and one is a 3MB flash object

Windows will not allow me to delete them

Also when I try to cancel the print job from the print server i get access denied (even with admin )

The only solution is see is reinstalling the printer....

Is there any other solution?

[cozofdeath]

What ever user created the file should be able to delete it. You may want to change permissions on that folder. Guests may only be able to access it since everyone logs on as guest to print.

[Seshomaru Samma]

What should I change the permissions to?

BTW - disconnecting the printer for 2 minutes did the trick

but I'm hoping to find a better solution

is there a way to limit the print job , make the printer will reject any job that is above 40MB?

it seems that its these big files that the printer gets stuck on , i would like to redirect all the big files to the laser printer.

[cozofdeath]

administrators - full control

creator/owner - full control

everyone- read (rx)

print operators - full control

server operators - full control

system - full control

Thats what MS recommends.

is there a way to limit the print job , make the printer will reject any job that is above 40MB?

it seems that its these big files that the printer gets stuck on , i would like to redirect all the big files to the laser printer.

I think you need a 3rd party tool to manage print quotas. This tool seems to do that along with a lot of other things. I'm sure there are free programs around to do the same.