Understanding the Basics

Before you get into the nitty-gritty of using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 as a print server, it is helpful for you to understand the basics of how Windows Server 2003 deals with printers and print servers.

Printer Terminology

Printer terminology is a good deal more confusing than it has to be because of the historical use of different names for the same object. In Microsoft Windows NT 4, print device is the name for the actual printer, and printer designates the software interface. So in other words, printer is used to mean the logical entity. In a Net-Ware or OS/2 networking environment, the term print queue is used instead of printer (meaning the logical printer), but the net effect is the same.

Although there is ...

Get Microsoft® Windows Server 2003: Administrator’s Companion now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.