Active Directory and Printers

This is a "What have I missed?" question:

I have one AD with 2 subnets.
In subnet 1 I have a member server with all its printers set to list in the directory.
In subnet 2 I have a domain controller with all its printers set to list in the directory.

When adding a printer to PC's in subnet 1 I can only see the printers listed from the member server.
When adding a printer to PC's in subnet 2 I can see printers listed from both servers.

Why can't PC's in subnet 1 see printers listed in the directory from the domain controller in subnet 2?



For reference:
If you attempt to force a connection by specifying the printer:
\\<<domain controller name>>\
then the correct list of printers appears.
However it takes 5mins for the printer to be added.

Any ideas?

what OS is on the member server ?
what functional level is your domain ?

also try manually publishing the printers yourself.

1. Right-click the organizational unit in which you want to publish the printer, and choose New | Printer.
2. In the New Object-Printer dialog box, enter the UNC path to the print share.
3. Click OK to apply the change.

5 Minutes to add the printer to the machine is it installing the drivers from the AD. I have the same issue with some HP printers, Epsom one was fine but it appears to be the drivers that are huge/badly coded taking forever on slower work machines.

TiG

Are you suing the Old NT styler print browser or are you using find in the directory?
If you aren't using the find in the directory, use it - its better, and that also means your problem is your WINS settings.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Moby-Dick

what OS is on the member server ?
what functional level is your domain ?

also try manually publishing the printers yourself.

1. Right-click the organizational unit in which you want to publish the printer, and choose New | Printer.
2. In the New Object-Printer dialog box, enter the UNC path to the print share.
3. Click OK to apply the change.

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Member server - 2k3
Functional Level - 2k-mixed

I'll look at forcing them in as described this morning.

TiG - Hadn't considered that. The 2 subnets are at opposite ends of a VPN so it's quite possible. I'll see if Moby's sugestion changes the timings.

badass - I am using find in the directory so I'll be going back to look at WINS and see if that fixes the overall problem later.

Thanks to all. I'll be back ......

Quote:

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Functional Level - 2k-mixed

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= FAIL !

you are effectively running an NT4 domain.

go 2k or 2k3 native - there's no reason not to unless you have NT4 PDC/BDC - you can still have NT4 member servers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Moby-Dick

= FAIL !

you are effectively running an NT4 domain.

go 2k or 2k3 native - there's no reason not to unless you have NT4 PDC/BDC - you can still have NT4 member servers.

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QFT! :)

Sorry off-the-cuff that one (well it was 8am)

Functional Level - 2k-native

We don't have any NT4 servers etc. Sorry for the confusion.

phew :)

still ensure you have domain wide WINS resolution and try publishing the printers manually.

I have come across an AD issue in the past when a server with loads of print queues was uncontactable by the PDC emulator for a few hours. It removed all of the printer records from AD. IIRC I switched off printer scavenging on that DC and using come CLI jiggery pokery, got the print server to re register all of its print queues.