A couple more Win2K Puzzlements

My chief engineer at the radion stations where I work wanted me to ask the following questions...

1) In Windows 98 you could capture a printer port in a network environment by going to Settings/Printers, selecting a printer, going to Properties, and capturing the port. You could just key in the IP address if you wanted. Apparently there is a way to do something similar at the command line prompt in Win2K. Anybody know how to do this?

2) In Windows 98 you could go into Control Panel/System/Device Manager and reassign drive letters to just about anything you wanted. Is there a way to reassign drive letters in Win2K?

3) (This one is my question). In Windows 98, using Windows Explorer/Tools, I could do a search for a file using different parameters (like filename, or extension, or "contains" etc.). I just tried to do this with Win2K and that capability doesn't seem to be there anymore. Am I just too stupid to find it?

tanstaafl.

1) In Windows 98 you could capture a printer port in a network environment by going to Settings/Printers, selecting a printer, going to Properties, and capturing the port. You could just key in the IP address if you wanted. Apparently there is a way to do something similar at the command line prompt in Win2K. Anybody know how to do this?

net use lptN \\machine\printershare

Where N = port number, i.e. lpt1

2) In Windows 98 you could go into Control Panel/System/Device Manager and reassign drive letters to just about anything you wanted. Is there a way to reassign drive letters in Win2K?

Programs->Administrative Tools->Computer management->Storage->Disk management

Right click on a drive and choose "Change drive letter and path".

3) (This one is my question). In Windows 98, using Windows Explorer/Tools, I could do a search for a file using different parameters (like filename, or extension, or "contains" etc.). I just tried to do this with Win2K and that capability doesn't seem to be there anymore. Am I just too stupid to find it?

Press the Windows key and F brings up the normal Win2k search window that allows you to do all of this.

Programs->Administrative Tools->Computer management->Storage->Disk management

A handy shortcut to this is: right click on My Computer and select Manage.

The Win2K Search tool does all that. On mine, at least, there are two text boxes, one for a regular search, the other for "containing text". As for searching by extension, even in 98 I always did it with a normal search for *.txt, *.jpg, *.mp*, etc.

With drive letters, the only thing you can't change is the C: drive (I believe).

Can you believe I have been using Win2k since the betas and I have never seen that "manage" menu item, doh ! What a time saver.

net use lptN \\machine\printershare

Where N = port number, i.e. lpt1


OK, so far so good.

But my engineer says that he also has to take into account things like domain name and server name that have to be included in the path.

For example, we have an HP-4550N color laser printer, to connect to a domain named "Fairbanks" and a server called "Legend2". We would like to attach this printer by capturing LPT4. This needs to be a connection that will survive rebooting the workstation. What would the syntax be? That is, what command string would he type in at the workstation?

tanstaafl.

Press the Windows key and F brings up the normal Win2k search window that allows you to do all of this.


Doh!

It never occurred to me that the Search function might have been taken out of Windows Explorer and made a standalone. I probably saw that "Search" icon in the "Start" list a hundred times and it never registered on me.

I guess I was "...too stupid to find it"

tanstaafl.

IIRC, if you type ``net use help'' or some permutation of those terms, then it'll give you some help. There's options, again, IIRC, to set domain names, be a different user, etc.

Donato --

Your avatar is causing some problems in loading/displaying. I have been instructed by He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named to...

Nah, nothing wrong it's just Donato Sinico's avatar icon not working right. Smack him around a bit and see if you can get him to (A): convert it to a GIF or JPG like a proper human being, and (B): attach it to a BBS post and link it from there.




tanstaafl.

I'd like to point out that using PHP to display images in the way he is doing is perfectly valid, since proper browsers look at the actual mime type, and not the extension. If a particular browser is hanging, it's not Donatos fault.

The current problem is that his host is currently down, thus resulting in a broken image. If he attached his avatar and signature code here, it would be blocked by the security, and also not be allowed to be as dynamic.

Ahh, since you're talking about a printer that is network capable (the 4550N), you should use the proper drivers and add the printer with the JetDirect Administration software to the Win98 machine. Or, you can use the mobile printing driver.



PS: As Tom said, the host where my avatar and signature are hosted is currently down. It seems one of the CPU's in the machine has been fried. I'll go ahead and remove my avatar and signature from my profile until the machine has been revived.