>Hi Al,
>
>SET PRINTER TO NAME is a Fox, not OS, native command, right ?
>
>I have run NET /? and NET HELP USE from the DOS box, but have obtained mixed results when using the NET USE command. I think trouble has happened when LPT1 has been previously defined, but am not sure. Am still looking for more complete info.
>

You're going to run into interesting issues when attempting to associate a DOS device name for a device that actually exists on the local machine with a remote device; the exact device receiving the redirected output can be a real toss of the dice, especially if the physical device is shared to the network. I've seen some really bizarre results where a printer on LPT1: is shared to the net, and the local user then uses Novell's CAPTURE to redirect output to LPT1: to a Novell print queue.

I'd recommend avoiding assigning actual physical ports to remote devices; Win9x supports up to LPT8: by default, NT lets you define port names through a Control Panel applet, and Win2K allows creation of port names through the Printers/Add New Printer dialog. Unfortunately, Win9x/WinME doesn't let you share a printer attached to one physical port and then attach it as a network printer to a different port; I've gotten around this by sharing a printer to the network, adding it to another system as a network device and sharing that, and then mapping the other machine's share of my networked printer back to a different port on the original machine; it's a kludge, adds a lot of baggage to the print output - there are actually three layers of spooling involved - but if you have to do it, it does work.

The biggest problem with adding new port names is the assignment of the proper printer driver to the port; NT and 2K are not happy writing to a port that has no driver associated with it. The Wscript.Network AddNewPrinter method takes care of the nevcessary dialogs to associate/load drivers for remote printers that don't publish their drivers (you can set up a Windows printer to publish its driver for several OS versions when shared; both NT and Win2K will let you specify the OS driver models to publish for shared printers; most Win9x driver unstalls don't offer this useful service.)

>Thanks for your reply.
>
>Alex
>
>
>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>Does anybody have detailed information on the NET USE command. I need it to redirect printer output from LPT1: to a printer in the network in Win2000.
>>>
>>>TIA,
>>>
>>>Alex
>>
>>There is a native command,

SET PRINTER TO NAME \\<i>servername\sharedprintername

If you want to use NET USE, as with all command-line utilities NET /? in a DOS box will get you close, and NET HELP USE closer still.