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The File and Print Blues

The underpinning of a file and print client is, of course, the vendor-supplied client you load on the workstation. (Typically, the server vendor supplies you with a setup program, which then automatically loads and configures the client on your workstation. It’s really easy.) The first troubleshooting step for file and print is to verify that the client is the correct version. You’ll have to check with the vendor for the latest scoop on this, but notice that I say correct, not latest. It’s enough to know that two given workstations (one of which is broken) have identical versions of the client.

How do clients work? Even though the clients may look simple, they are, of course, complex internally. Let’s look at the NetWare client as an example. In order to make your file sharing and print sharing effortless for you, here are some of the things the client must deal with:

  Establishing your login, or authentication, to the network
  Locating a server on the network via Novell Core Protocol (NCP)
  Connecting to a server volume and then reading and writing files and directories to and from that volume
  Connecting to a server and then transferring files to a printer queue on that server
  Magically making a drive letter or printer appear on your workstation and act as if it were the real thing, even though the files reside on the server (the redirector)

Troubleshooting these pieces and parts on an individual basis is more trouble than it’s worth—just realize that the client is more complex than it seems.


An interesting note is that the DOS version of the NetWare client used to load all these capabilities separately, to allow you to pick and choose which ones you wanted (and thus saving memory). The modules were called VLMs, or Virtual Loadable Modules.


File and print client software is complex enough that it’s pretty vulnerable to domino-effect problems from other workstation software. Verifying good workstation configurations is also really important for file and print troubleshooting.

This section covers the major types of problems you can encounter on file and print systems:

  Problems with printing
  Problems with files
  Problems with applications

I Can’t Print!

If you surveyed the entire country and asked administrators which network problem they found most aggravating, my bet is that one of the top answers would be network print problems. Therefore, we as troubleshooters want to fix those problems, pronto.


Unfortunately, many delayed resolutions to printer problems are due to insufficient printer documentation. When Cassie and friends refer to the broken printer as “Cassie’s printer,” that means something to them, but to you as a network troubleshooter, it means zero (unless it’s followed by “Oh yeah, that’s the finance-10 printer on the PENELOPE server”).

Having a table of departments and printers works sometimes, but I find it more convenient when the printer installer slaps a label on it with server/directory/queue name information. That way, you can ask the user, particularly at a remote location, “What’s the printer label say?” and be able to immediately start looking in the right place.


Let’s take a look at what network printing usually entails. You connect to a network printer queue by browsing servers or the directory services tree, and you install drivers appropriate to that printer. So far, this is just like installing a printer that lives on your PC’s LPT1 port, right? The only difference is that you’re specifying some spooky network location rather than a local port.

What happens when you try to print? To answer that, let’s run through these steps:

1.  Your application generates a print metafile that it sends to the print driver. Metafile is a Microsoft term for a common ground graphics file that both applications and printer drivers know how to read. The print driver can then process the file.
2.  The print driver processes the metafile and ends up with a printer-specific spool file. A spool file is where a print job is kept until it’s printed by the printer. What’s a “spool”? Think of a spool of thread, all of which will eventually get used, with the thread nearest to the top getting used first.
3.  The spooler (the program on your computer that deals with spool files) works with the file and print client to transmit the spool file to the appropriate server’s printer queue.
4.  The server places the spool file in the appropriate holding directory if the printer is busy. Each spool file is treated on a “first come, first serve” basis.
5.  The spool file is transmitted to the physical printer (or a network print server) when the printer is free (after other jobs have printed).

With five potential points of failure (more, in some cases), it’s no wonder that print problems can be a big deal. Thankfully, most printer problems can be handled by divide-and-conquer techniques and the Sesame Street method. That is, you’ll want to determine whether other users can connect to the printer, as well as whether the user who reported the problem can print to another printer. Lucky for you, I’m going to divide and conquer this entire process for you by breaking it down into five easy troubleshooting steps.


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