When using Windows 95 and 98 computers on a Windows NT network, youwould typically use a login script (a batch file) to map network drives to shares on other computers and LPT ports to printers shared on other computers. You might, for example, print to a local printer on your desk via LPT1 and also print to the color printer down the hall via LPT2. The following command is commonly used where lptn is the lpt number you wish to use, servername is the name of the server on which the shared printer is installed, and printersharename is the name of the printer share:

net use lptn: \\servername\printersharename

If the Net Use statement is made to a network-shared printer specifying an LPT port that does not physically exist on the local computer and the Spool MS-DOS Print Jobs option is checked in the printer's Properties pages, you might receive a message that the printer cannot be found on the network. To solve this problem, disable the Spool MS-DOS Print Jobs option for the offending printer or for all printers installed on the computer.

For an individual printer:

1. Click on Start | Settings | Printers.

2. Click on the required printer, select Properties, and click on the Details tab.

3. Click on Port Settings and clear the Spool MS-DOS Print Jobs check box.

Solving this problem for all printers installed on a computer requires a registry edit. Back up your registry prior to completing the following steps:

1. Click on Start | Run.

2. Type >regedit and click OK.

3. Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\control\Print\ Printers key. 4. Click in a clear area in the right-hand pane.

5. Click New | DWORD.

6. Create a DWORD entry named DOSSpoolMask with a value of 0.

7. Repeat the process and create another DWORD entry named PrintersMask with a value of 0.

8. Restart your computer and try to run the script again.