Network Printer List Not Populating

wirestyle22

This has apparently has always been an issue here. I can see the printers listed under Network, but if I attempt to add a network printer the list does not populate. We do have a printer server and it's unfortunately running Server 2003.

JaredBusch

@wirestyle22 Is the printer's "list in the directory" checkbox checked?

Start simple.

wirestyle22

@JaredBusch Yes it is checked. There are a few hundred printers there, but I checked about 20 and it was enabled on all 20.

JaredBusch

@wirestyle22 Then you are back to AD, IMO. but no idea where to look

wirestyle22

@JaredBusch I know you can control parts of this in GPO but that's typically the amount of printers displayed etc. Attempting to research. Will post findings here.

wirestyle22

In Group Policy Object Editor if you navigate to:

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Printers

Enable the following:
Allow printers to be published
Automatically publish new printers in Active Directory
Check published state to Enabled (Set the Interval to something low)

Restart the Print Spooler Service in services.msc

This Fixed the issue.

JaredBusch

@wirestyle22 You likely have hundreds of GPOs to check.

Mike Davis

Is this on your air gapped network? I only ask because Server 2003. Is it even 64 bit? If not, it's a pain deploying drivers to 64 bit clients.

OK, who am I kidding? Printer drivers are a pain no matter what the situation.

momurda

Is there other things that are 'not working' that use dns/wins?
Have you disabled any services through GPO?

Dashrender

I was wondering about WINS also. Is there WINS server in this environment? If so, is it being used?

Is this the environment that uses only Static IPs?

momurda

Yes my guess is WINS or a service like SSDP is disabled for clients there through gpo

Dashrender

Is this a single 2003 server running print jobs for all users over all locations? huh - do they have any WAN link issues? Printing can kill WAN links.

wirestyle22

This is the second time I applied a change and it did not apply. I went back into Group Policy in my post before this and noticed it had not applied my change again.

I reapplied it and it worked.