filePro Printing from SCO Openserver 6 directly to an SMB share

[Bob Rasmussen]

This is so complicated it brings tiers to my eyes :-)

It sounds like the quintessential question is how to "push" filePro/Unix 
print jobs into a Windows environment. There are many ways to do this that 
DON'T involve SMB. Here are some different ways (not a sequence of steps):

1) Passthrough print (PFPT) print jobs out of fP:
    a) to FacetWin (FW) if it can handle them;
    b) to AnzioWin to print them, render them into PDFs, add overlays...

2) Use Zmodem or a similar protocol to push files from SCO to the 
emulator. But this is difficult to tie into the fP print channel.

3) Use AnzioWin in SSH mode; pull the files from SCO using SFTP (which 
does not require a separate firewall hole or connection)

4) Print through the SCO Unix spooler, via "remote printing" (lpr/lpd) to 
a Windows lpd (as Brian suggests), and out to printer. I predict 
difficulties in matching print file format with printer type.

5) Print through SCO Unix spooler to Print Wizard Service Edition, on one 
or more Windows boxes, to print device independently, or create PDF's etc.

Your best choice largely depends on the full list of what kinds of files 
you want to transfer and what you want to do with them once they're in 
Windows.

Call me to discuss, if you'd like.

On Fri, 31 Mar 2017, Mike Schwartz via Filepro-list wrote:

>    One of my filepro customers asked me if they could spool their filePro
> reports, forms and spreadsheets directly to SMB shares on their local
> network from their SCO Openserver 6 box.   They want to do this because
> their staff wants to work remotely from home more days each week and they
> want to make the remote experience as seamless as possible.
>
>
>
>     They are running filepro 5.7.03.03D4.  They are also running Facetwin
> terminal emulator on their Windows workstations (mostly Win 7 yet, some Win
> 10).
>
>
>
>    Their Windows techs gave me a sample SMB path to the Windows Server 2012
> box that runs the RDP sessions for their home (remote) users:
> \\internal.xyzcorp.com\Users\Mike\Reports
>
>
>
>     If there is an issue using the FQDN, the static IP for
> internal.xyzcorp.com Windows Server 2012 is 172.16.104.20
>
>
>
>     They also gave me a user name and password for Mike's share.
>
>
>
>     Currently each user can choose to spool reports to their user
> subdirectory (IE; /usr/Mike/Reports) on their SCO server.   The reports end
> up with unique names like "statement-JonesCorp-98765" where the 98765 is the
> "$$" process ID.
>
>
>
>     When the users want to pull all their forms over to their Windows
> Desktop to review and print them, they have an icon on their desktop that
> uses a little FTP script that I wrote to pull only the new report names
> (those reports not already in a folder on their desktop) off of the Unix
> server and onto their RDP desktops.
>
>
>
>     This system works OK and the users are happy with it.  However, the 3rd
> party guys who maintain their Windows network keep badgering me about why
> the users have to FTP the reports to their desktops.
>
>
>
>     This FTP thing was a work-around I came up with several years ago to
> enable their staff to work from their homes.  The users connect to the main
> office via a Fortinet VPN, then log into an RDP session of Windows 7.  From
> there, the FTP script I wrote works just fine to connect to to their SCO
> server at 172.16.104.18 and pull their files over to their RDP workstation
> session.  I converted some of the most used reports to PDF's to eliminate
> viewing and printing problems with the different printers each staff person
> has at home.
>
>
>
>     The Windows guys refuse to open a port on their firewall so I can do
> Facetwin Remote printing.  (Even the SP encrypted version of Facetwin isn't
> secure enough for them.)  Also, occasionally when printing Facetwin reports
> and the user wants to cancel a report, the print spooler was getting jammed
> up.
>
>
>
>     I'm hesitant to open Samba shares on the server because of all the
> recent ransomware attacks.  I've always told them that their SCO Unix
> machine is pretty well protected against ransomware attacks.  I know
> Facetwin is also capable of making SMB shares.  Both Facetwin SMB and Samba
> are disabled right now...
>
>
>
>    Can I even do what they are asking?  Can I just make an entry on the
> /etc.hosts file and in the SCO print spooler system and 'print" things to an
> external network share?
>
>
>
>     Bob Rasmussen:  If you  think you have an Anzio solution, I would be
> interested in that.  I could probably talk them into buying Anzio licenses;
> at least for their remote users.
>
>
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> Mike Schwartz
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
  company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
           voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
             fax: (US) 503-624-0760
             web: http://www.anzio.com
  street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
                  10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
                  Portland, OR  97223  USA