filePro Printing from SCO Openserver 6 directly to an SMB share

[Mike Schwartz]

> They want to work at home and print to printers in the office? But not to
> proper network printers, but to printers shared from desktops?
> 
> I would not do it that way. Keeping windows shared printers configured and
> working is a maintenance tar pit. They are always changing and breaking. I
> would put the printers on the network via print servers, and have both the
> desktops and the server print to the printers via the print servers. Then
> when the desktop is turned off or changed out or messed up, the printer
> keeps working. It also means you don't need to install facetwin on the
> server.
> 
> However, you do have a few options to do it if you must:
> 
> FacetWin can do that easily. I don't know if the unlicenced demo version
can
> act as a smb print client for free. It might! I think you only have to pay
for
> the terminal emulator sessions.
> 
> I don't know about OSR6, but I know OSR5 has an incomplete and also now
> very old version of Samba available. It's incomplete in that you can't use
it
> to mount a windows share on unix, but it does alow windows clients to
> mount shares from unix, and it does have commandline smb clients that let
> you access file and print shares in a scriptable ftp-like interface. You
could
> make a printer interface script that used the samba client util to send
print
> jobs to windows shared printers.
> 
> OSR6 might possibly have a newer better version of samba given how osr6's
> kernel is more modern and supports more linux-like features, and generally
> supports more gnu/linux software, and supports it more fully.
> 
> But really, if I HAD to print to windows desktop shared printers, AT LEAST
I
> would do it by installing the windows lpd support ("print services for
unix"),
> and printing to the printers via lpr instead of via smb. It's a built-in
feature
> of windows. You just go into add-remove programs and "install" it, which
is
> really just turning it on, because it's actually already there. No one
needs
> any install disks or downloads usually.
> 
> --
> bkw
> 
> On 3/31/2017 3:40 PM, 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

Hi Brian:

    The customer actually wants me to "print to file"; specifically to a SMB
Network share.  A lot of the forms and reports they print never get printed.
For example, they will look at a customer statement, call the customer and
ask for a payment and then delete the statement.  

    The only thing that is changing is that instead of spooling the reports
to a subdirectory on their SCO Unix server, they want me to spool the
reports to a SMB subdirectory.

    If they are working from home, they want to print some of these reports
and forms to their home printer.  If they are working in the office, they
are happy to print to the printers attached to the Unix server.

    Facetwin used to be easy to setup.  Now with the domain thing, the ole
"windows for workgroups" is a pain to setup in Facetwin.  And once I setup
Facetwin and make "shares" on the SCo Unix server, how does that help me get
to a shared subdirectory on a Windows Server?

     And the Samba on the OSR 6 server is so old I'm afraid to use that to
create shares.  

Thanks,

Mike