For Cougar Mountain Software Support's
Professional Version (V7, V8, V9, V10, V11, V12 & V2009/10)

Cannot match printer or port in control file, how to capture in WinNT/2K

for the Cougar Mountain Software Support

This error is almost always caused by failure to properly capture a printer port for a networked printer in Windows.

Win9x tree (95, 98, Me):
Go to Start, Settings, Printers. Right-click the printer you wish to use from CMS, select Properties. Go to the Details tab. Click the button that says Capture Port, and select an unused LPT port (usually LPT2). You will be asked what path to use, this is the path to the printer in UNC format (\\hostname\devicename). Make sure to check the box that says Reconnect at Logon. If there are spaces in the host or device name, Win9x WILL be be able to capture the port successfully.

WinNT tree (NT, 2k):
Ports cannot be captured in printer properties. Open a DOS prompt, and type this to capture printer hp1200 on a computer named foo at LPT2:

net use lpt2: \\foo\hp1200 /persistent:yes

The persistent flag tells the system to reconnect to this resource at login. If there is a space in the hostname or devicename, the UNC path will need to be enclosed in double quotes, as in the case of hp1200 on a computer named foo bar, like this:

net use lpt2: "\\foo bar\hp1200" /persistent:yes

No printers installed or no default printer for the Cougar Mountain Software Support

More and more CMS customers are using a Windows 2000 machine as the server for Cougar Mountain database files. While smaller offices tend to set up a CMS network using a Windows 2000 Professional as the server, medium to large organizations are using the Windows 2000 SERVER platform to run CMS products. Although the core operating systems are similar, the key differences between the "Server" and "Professional" versions of Windows 2000 are that the Server Operating System supports more installed memory and more than 2 CPUs running on the server hardware. This translates into the ability to serve a larger number of client machines more quickly than Windows 2000 Pro. Additionally, this Operating System is configured out of the box for maximum performance as a dedicated server.

With the trend toward CMS installs on the Windows 2000 Server O/S, there is a minor issue with Printing CMS reports when CMS is run at the Windows 2000 Server machine. Even though a network or local print device has been properly installed, every time printing is attempted from the CMS Server, this error message is received:

Cougar Report Writer:
"No printers installed or no default printer"
This error message can occur whether the customer is trying to print to an actual printer or simply printing the report to the screen.

The cause of this problem is one of the default configuration settings that Windows 2000 Server sets up when it is installed. It is assumed that a machine running 2000 Server will not typically be used to run any actual applications, and because of this, the Windows Print Spooler service is disabled by default. The result of this service being turned of is that no printing is allowed whatsoever when applications are run directly on the Server machine.

To correct this problem, simply go to START, PROGRAMS, ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS and select SERVICES. The Windows 2000 Services Applet will show the installed Services; simply scroll down until you can see the Service called "Print Spooler", right-click on it and select "Properties". When the Properties form appears, look for the field called "Startup Type" and change it from disabled to Automatic, then click on "Apply" at the bottom of the form, then click on the "Start" button in the "Service Status" section of the form. After doing this, the Service Status on the form should report that the Print Spooler has been Started.

Note: This issue only arises when running on the Windows 2000 Server (or Advanced Server) and will also occur on any Windows XP Server operating system when XP Server is released. It does NOT affect servers using the Windows 2000 Professional O/S.