[ramondailey]

I have a client that has 2 locations that are connected via VPN.

I have a Server 2008 machine at their main site running Remote Desktop Services. I just replaced a Server 2003 machine running Terminal Services. The three workstations at the remote site connect to Remote Desktop on the server through the VPN.

I have a Brother HL-5240 printer attached to one of the workstations on the remote site. It's shared, and installed onto each of the three Remote Desktop sessions for the remote workstations. When it works, it works fine.

The last couple of days, when they arrive in the morning, printing doesn't work. Yesterday, I rebooted the workstation that the printer was attached to and that fixed the problem. Today, that didn't work and I had to reset the Print Spooler on the 2008 server.

Something seems to be breaking the connection between the server and the printer on the workstation overnight. The only printer related events I see in the Event Log seem to be related to things I was doing while troubleshooting. Any suggesions on what's going on?

For the record, I've suggested that the owners purchase a network printer so we don't have to attach it to a workstation. I suspect this will take care of the problem, although I don't know for sure.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Troy_Jollimore]

I've never needed to go beyond uninstalling and reinstalling the printer and refreshing the shares. I have had issues where data transfers to the printer would one day work better when mapping the printer to a computer name (\\computer\printshare) and another day work better with an IP address (\\192.168.1.46\printshare) but they tend to go away on their own.

You are right in directly networking the printer solving a few issues. Mostly because you're skipping Windows printer sharing, and going direct to the printer's IP address if you're not using a print server in-between.