We have an older FoxPro DOS 2.6 program we need to keep alive for a
few more months. This program prints multi-part forms to 2 Okidata
Dot-Matrix printers, using Courier 10 (i.e no printer setup prprogram
The printers are set up as LPT1 + LPT2 on a server running Windows
98SE with separate physical printer ports. When we added new PC's
running Windows XP Professional (as opposed to DOS) we started having
a problem with the print jobs sent to LPT2, specifically they take
upwards of 40 seconds to print.

Quiting the FoxPro program, causes the print job to print almost
immediately. I researched this problem on Google and the MicroSoft KB.
It appears FoxPro is not closing the print job.

The recommended solution was to insert the command "SET PRINTER TO" in
the program. This solved the problem for LPT1, however, it has no
effect on the jobs sent to LPT2. Another solution was to redirect the
printer to \\Server_name\Printer_name. FoxPro accepts this command
but the sending the controls codes with ???" for page length and
bold/double wide results in an error message "Invalid printer
redirection."

Setting the printer timeout in the Lantastic network program ("NET LPT
TIMEOUT xx") forces the job, but, causes multiple page ejects and
multiple forms of garbage characters.

Suggestions?

Thanks,

Rick