Question : Printing issues: Printing to a Microsoft Terminal server 2003

I have two Dell XP Pro SP3 PC's in a local workgroup. PC1 and PC2
There is an HP LaserJet 1200 printer attached via USB to PC2 using the basic Microsoft printer driver. The printer is shared out to PC2. Both PC's have no issues printing within Windows.

First a little history
- I originally had an HP LaserJet 4200 printer attached to the local network via a static private IP address 192.168.29.5. NOTE: all the PC's in the office are on the 192.168.29.0 subnet.
- the same two PC's are the only two PC's printing to this printer via "TCPIP" with no issues.
- This company is a Medical office and they run a proprietory medical billing program called "Medical MasterMind. It is a Windows based program that looks and feels like a Dos based program when executed. It never had any printing issues
- Recently, the billing has been outsourced to a small outside company. They have a Windows Terminal Server 2003. PC1 and PC2 connect to this TS via the internet using RDC. The billing company have their own IT consultant. He added the HP 4200 printer driver to the terminal server. PC1 and PC2 would run the "Medical MasterMind" (MMW) from the TS. It would connect and open fine but many times it would fail to print to the local HP 4200 networked printer. Now that it failed printing, PC1 and PC2 would close out of the TS session and then would fail to print locally. We tried to restart the spooler to no avail. Only a reboot would allow PC1 and PC2 to print locally again. As soon as they connected to the TS and print, after one or printouts it failed, it then would fail locally as well

Question: I know there are issues and Microsoft documents stating that network printers dont work over a TS session. Supposedly there's a 2nd pary software out that allows you print to TCPIP over a TS session. Is there any truth to this?

Next Step: we eliminated the TCPIP option and then configured the above mentioned USB Shared HP LaserJet 1200 printer. It experienced the same issues as did the tcpip printer

Questions: with the USB shared printer option, I recall Microsoft says there's a known issue with the "DOT" ports not working with out applying Microsoft's "Fix It" tool. Is this a know issue? Why cant some printers be configured to use USBxxx as the port identifier.

At one point, I believe we had a physical Network topology (switch and/or ethernet cabling) issue but its been resolved

I dont have access to their TS server, however, I have access to their tech and can work with him.

Are there any good solid recomendations someone can provide as to what is  the best printing configuration for redirecting printing to a local printer coming from a terminal Server 2003

Answer : Printing issues: Printing to a Microsoft Terminal server 2003

Hi
Thanks for the info but what we did in the end was disable the shortcut keys on the server through the registry and this has resolved the problem
Cheers
troy