GPO to assign printers by workstation IP

[markieamark]

Hello all!

I am wanting to create a GPO to assign printers based on the PC's IP address.
I have several areas in our hospital and we are getting new printers and want to get rid of the old print servers.
Is there an easy way to get the IP address and via that information, assign a printer that is associated with that IP?

Thoughts are appreciated and welcome!

Mark Latham
Mercy Regional Medical Center
Durango, Colorado

[scottzaiss]

With Group Policy preferences (you will need a Vista or better OS to edit them on) you can deploy printers to both users or computers (which is what it sounds like you need) under Preferences/Control Panel Settings. Once you add a new printer, click on the 'Common' tab on the right. Check the box next to 'Item-level targeting' and then click the 'Targeting' button. In the Targeteting editor dialog box, under 'New Item' you will now see a whole list of options to filter that specific printer on, including IP Address Range (a range can be a single IP).
This is the first time we have been able to filter a specific setting in a GPO and it gives a LOT of flexibility. It allows you to add all of your printers into a single GPO, but only install them where you want them. I am in the process of migrating all of our printer istallations from a rather long VB script to a single GPO (we are filtering by security group, one for each printer).
Even though you need to edit the GPO on a Vista, 2008 or Win7 machine, the settings will still apply to WinXP & Server 2003 machines as long as the 'Group Policy Prefernces Client Side Extensions' are installed. They are available through Windows Updates and WSUS so hopefully they are already installed.

Scott

[markieamark]

Scott,

Thanks for the Great description!
This is exactly what I need as we are getting Xerox Printer/fax/copiers with Cleo /Streem Servers/software to manage/deploy the printers.
We want to just assign these printers by the Workstation IP and lookup what printer we want to assign by area that IP serves.
Again, thanks as this is really useful and I will try this this morning to test.

Regards!

Mark

[markieamark]

Scott,

One question, it appears that it does not install any drivers. If I install the drivers first, it installs the printer otherwise it does not install the printer - thoughts anyone?

Mark

[kbeckman]

Sounds like Point and Print Restrictions. You'll want to set Computer Configuration > Policies > Administrative Templates > Printers > Point and Print Restrictions to Disabled so that the computers can pull down the printer drivers.