Hi all. I am stumped. A Windows 2000 machine has an HP DeskJet shared. I used Webmin on the RedHat Linux machine to add the printer as a 'Remote Windows Server'. I can now print to the DeskJet from within Linux; it works great.

But... Linux has no idea when the print has failed. Normally, when I print something the job appears in Linux's queue and then is passed to the Windows print spooler so, after a few seconds, the job vanishes from the queue on Linux and prints out on the Windows box. If the printer is jammed, or out of paper or ink, etc., that's fine because it's in the Windows spooler and is easy to sort out.

The problem occurs when Linux can't pass on the job. For example, if I turn off the Windows machine, or disconnect it from the network, Linux thinks it has printed just fine. The print job never reaches the Windows machine and leaves the queue on Linux all the same.. ..into cyberspace?

"Just fix the Windows machine and print it again!", you say. But the reason this is such a big deal is that the Linux machine is running some archaic software that prints 'critical', one-shot print jobs. If it is not noticed immediately that the print-out didn't happen, there is no way to go back in the software and re-print it.

Anyone know what to do? (The answer isn't a hardware print server - there are about 50 printers it has to print too, all shared under Windows). The problem is a lack of feedback when the Windows machine is unreachable and the job doesn't get transferred - we need the job to be retained on the Linux box so it can keep retrying it (manually or automatically). Thanks in advance!