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P.Brian.Mackey
Asked: 2013-09-27 05:29:39 +0800 CST

Is it possible to find a printer knowing only the network location?

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I need to physically locate printers. The only information I have for the printer is the network location E.G. \\xxxx\yyyy. I tried performing a Find in Active Directory Users and Computers. I tried:

Find "Printers" in "Entire Directory" then searched by printer Name, Location, Model and tried a few fields in Advanced tab. No luck.

Is what I am doing possible?

active-directory

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You want to know where they are physically located? If this information isn't populated in the Location field, then no, it really isn't possible. You might be able to do some sleuthing and get close.

    For example, if the "network location" you refer to is \servername\shared_printer and the servername happened to be in reference to a certain building/location like \DENVEROFFICE, then you can at least narrow it down that way.

    If you had the IP of the printer itself you could also narrow down based on the subnet's location (again you'd have to already know this info somehow though). But again it is a logical network not physical, so a subnet could easily sprawl multiple locations/floors/campuses/etc.

    You could trace it through the switches down to the port and then trace the cable to the printer itself. Harder if the printer is on wifi though.

    You could also disable the printer on the print server and then wait for someone to call and say "the printer in Sales on the 3rd floor by Rita's desk isn't printing anymore".

    The proper thing to do is to create a Location entry. You can find information on how to do this here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784120%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

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