Copyright: Copyright:  Derick D. Schaefer  1994


Table of Contents
 Contents

What is Sneaker Net?  Why was Sneaker Net designed and what can it do for you?  For more information, read this topic.	Print to File  How do you make a Sneaker Net printable file from your word processor at home.
Installation/Setup  How do you set Sneaker Net up on your computer at work?  At home?  How do you configure your printer? For these answers and more, view this topic.	Using Sneaker Net to Print?  To see how to use Sneaker Net with your SNFs, see this topic.
Application Map  What are the different parts of Sneaker Nets screen display.  To view an interactive map of Sneaker Net, see this topic.	Trouble Shooting  For trouble shooting tips, see this topic.  Questions and Answers for Sneaker Net as well.

About the Author	Disclaimer	Programers


What is Sneaker Net?
 What is Sneaker Net? 	Acknowledgments

You have a computer at home, but no laser printer.  You have a laser printer at work but a different word processor (or the same).  So, you create your document at home, save/translate it to disk, go to work, open your word processor, open your document, re-adjust the margins, find out your fonts and graphics are all messed up, and then try to print.  This is too much work and too much frustration!  Multiple documents/multiple pages, forget it!!

Sneaker Net takes care of this age old problem.  With Sneaker Net, you can create documents at home, print your document to disk exactly the way it appeared on your screen at home, go to work, open Sneaker Net, drag/drop, and you are done.  Yes, printing is that easy.

Sneaker Net is a Windows 3.1 application that serves as a direct liaison to Print Manager.  It is extremely easy to use once it is configured.  Read all parts of this help file (including disclaimer) to get detailed instructions on how to configure Sneaker Net, how to use it, what not to do, and how to trouble shoot.  I hope you enjoy this freeware product.


 Application Map


Installation
 Installation and Setup

Setup for computer at work

Sneaker Net is composed of 9 files:  SNET.EXE, SNET.HLP, SNCONFIG.DAT, SN.WAV, SNOPEN.WAV, SNCONFIG.WAV, SNCLOSE.WAV, GAUGE.VBX, and VBRUN300.DLL.  The red files should be place in a directory named C:\SNET and the blue files belong in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.  If you downloaded Sneaker Net from a BBS in the form of a ZIP file, these files must be placed in the proper place (VBRUN300.DLL is not included and should be downloaded from a general file area of most bulletin boards).  If you have a setup diskette, RUN A:\SETUP to install all components of the application.

After the application files have been put in the proper directories, it is necessary to configure Sneaker Net for your printer.  Sneaker Net must have the printer caption of the printer/queue that you want to use for printing.  This can be found by opening the print manager.  This caption can be changed in Sneaker Net by using the ADMIN--PRINTER/QUEUE configuration from the pull down menus.  The following example is for a HPIIID printer driver loaded on a computer.

This text should be entered in the configuration screen that appears when you select Admin-Printer/Queue from the Sneaker Net pull down menus.  If your configuration reads Not Configured, an warning message will appear when you start Sneaker Net.  (This should have happened the first time you ran the app.)  If you misspell the printer caption or leave it blank, Sneaker Net will default to the first printer listed in your Print Manager printer list.  After this is complete, Sneaker Net is ready to go.

Home Computer Setup

The only thing you must have on your home computer is a printer driver (connected to file output--see #6 below) that is compatible with your printer at work.  For example, if you have an HP IIID at work, you must load this driver on your home computer so that you can select it before you print to file.  To setup this driver, you will need a diskette with the printer driver on it (Windows Setup Disk #5/#6 or a diskette distributed by the printer manufacturer--if you dont understand this, ask your network administrator).  Then, do the following:

1)	Open Print Manager and choose Options-Printer Setup from the pull down menus.

2)	Once the setup screen appears, click the ADD>> button.

3)	Then select your printer from the list or choose not listed.

4)	Click install and follow the Windows Dialog instructions from there.

5)	Once the driver is setup, highlight it and press the connect button.

6)	Change the port connection from LPT1: to FILE:.

Note:  Setup 6 is very important because if your word processor does not have a print to file option, this is the only indication that Print Manager has to direct your printout to a binary file.

Pressing CONNECT in Print Manager will bring up this screen which allows you to direct output to a file:


 Print to File

The first step in using Sneaker Net is the creation of a SNF (Sneaker Net File or a binary printed file) from your word processor.  This will be explained using Microsoft Word 2.0 as an example.

In Word choose File-New from the pull down menus.  Choose File-Print Setup and select the print driver that matches your printer at work (for driver installation see installation).  Then, create your document using fonts and graphics as you please.  When you are finished with your document, save it as you normally do.  Then complete the following steps:  1) Select File-Print from the menus (do not use the print icon because it does not offer printing choices). 2) Make sure that you are still using the print driver you selected earlier to match your printer at work.  3)  Insert a diskette in your floppy drive.  4) Press OK.  5) Your document will appear to be printing and then an output file prompt will appear.  At the prompt, name your file including the floppy drive destination.  For example, A:\MyFile.SNF will print MyFile.SNF to the A drive.

If the prompt described in step 6 does not appear, then you do not have your print driver connected to the file option described in the HOME SETUP section of installation.  If this is the case, most likely your document will print on your home computer printer or a Retry/Cancel Printer Error message will appear.  WARNING:  If you use a Print Driver not compatible with your printer at work or if you just rename a file saved in your word processors format to an file with an SNF extension, your printer at work will print garbs of paper with binary information on them.  Follow these directions and these directions only.

Print Setup Dialog in Word for Windows 2.0

Print Dialog in Word for Windows 2.0


Trouble Shooting
 Trouble Shooting?

The following is a list of questions and answers that can help a user solve problems with using Sneaker Net:

Q:  What is an Illegal Function error?

A:  This is most likely a programming error of mine.  Please take not of exactly what you did to cause it, jot down a few notes about your hardware/software setup, and EMAIL me at DerickMIBS on AOL.

Q:  Sneaker Net will not activate the Print Manager.  What could this be?

A:  One possibility is that you have your local Windows configured to Print Direct to Network.  This by passes could cause the Print Manager to be by passed in the process.  Set Print Manager to spool locally and then spool to your printer server.

Q:  When I use Sneaker Net to spool an SNF, the multiple pages of garbage printouts come out of the printer.  What did I do wrong?

A1:  This will occur when you create an SNF file having selected a printer driver on your home computer that is different than the one on your work computer (the computer running Sneaker Net).  To correct this problem, make sure you are creating your SNFs with the correct driver.  Also make sure that your driver is not corrupted or out of date.

A2:  You might have the correct printer driver; however, because you do not have the Printer Caption configured correctly in Sneaker Net, your file is being spooled to the wrong printer.  This is, in effect, just like using the wrong printer driver for the wrong printer.  See Installation

Q:  I get a message about a General Protection Fault with the Print Manager.  What causes this?

A:  If you use Sneaker Net to spool a file and the file does not leave Print Manager (because the printer is out of paper or turned off), problems can occur if you close Sneaker Net while these print jobs are stranded in the Print Manager.  The best thing is not to quit Sneaker Net while Print Manager is still active.  Note:  When Print Manager is active, a Print Manager icon will appear in the upper right hand form of Sneaker Net.  If you do cause a GP Fault, close your applications, exit Windows, and re-start your computer just to be safe.

Q:  When I try to drop a file for spooling, Sneaker Net tells me that the file has already been spooled.  Why do I get this message?

A:  It is possible to strand a spooled file with Sneaker Net.  If this happens, you may use the Delete TMP utility from the ADMIN pull down menu.  Note:  This will delete all TMP files in your Sneaker Net directory.  This means that if you do this while you have Sneaker Net jobs printing, you might delete their spool files as well.  This is safe, just make sure that you do not have jobs in Print Manager when you do this.  DO NOT PLACE THE SNEAKER NET EXE FILE IN THE WINDOWS DIRECTORY.  The Delete TMPs utility might delete crucial Windows temporary files as well.

Q:  How come Sneaker Net will not send my jobs to the correct printer?

A:  Your Printer Caption configuration is not spelled exactly like it is referenced in Print Manager.  This will cause Sneaker Net to default to the first printer listed in Print Manager.  See Installation for details.

Q:  What should I do if I get errors about my configuration file?

A:  The easiest thing to do is delete SNCONFIG.DAT from C:\SNET\.  Then run Sneaker Net and it will rebuild an empty file on open.  Immediately go to the configuration portion of Sneaker Net and re-enter your Printer Caption.

Q:  I am getting errors about the CTL3D.DLL.  What is this?

A:  I have some calls to this Windows library?  You need this file in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory.  Get it from AOL or Microsoft.


Spool SNF
 Spooling SNFs

Sneaker Net allows users to find files that have been printed to a binary file by a word processor; the file extension must be SNF.  Once the file has been found, the user can drag the SNF file to the drop area.  If you drop the file in the drop area, the file will be spooled to the Windows Print Manager.  For information regarding creating an SNF file, see Creating an SNF File  To see a general map of the Sneaker Net application, see the Application Map


About Author
 About the Author

Sneaker Net was written by Derick D. Schaefer in 1994.  Derick received his bachelors degree from the University of Texas (91) and is currently working on a graduate degree in international business and an MBA with a focus in telecommunications at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL.  His computer expertise is in Windows databases and Visual Basic.  He is also familiar with Dbase, C/C++, and Novell LAN products.  In addition to his studies, Derick is currently working as a database consultant in the financial industry.  Upon graduating, he has aspirations of working with one of several multinational software vendors/consultants in a Latin American Market.

If you have any questions about Sneaker Net or would like to have a custom version of Sneaker Net designed for corporate remote printing needs, contact Derick on America On-line (DerickMIBS).


API Reference
Windows API calls used in Sneaker Net

SpoolFile

sndPlaySound

FindWindow

SendMessage

GetModuleHandle

Ctl3dAutoSubClass

Ctl3dRegister

Ctl3dUnRegister


Legal Disclaimer
Sneaker Net Disclaimer

Sneaker Net is a freeware product.  It can be distributed to anyone free of charge as long as all files are included.  The author, however, will assume no responsibility for damages to operating systems, disk drives, and/or hardware that are associated with the use of Sneaker Net.  Sneaker Net is distributed as is and carries no implicit nor explicit warrantees.  Furthermore, Sneaker Net was distributed virus free, however, there is no guarantee that it is virus free if downloaded from bulletin board services.  (I have tested this program fairly well, however, please test it with your setup before assuming it will work safely).


Menu
Sneaker Net Menus:  These are standard pull down menus that include administrative functions and help/information.


File
Sneaker Net Files:  This is a standard Windows drive/directory/file combo that allows users to find SNF files and drag/drop them to print.


Drop
File Drop:  When files are dropped in this area, Sneaker Net will spool them for printing.


Credits
Windows 3.1, Word for Windows, Visual Basic 3.0, and Print Manager are registered products of the Microsoft Corporation.