exam 70 290 managing and maintaining a microsoft windows server 2003 environment phần 9 pps

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 343Ft10cr15.bmp Figure 10-15 The Advanced tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box Auditing Printer Access Printer access, like file and folder acc

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 343

Ft10cr15.bmp

Figure 10-15 The Advanced tab of the Print Server Properties dialog box

Auditing Printer Access

Printer access, like file and folder access, can be audited You can specify which

groups or users and which actions to audit for a particular printer After enabling

the object access auditing policy, you can view the resulting audit entries in the

Event Viewer console’s Security log

To configure auditing for a printer, open its Properties dialog box, select the Security

tab, and then click Advanced In the Advanced Security Settings dialog box, select

the Auditing tab and add entries for specific groups or users For each security

principal you add to the audit entry list, you can configure auditing for successful

or failed access based on the standard printer permissions, including Print, Manage

Documents, and Manage Printers

Next you must enable the Audit Object Access policy, which is located in the

Group Policy Object Editor or Local Security Policy console under Computer

Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Audit Policy

After the policy has taken effect, you can examine the Security event log to see

and analyze entries made based on printer auditing

single print job, so it is useful only when you’re troubleshooting specific problems Do

not use printer auditing to monitor printer use or to bill for printer usage Instead,

use performance counters such as Total Jobs Printed or Total Pages Printed

TROUBLESHOOTING PRINTERS

Troubleshooting is an important part of printer management This section can help

you understand, identify, and address the types of incidents and problems that

might occur in Windows Server 2003 printing

344 PART 3: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING SHARED RESOURCES

NOTE Exam Objectives The objectives for exam 70-290 require students to be

able to “troubleshoot print queues.”

Remember when troubleshooting that printing includes multiple components, including the following:

■ The application that is attempting to print

■ The logical printer on the computer on which the application is running

■ The network connection between the print client and the shared logical printer on the server

■ The logical printer on the server—its spooler, drivers, security settings, and other components

■ The connection between the print server and the printer

■ The printer itself—its hardware, configuration, and status

An efficient way to solve most problems associated with printing is to troubleshoot each component logically and methodically

Identify the Scope of Failure

If a user cannot print a job from one application on the computer but can print from another application on the same computer, the error is most likely related to the failed job’s application rather than the computer, the network, the print server,

or the printer hardware However, in some cases, using a different driver or data type can solve an application’s print errors

If the user cannot print to the printer from any application, identify whether the user can print to other printers on the same print server or on other print servers

If all possibilities fail, and if other users can print to the printers on the network, the error is likely local to the user’s computer

If the printer is networked, try creating a local printer on the problematic system that points directly to the printer’s port In other words, bypass the print server If this process succeeds, there is a problem on the print server or with the communi-cation between the user’s system and the print server

Verify That the Print Client Can Connect to the Print ServerYou can confirm connectivity between the print client and the print server by opening the print queue window from the Printers And Faxes folder on the client computer If the print queue window opens and shows any documents in the print queue, the client is successfully connecting to the print server An error opening the print queue window would indicate a potential networking, authentication,

or permissions problem If this is the case, you can use the Ping utility to test the connection to the print server’s IP address, or click Start, select Run, and type

\\printserver If the ping test is successful or a window opens showing the Printers

And Faxes folder and any shared folders, the client is connecting to the server In that case, double-check security permissions on the logical printer

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 345

Verify That the Printer Is Operational

Check the printer itself and ensure that it is in the ready state (ready to print)

Check for depleted consumables, paper jams, and other obvious problems,

and then print a test page from the printer console Check the cable

connect-ing the printer to the print server or the network If the printer is

network-attached, confirm that the network interface card light is on, indicating network

connectivity

Verify That the Printer Is Accessible from the Print Server

Some printers can display their IP address on the printer console or by printing out

a configuration page Confirm that the printer’s IP address matches the IP address

of the logical printer’s port The port’s IP address can be seen in the printer’s

Prop-erties dialog box, in the Ports tab Ensure that it is possible to communicate with

the printer over the network by pinging the printer’s IP address

Verify That the Print Server’s Services Are Running

Using the Services console, check that the following print-related services are

run-ning properly:

■ Print Spooler Manages local and network print queues If this service

is not running, no printing will occur

■ Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Required for standard network

connec-tions to shared printers

You can also examine the volume on which the spool folder is stored to ensure

that there is sufficient disk space for spooling The spool folder location can be

dis-covered and modified in the Server Properties dialog box, which you can access by

selecting Server Properties from the File menu of the Printers And Faxes folder By

default, print jobs spool to the Systemroot\System32\Spool\Printers folder For a

high-volume print server, consider moving the spool folder to a partition other than

the system or boot partition If the partition where the spool folder resides fills to

capacity with print jobs, printing will stop and, more importantly, the operating

system might become unstable

You should also look at the System log to see if the spooler has registered any error

events, and, in the Printers And Faxes folder, make sure that the printer is not in

Offline mode

Attempt to print a job from an application on the print server If you can print to

the printer from the print server, the problem is not with the printer If you cannot

print to the printer from an application on the print server, create a new logical

printer directed at the same port and attempt to print to the new printer If that job

succeeds, there is a problem with the configuration of the original logical printer

If that job is unsuccessful, there is a problem communicating with the printer, or

with the hardware itself

346 PART 3: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING SHARED RESOURCES

SUMMARY

■ The printing architecture in Windows Server 2003 is modular, consisting

of the physical printer itself, a print server with a shared, logical printer connected to the physical printer through a local or network port, and a logical printer on a client that connects to the shared, logical printer on the print server

■ A local printer is one that supports a printer directly attached to the puter or attached to the network A network printer connects to a logical printer maintained by another computer, a print server

com-■ Shared printers are published to Active Directory by default, which enables users to easily search for printers based on location or other printer properties

■ To create a logical printer, you run the Add Printer Wizard and specify the printer driver and port to use

■ A single logical printer can direct jobs to more than one port, creating a printer pool

■ A single physical printer can be served by multiple logical printers, each

of which can be configured with unique properties, drivers, settings, permissions, or monitoring characteristics

■ The print queue window, event logs, and performance counters enable you to monitor printers for potential signals of trouble and for utilization statistics

■ If a printer is to be taken offline or has already failed, you can redirect all its jobs not already in progress to another printer by adding or selecting the new printer’s port in the properties of the original logical printer The alternate port must represent a printer that is compatible with the driver

in use by the original logical printer

■ Because the Windows Server 2003 printer model is modular, with the printer itself, the logical printer on a print server, and the logical printer

on a client connected to the server’s shared printer, you can methodically troubleshoot a printer failure by addressing each component and the links between those components

EXERCISES

Exercise 10-1: Creating a Logical Printer

In this exercise, you install a logical printer on your computer

1. Log on to Windows Server 2003 as Administrator

2. Click Start, and select Printers And Faxes The Printers And Faxes window appears

3. Double-click the Add Printer icon The Add Printer Wizard appears

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 347

4. Click Next to bypass the Welcome page The Local Or Network Printer

page appears

5. Select the Local Printer Attached To This Computer option Be sure the

Automatically Detect And Install My Plug And Play Printer check box is

cleared, then click Next The Select A Printer Port page appears

6. In the Use The Following Port drop-down list, select LPT3: (Printer Port),

and then click Next The Install Printer Software page appears

Few, if any, computers have an LPT3 port If your computer does, select

a port that is unused by your computer, such as COM3 or COM4

7. In the Manufacturer column, select Generic In the Printers column, select

Generic/Text Only, then click Next The Name Your Printer page appears

8 In the Printer Name text box, type Test Printer, and then click Next The

Printer Sharing page appears

9. Click Next to accept the default sharing parameters Click Next again to

bypass the Location And Comment page The Print Test page appears

10. Select the No option, and then click Next The Completing The Add

Printer Wizard page appears

11. Click Finish

Exercise 10-2: Setting Printer Permissions

In this exercise, you configure permissions for your shared printer

1. Log on to Windows Server 2003 as Administrator

2. Install a logical printer, as described in Exercise 10-1

3. Click Start, and select Printers And Faxes The Printers And Faxes window

appears

4. Select the Test Printer icon for the logical printer you created and, from

the File menu, select Properties The Properties dialog box appears

5. Select the Everyone security principal on the Security tab and then click

Remove

6. Click Add The Select Users, Computers, Or Groups dialog box appears

7 In the Enter The Object Names To Select text box, type Users, and then

click OK The Users group appears in the list of security principals

8. Select the Allow check box for the Manage Documents permission, and

then click OK

Exercise 10-3: Cancelling a Print Job

In this exercise, you cancel a queued print job that has not completed

1. Log on to Windows Server 2003 as Administrator

2. Install a logical printer, as described in Exercise 10-1

348 PART 3: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING SHARED RESOURCES

3. Click Start, and select Printers And Faxes The Printers And Faxes window appears

4. Right-click the Test Printer icon for the logical printer you created, and select Properties The printer’s Properties dialog box opens

5. Click Print Test Page in the General tab to send a test page to the printer

A Test Printer message box opens Click OK to close the message box, and click OK to close the printer’s Properties dialog box

6. Double-click the Test Printer icon for the logical printer you created The Test Printer window appears

7. Select the Test Page document in the list, and note its error status, which

is due to no physical printer being connected to the selected port

8. On the Document menu, select Cancel A Printers message box appears, prompting you to confirm your decision to delete the print job

9. Click Yes The print job is deleted from the queue

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. You are installing a printer on a client computer The printer will connect

to a logical printer installed on a Windows Server 2003 print server What type or types of information could you provide to set up the printer? (Choose all correct answers.)

a. A TCP/IP printer port

b. The physical printer’s manufacturer and model

c. The URL to the printer on the print server

d. The UNC path to the printer share

e. A printer driver

2. One of your networked printers is not working properly, and you want to prevent users from sending print jobs to the logical printer serving that device What do you do?

a. Stop sharing the printer

b. Remove the printer from Active Directory

c. Change the printer port

d. Rename the share

3. You are administering a Windows Server 2003 computer configured as a print server You want to perform maintenance on a physical printer connected to the print server There are several documents in the print queue You want to prevent the documents from being printed to the printer, but you don’t want users to have to resubmit the documents to the printer What is the best approach to take?

a. Open the printer’s Properties dialog box, select the Sharing tab, and select the Do Not Share This Printer option

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 349

b. Open the printer’s Properties dialog box, and, in the Ports tab, select

a port that is not associated with a print device

c. Open the print queue window, select the first document, and then

select Pause from the Document window Repeat the process for

each document

d. Open the print queue window, and select Pause Printing from the

Printer menu

4. You are administering a Windows Server 2003 computer configured as a

print server Users in the Marketing group complain that they cannot print

documents using a printer on the server You view the permissions in the

printer’s Properties dialog box The Marketing group is allowed Manage

Documents permission Why can’t the users print to the printer?

a. The Everyone group must be granted the Manage Documents

permission

b. The Administrators group must be granted the Manage Printers

permission

c. The Marketing group must be granted the Print permission

d. The Marketing group must be granted the Manage Printers

permission

5. You are setting up a printer pool on a Windows Server 2003 computer

The printer pool contains three print devices, all identical You open the

Properties dialog box for the printer and select the Enable Printer Pooling

option in the Ports tab What must you do next?

a. Configure the LPT1 port to support three printers

b. Select or create the ports mapped to the three printers

c. In the Device Settings tab, configure the installable options to

support two additional print devices

d. In the Advanced tab, configure the priority for each print device so

that printing is distributed among the three print devices

6. A Windows 2003 Server is configured as a print server In the middle of the

workday, the printer fuse fails and must be replaced Users have already

submitted jobs to the printer, which uses IP address 192.168.1.81 An

iden-tical printer uses address 192.168.1.217, and it is supported by other logical

printers on the server What actions do you take so that users’ jobs can be

printed without resubmission? (Choose all correct answers.)

a. In the failed printer’s Properties dialog box, select Enable Printer

Pooling

b. In the failed printer’s Properties dialog box, click Add Port

c. In the Printers And Faxes folder, right-click the failed printer and

select Use Offline

d. In the failed printer’s Properties dialog box, select the port

192.168.1.217

350 PART 3: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING SHARED RESOURCES

7. Which of the following approaches gives you the clearest picture of printer utilization, allowing you to understand the consumption of printer toner and paper?

a. Configure auditing for a logical printer, and audit for successful use

of the Print permission by the Everyone system group

b. Export the System log to a comma-delimited text file, and use Microsoft Excel to analyze spooler events

c. Configure a performance log, and monitor the Total Pages Printed counter for each logical printer

d. Configure a performance log, and monitor the Jobs counter for each logical counter

CASE SCENARIOS

Scenario 10-1: Updating Printer Drivers

The marketing department is complaining about print quality on its shared printer, which is called MarketingPrinter When users print from their Windows XP desk-tops using Microsoft Office applications, documents print perfectly But when they print from Adobe applications, the documents do not always reflect the desired results The sales department, which has an identical shared printer called Sales- Printer and uses a mix of Windows 2000 and Windows XP workstations and Office, does not report any problems As you consider the situation, it occurs to you that some applications produce different results depending on whether the printer is using PostScript or a non-PostScript driver Where do you deploy the properly functioning printer driver so that the computers needing it are updated?

a. The Server Properties dialog box of the print server

b. The printer Properties dialog box of MarketingPrinter

c. The printer Properties dialog box of SalesPrinter

d. The printer Properties dialog box for the logical printers installed on the desktops of each marketing department user

Scenario 10-2: Enhancing Print Performance

You are the systems administrator for a law firm with a group of 20 legal assistants who provide administrative support to the attorneys All of the assistants use

a single, shared, high-speed laser printer installed on a Windows Server 2003 system They must print large documents on a regular basis Although the laser printer is fast, it is kept running almost constantly, printing documents At times, the assistants have to wait 20 minutes or more after submitting a print job for their documents to reach the top of the queue None of the assistants wants to scroll through a list of available printers to check which one has the fewest jobs before submitting a document Which of the following options should

CHAPTER 10: WORKING WITH PRINTERS 351

you consider to minimize the amount of time that printers take to finish printing

documents for all the assistants?

a. Install a second laser printer of the same make and model and create a

printer pool

b. Set different printer priorities for each legal assistant based on a list

gen-erated by the head of the group The most important assistant should be

set a priority of 1, and the least important a priority of 99

c. Set different printer priorities for each legal assistant based on a list

gen-erated by the head of the group The most important assistant should be

set a priority of 99, and the least important a priority of 1

d. Purchase three more identical laser printers, and install them with their

own individual printer shares on the print server

PART 4

MANAGING AND MAINTAINING

HARDWARE WARE

PART 4

MANAGING AND MAINTAINING

HARDWARE

CHAPTER 11

MANAGING DEVICE DRIVERS

355

CHAPTER 11

MANAGING DEVICE DRIVERS

When you are working with a complex operating system such as Microsoft Windows

Server 2003, which contains many elaborate pieces of software, it can be easy to forget

about the small, invisible pieces that make everything else you do possible For an

operating system to make use of the hardware in the computer, it must have a

soft-ware element called a device driver for each hardsoft-ware component Working with

device drivers might not be an everyday task, but system administrators must be aware

of them and know what to do when it comes time to update or troubleshoot them

Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to:

356 PART 4: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING HARDWARE

UNDERSTANDING DEVICE DRIVERS

A device driver is a set of software routines that implement device-specific functions

for generic input/output (I/O) operations For example, when an application running

on a Windows Server 2003 computer writes a file to disk, it calls a generic operating

system function called WriteFile This function defines a basic action: the data at a

specific memory location should be copied to a specific storage device installed in the computer However, the WriteFile function knows nothing about the actual hardware involved; it only deals with the device-independent aspects of the procedure To implement the device-specific functions required to complete the task, the operating system calls routines provided by the device driver for the storage hardware

In all likelihood, the application will be storing the file on a hard disk drive, but it could also be storing it on a floppy disk or some other storage device Different device drivers provide access to the storage devices the application might use Device drivers also provide access routines for specific devices of a given type The hard disk drive in the computer might use the IDE interface or SCSI The drive might be made by any one of a dozen manufacturers The device driver provides the access routines required for that particular model drive running on that specific operating system The manufacturer of the drive probably also produces device drivers for other operating systems, and for the other drives it manufactures Device Driver Functions

Device drivers provide two basic functions:

■ They expose device-specific routines to device-independent tions in the operating system This enables applications and other

func-software components to communicate with the hardware installed in the computer When an application calls the WriteFile function, the operating system calls the hard disk’s device driver to execute the routine, enabling the drive to receive the data from the system and write it to the disk

■ They manipulate the physical properties of hardware devices When

called on to do so by an application or operating system routine, a device driver can modify the physical configuration of a hardware device For example, when you specify in an application that you want to print a doc-ument in landscape orientation rather than portrait, the device driver is responsible for modifying the physical configuration of the printer

These two functions are actually two aspects of the same process, but in Windows Server 2003, they can conceivably be implemented by different device drivers When this is the case, a low-level device driver is responsible for the actual com-munication with the hardware and a high-level driver interacts with the application

or operating system routines This duality is invisible from the Windows interface, however; you do not have to obtain and install two separate drivers

NOTE Drivers and Operating Systems In the days before Windows, device

drivers were implemented by individual applications When you installed a word cessing product, for example, you had to select a device driver for your exact model of printer If you then installed a spreadsheet application, you could not use that same driver The spreadsheet application required its own printer driver Win-dows revolutionized the device driver model by integrating drivers into the operat-ing system rather than using separate drivers for each application When you install a driver for a printer in any version of Windows, all of the applications run-ning on the system can make use of that driver’s routines

pro-CHAPTER 11: MANAGING DEVICE DRIVERS 357

Devices and Drivers

A computer, of course, consists of many different hardware devices that function as

individual components, and all but the most benign (such as the computer’s case)

require a device driver However, some devices are more standardized than others

in the way that they function The more standardized the device is, the more

generic its driver is, and the more generic the driver, the fewer concerns the system

administrator will have about updates and maintenance

For example, virtually every computer has a keyboard, and every operating system

requires a keyboard device driver However, the functionality of the keyboard and

the signals it exchanges with the computer are so standardized and consistent that

it is rare for a system to require anything but a generic keyboard driver that is

suitable for most any keyboard used with the computer The only time a special

keyboard device driver is necessary is when you are using an unusual piece of

hardware with special capabilities, such as an input device intended for people

with specific disabilities

At the other end of the spectrum are devices such as video display adapters, which

require a device driver that is designed to work with a specific hardware product

Highly specific device drivers such as these can be more problematic for system

administrators in several ways, including the following:

■ They are less likely to be included with the operating system

Win-dows Server 2003 (like all of the WinWin-dows operating systems) includes a

library of device drivers that provide compatibility with a long list of

hardware devices of every type The more generic devices, such as

keyboards, are almost certain to be supported by the operating system

drivers, but more esoteric components, and particularly new or

off-brand devices, might not have device driver support in Windows or

might not have the most recent version of a driver In cases like these,

you must furnish the operating system with drivers obtained from the

hardware manufacturer

NOTE Microsoft and Device Drivers Although Windows Server 2003 and the

other Windows operating systems include hundreds of device drivers for many

dif-ferent hardware products, few of these drivers are actually created by Microsoft

Microsoft receives the drivers from the hardware manufacturers and includes

them with the operating system as a courtesy For this reason, when you are

having driver difficulties, you are far more likely to get the help you need from the

hardware manufacturer than from Microsoft

■ They might not be available from the hardware vendor In some

cases, hardware manufacturers develop Windows Server 2003 drivers for

their products after they release Microsoft Windows XP drivers, because

XP has a larger installed user base, or not at all, because they do not

con-sider Windows Server 2003 to be part of the product’s target market

■ They are more likely to cause compatibility or functionality

problems Some types of device drivers are more prone to problematic

behavior than others, often because the device is simply called upon to

do more For example, video display drivers tend to be the most

prob-lematic because of their many complex functions and because many

applications push them to their limit This becomes truer as you push the

358 PART 4: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING HARDWARE

cutting edge of hardware technology The latest video adapter designed for hardcore gaming is far more likely to experience driver problems than the simple integrated video adapter in a low-end system When drivers are a problem, system administrators must deal directly with the hard-ware manufacturer to obtain replacements

■ They are likely to be updated more often than generic drivers As

a result of their complex or problematic nature, some drivers are more likely to be updated than others Here again, the video adapter driver is

a good example Drivers for the latest video adapter products are often updated frequently by the manufacturer Depending on when the hard-ware device was released and what version of Windows you are using, the driver included with the operating system might be several versions old In most cases, the driver supplied with Windows is sufficient to get you through the operating system installation process, but you might have to install updated drivers for the device to achieve its full perfor-mance potential

All hardware devices that have been approved for use with Windows Server 2003

are listed in the Windows Server Catalog, available at www.microsoft.com/windows /catalog/server This catalog replaces the hardware compatibility lists used for

earlier versions of Windows When selecting hardware for Windows Server 2003 computers, you should always make sure that the devices you choose are listed in the catalog

Device Drivers and Hardware Resources

A personal computer consists of a variety of hardware components connected (directly or indirectly) to a central motherboard Processors, memory modules, hard disk drives, monitors, and other devices all have their unique functions, and the system must be able to communicate with each component individually For this to occur, each device has to have some means by which the system can address it uniquely, so that when the computer generates output data that is intended to be displayed on the monitor, that data goes only to the video adapter and not to the keyboard or the hard disk drive

To make this individualized component communication possible, PCs use various

types of hardware resources (also called system resources) Each device driver is

configured to use a unique combination of resources that enables it to cate with the correct hardware device, and only that device The types of hardware resources that devices can use are as follows:

communi-■ Interrupt request (IRQ) line An interrupt request, as the name

implies, is a signal sent from one component to another (although cally from a peripheral device to the system processor) indicating that the sender requires the attention of the receiver and that it should stop what

typi-it is doing and do something else instead For example, each time you press a key on a computer’s keyboard, the keyboard sends an interrupt request to the system processor, notifying it that there is new input for it

to process A PC has 16 IRQ lines, which are designated for the use of various hardware devices (some of which can share an IRQ line)

CHAPTER 11: MANAGING DEVICE DRIVERS 359

■ I/O address An I/O address, also called an I/O port, is a location

in memory that is allocated for use by a particular hardware device, to exchange information with the system Virtually every device in a com-puter has a unique I/O address assigned to it, enabling the system to communicate with individual devices

■ Direct memory access (DMA) channel DMA channels are pathways

that some hardware devices use to transfer data directly to and from tem memory without involving the processor Relatively few devices (such as floppy disk drives and audio adapters) use DMA channels, as compared to IRQ lines, mainly because there are fewer of them (only eight) in a PC

sys-■ Memory address A few devices, such as video display adapters and

network interface adapters, require space in the upper memory area, usually to install a supplemental basic input/output system (BIOS)

Another device that commonly requires this hardware resource is a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) host adapter that provides its own BIOS, to enable the system to boot from a SCSI drive

The Windows Server 2003 Device Manager makes it possible to view the

hard-ware resources in your computer and the devices that are using them, as shown

Configuring Hardware Resources

For communication between a hardware device and the computer to occur, the

device and its driver must both be configured to use the correct hardware resource

settings For example, when you connect a printer to a computer’s LPT1 parallel

port, you must also configure the printer driver to use LPT1 to communicate with

the printer If the printer is connected to LPT1, and you configure the driver to

use LPT2, no communication will occur and the computer will not be able to use

the printer

360 PART 4: MANAGING AND MAINTAINING HARDWARE

This relationship between hardware resource settings seems simple when you discuss printers, but for the computer’s internal components, it becomes more complex Installing a network interface adapter in a computer, for example, typi-cally requires an IRQ line and an I/O port For the computer and the adapter to communicate, the adapter hardware and the adapter driver must be configured to use the same IRQ line and I/O port In addition, there must not be any conflicts from other devices trying to use the same IRQ line and I/O port

At one time, it was necessary to configure both the hardware device and the device driver manually To configure the network adapter, you either set jumpers

on the card itself or ran a special configuration program supplied by the ware manufacturer Then you installed the driver and configured it to use the same hardware resource settings you configured on the adapter Apart from the time and inconvenience involved, several things could go wrong with this process, such as the following:

hard-■ Limited resource settings Some devices had a limited selection of

hardware resource settings that they could use For example, some older network interface adapters had a selection of only two or three IRQs they could use If none of those IRQs was available on the computer, you either had to reconfigure another device or use a different adapter

■ Resource depletion In the days when IRQ sharing was less common,

well-equipped systems could easily have all of the IRQ lines occupied by other devices, preventing the installation of new components

■ Device conflicts When two devices were configured to use the same

hardware resource, usually neither of them functioned properly When selecting the hardware resources for a new component, you had to be conscious of the resources already allocated to all of the other compo-nents in the computer

Plug and Play

Fortunately, these problems were largely eliminated by the introduction of the Plug

and Play standard in 1995 Plug and Play (PnP) is a standard that defines

charac-teristics for computer components that enables them to automatically detect and configure the hardware in a computer For PnP to function, all of the following components must support the standard:

■ System hardware

■ Peripheral hardware

■ System BIOS

■ Operating systemMost of the PC hardware devices manufactured since 1997, and virtually all of the PC hardware manufactured today, conform to the PnP standard, as do most system BIOS products and all of the Microsoft operating systems since Windows 95 This means that when you install a new device in a computer running Windows Server 2003, most

of the time you do not have to be concerned with hardware resources or device figuration; the system takes care of everything (assuming a driver is available) When you install a new PnP device, the computer does the following:

con-■ Detects the new hardware