We have an archaic peice of software that uses dos printing as not all PC's at work have a printer we use NET USE command to map LPT1

net use lpt1: \\pc\printer

However today i am trying to set this up on a windows 95 pc and set the net use to use a windows 2k machine on another domain, i keep getting prompted for a password but cant enter a username is there some way i can attach a username and password to the net use?

Type net use /? to get the list of available options. The /? switch works as a help system for most DOS commands. It looks like you need something along the lines of:

NET USE lpt1: \\pc\printer /USER:domain\username password

Once you get it right, don't forget the

/PERSISTENT:yes

switch so that it remembers it after you've logged off

I would also recommend setting up a new user account with very limited privileges just for this purpose so that you don't compromise network security by listing usernames and passwords under NET USE.

Tried:

NET USE lpt1: \\pc\printer /USER:domain\username password

however win95 didint like this so checked the /? to see if /user is supported by win95 and its not. any other ideas will be appreciated

Ah, I was looking at the options on a Windows XP laptop - I didn't think they'd be different for something as old as NET USE.

This is a useful resource for explanation of the NET USE syntax for earlier versions:
http://www.onecomputerguy.com/networking/net_cmds.htm
However, it doesn't include the domain and username options so I'm out of ideas at the moment

I might be barking up the wrong tree here but how about adding the user of the Windows 95 PC to the list of local users on the Win2000 PC? Then add that Win2000 user accounts to the permissions on the share for the printer. You might find then that you don't get prompted for a username or password.

I'm assuming, of course, that the printer is shared and then you have assigned users or groups permissions to use it (NTFS-style sharing) rather than having just shared it with a password (i.e. the old Win95 way of doing things).