05-19-2007, 08:20 AM
Jarulf,
Just a little more to add.
When you attach a printer to your network, WEP/WPA/WPA2 is irrelevant. The encryption is for wireless only - it doesn't apply to wired connections.
You need a static address for each printer. This will either be in the printer itself (it has an inbuilt network card) or in something that translates parallel or USB connections to a network card (HP Jetdirect is one such device, others are made by Dlink or Linksys).
Printer servers - not needed in the strict definition of such things. In a big network - such as the ones I administer - you have one server with all the printers defined to it. The drivers are on the server and the PC's all interact with this server. This handles all the print spooling and ordering on behalf of the rest of the network. Big bucks and a lot of work to administer. Not a problem with 300+ nodes - painful and unneeded with a small home network.
In a home network, each computer will handle its own spooling. You define the printer on the PC using Windows (or Linux or MacOS) and point the port to the network address. There may be a special port (for HP it is xxx.yyy.www.zzz:9100 - or 9101 or 9102 if it has 3 ports). Check the printer networking documentation. HP stuff is mainly autodetected by Windows XP or 2000 or later. Normally, a printer shows itself as busy while a computer is printing to it, so other computers will wait until the first print job is finished. Really big print jobs may be an issue - if someone is printing something like a thesis........
I have no trouble on my home 5-7 node network with a combination of Windows XP, MacOS 10.4 and Linux. Everyone prints to one printer and there is no confusion. The PC's track the state of the printer fine.
Really cheap printer that rely on Windows to format the print job aren't networkable easily. You may get away with using them - but I wouldn't try it.. More capable ones that have drivers available on many OS's should be fine, as long as you have a USB to ethernet capability.
HowGozit
Just a little more to add.
When you attach a printer to your network, WEP/WPA/WPA2 is irrelevant. The encryption is for wireless only - it doesn't apply to wired connections.
You need a static address for each printer. This will either be in the printer itself (it has an inbuilt network card) or in something that translates parallel or USB connections to a network card (HP Jetdirect is one such device, others are made by Dlink or Linksys).
Printer servers - not needed in the strict definition of such things. In a big network - such as the ones I administer - you have one server with all the printers defined to it. The drivers are on the server and the PC's all interact with this server. This handles all the print spooling and ordering on behalf of the rest of the network. Big bucks and a lot of work to administer. Not a problem with 300+ nodes - painful and unneeded with a small home network.
In a home network, each computer will handle its own spooling. You define the printer on the PC using Windows (or Linux or MacOS) and point the port to the network address. There may be a special port (for HP it is xxx.yyy.www.zzz:9100 - or 9101 or 9102 if it has 3 ports). Check the printer networking documentation. HP stuff is mainly autodetected by Windows XP or 2000 or later. Normally, a printer shows itself as busy while a computer is printing to it, so other computers will wait until the first print job is finished. Really big print jobs may be an issue - if someone is printing something like a thesis........
I have no trouble on my home 5-7 node network with a combination of Windows XP, MacOS 10.4 and Linux. Everyone prints to one printer and there is no confusion. The PC's track the state of the printer fine.
Really cheap printer that rely on Windows to format the print job aren't networkable easily. You may get away with using them - but I wouldn't try it.. More capable ones that have drivers available on many OS's should be fine, as long as you have a USB to ethernet capability.
HowGozit