In this digital age, everything appears to be hi-tech and advanced and this is the same case with home networking too. Whether in a home or office, sharing printers to more number of PC’s have gained equal importance. Normally, you use the Windows’ built-in printer-sharing functionality to share an existing printer to other computers. This is one of the easiest ways to share the printers. A person who has administrator-level access can set up a printer as few printer drives can access kernel, the Windows’ core code.
However, once installed and shared, the users with limited access privileges could connect and launch print activities. This whole process is termed as local print sharing.
SMB and SAMBA
When machines of your home networks use non-Windows OS, Local print sharing encounters certain problems. Networking technology known as Server Message Block (SMB) is used by Windows to share printers and file folders between Windows systems on a network. However, it is necessary that Linux or Mac OS X systems understand SMB in order to recognise and work effectively with Windows-shared printers.
A surprising factor is that, SMB is supported by both the systems, but at various degrees. Linux works fairly well with Windows shared printers and it is with the aid of an open-source version of SMB or SAMBA. This connects Linux clients and servers to Windows printers to Windows shared file folders. On the other hand the user can configure Linux which allows it to share printers and folders of its own. The best part is that the Windows users will be able to view those resources on the network as if they were provided from windows machines.
SAMBA is also included in Mac OS X; however, it is an impossible task to configure this system in order to work with Windows shared printers and at the same time it depends upon the printer you use for sharing. Even if you are able to share a printer that is connected to Mac with Windows users, the installation is a complicated task. First and foremost, both Mac OS X and Windows should be compatible with the printers. In order to make sure that they have the correct drives, the user should set up printers on all windows machines on the network and this is to be done secondly. Enlisting the aid of Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS), Ghostscript, or Gimp-print is the next step to be taken.
On the other side, it is equally difficult to share a printer that is connected to Windows machine with Mac OS X users. It requires the same open-source tools. When the user shares a printer on Mac OS X or Linux through SAMBA, it will usually work well on Linux and Mac OS X boxes.
Networked-Attached Printers
It is advisable that you go for a printer that directly connects to the network through an Ethernet connection rather than buying a printer that directly connects through a PC. This way of connection has its own advantages. The best advantage of network-attached printer over a locally shared printer is that, it can function even if the PC is turned off, as the printer is directly connected to the network which is not the case with locally shared printers. In network-attached printer, all you will have to do is, set up the client side on each machine. On the other side, the locally shared printers require administrative involvement with sharing (server) side and on the share (client) side. This is yet another advantage of network-attached printers. If modern OS such as XP is used to run, then a driver for that machine should be preinstalled.
Network-attached printers are bit costly, but it comes with enhanced features which are worth paying for. These printers are cost efficient and is ideal to handle huge print works. It can hold more paper and is flexible. A network-attached printer is best suited for home office or small office who deals with large number of documents between more than two PC’s.
Other printing solutions
Network-attached laser printers need not be the ideal printer for all users as it varies according to the printing requirements. Such printers are not multitasking devices, which could be your primary focus when buying printers. Problems like turning the PC’s on while printing and at the same time using the existing printers can be solved.
Setting up of print server
In case, if two or more servers are employed by an office, these machines which are involved in file-server, email, database or Web server tasks can carry out duties of a print server as well. Any server can normally carry out Print serving as it’s a low-impact function. Since the printers operate on version of Windows (Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server) or Linux, sharing the printers will not be a difficult task at all. The printers will be available full time as the servers are left on.
Purchasing a Hardware Print Server
Cheap hardware print server can be purchased by users who don’t have server and couldn’t connect the printer to the server. Hardware print server could make a parallel port or USB-based printer accessible to both wired and wireless network users. Just few caveats and this device can turn traditional local printers into network-attached printers. Hardware print servers must make the local printers work as if it is attached directly to a network. This could be a difficult task altogether.
Primarily, select a hardware print which could offer more than one connection or single connection, which is designed to be wireless and so on. A hardware print server with wired and wireless PCs is ideal for users running a home network with the inclusion of a switch or access point (AP) between the broadband connection and the PCs. Next step is a straight forward one, which includes connection of a hardware print server device to your home network and then, through parallel or USB connection, the printer could be connected and at last power the device.
Installing drivers on each of the client machines is required, which is indeed an exclusive task. Software installation is not necessary for other hardware print servers, however, you will need to know the IP address of the print server to get things done.
Sharing printers in your home or office is now simpler and you will have more options to choose from. Depending upon your specific needs, budget and technical needs, you can choose any from the available options.
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