Direct printing to a shared printer?

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SILENCER00

Gawd
Joined
Jun 22, 2001
Messages
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I have a standard usb printer that is currently shared (windows xp print sharing), but I need it available on the network for other people to print to directly via TCP/IP.

The main reason im asking is because I work at a university and when printing transcripts a remote server actually sends the document directly to the IP address of the printer; and since this printer isnt networkable, it doesnt have its own IP.

For this purpose I picked up a relatively cheap print server , but it required each computer to install proprietary drivers in order to access the print server - this obviously wont work since the server wont have these installed.

The printer is a Konica Minolta MagiColor 2400W, and im just looking for a way to get this printer on the network, peer to peer sharing in windows xp just wont do the trick...

Any ideas?
 
pick up a HP jetdirect, then under ports in printer properties choose ip address and set the address, no drivers for print server is needed
 
I bought a print server on newegg made by trendnet and it works great. tcp/ip set up on the print server so everyone can connect to it. it sets up a little weird but you only do it once for the print server. also, it supports other protocols and they can all be turned off except for ipx/spx which every 30 seconds or so send out 4 packets advertising it's presence. besides that it works fine for me.

i have the parallel version
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833156025

edit: the manual sucks for it too
 
DragonNOA1: in order to use the printer on the print-server, what do you have to do? as long as there is no additional software I need to install on the client computers then that might be good - the problem is that it looks/sounds almost identical to the print-server I just got that doesnt work for my purposes.

k1pp3r: can I use non HP printers on a jetdirect print server? also, where is a good place to buy one since it looks like newegg doesnt carry them hmm...



Oh, also the printer is USB... not sure if that makes any difference.
 
Compatibility with "ALL" types of USB printers is not guaranteed with any print server, as it depends on the drivers to be able to support printing to ports other than USB...however if you attempt to try any print servers, I highly recommend sticking with HPs Jet Directs, I pretty much refuse to support any other type of print servers....the HP Jet Directs are more expensive, but rock solid, you get what you pay for.
 
SILENCER00 said:
DragonNOA1: in order to use the printer on the print-server, what do you have to do? as long as there is no additional software I need to install on the client computers then that might be good - the problem is that it looks/sounds almost identical to the print-server I just got that doesnt work for my purposes.
Click to expand...

Sorry, let me clarify. It is connected by ethernet cable to my switch. You can't just double click it from the network b/c it doesn't keep it's own drivers plus needs 2 commands in the printer setup page to work correctly. So you set it up once on your server and after that people can browse to your server and double-click it to install it automatically. So after the 5 minute install on your server anyone can connect to it. it is pretty easy.

right, no additional software on any computer.
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
Compatibility with "ALL" types of USB printers is not guaranteed with any print server, as it depends on the drivers to be able to support printing to ports other than USB...however if you attempt to try any print servers, I highly recommend sticking with HPs Jet Directs, I pretty much refuse to support any other type of print servers....the HP Jet Directs are more expensive, but rock solid, you get what you pay for.
Click to expand...

Ditto This one, HP JetDirects = Bulletproof and with true support and/or warranty if you need it.
 
Just from some quick browsing it sounds like the hp jetdirectls only support HP usb printers, is that correct? I wasnt able to find a solid compatibility list =/
 
You either need a print server or you need a network printer. I have both, but I use the printserver because I have more than one printer. You can check it out at Hawking Technology if you're interested in learning more.
 
SILENCER00 said:
Just from some quick browsing it sounds like the hp jetdirectls only support HP usb printers, is that correct? I wasnt able to find a solid compatibility list =/
Click to expand...


Yeah, unfortunately I don't think any company puts out a true "tested and compatible" list. There'd be WAY too many printers to test.

What usb printer are we talking about anyway?
 
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