A better way to network a printer?

[SarcasticDwarf]

Here's a situation I have run into. An office has 3 computers (XP) connected to a single router.

1xdesktop with the printer connected to it by USB. This is wired to the router.
1xdesktop connected on wireless
1xlaptop connected on wireless (there are occassionally other laptops connected that do not use the printer).

Now, to allow all computers to use the printer I shared the printer on the network and added the printer on each computer) and changed the settings to enable netBIOS over TCP/IP. Now a week later they have lost the connection to the printer from the other two computers not physically connected to it. Am I missing something here? The entire network was stable and running while I was there (including multiple reboots).

 

[BadThad]

In an office environment, I'd use a router with a built-in print server and connect the printer directly to the router. They are cheap, take a look at DLink's offerings.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Thanks BadThad. I was thinking along similar lines today. I would prefer a dedicated print server on any network as the routers seem to have quite a bit of trouble with USB printers (in my experience) but since it is a $150 printer, I doubt they would be willing to spend the amount involved. Oh well. I'm off in a few minutes to look at it. Hopefully this time it is just something simple like they were forced into offline mode that doesn't require 45 minutes of figuring out what is and is not working.

 

[cker]

Last year I got a little 1-port IOGEAR print server (link at http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GPSU01) and have been pretty happy with it. Performance is good, I've never had reliability problems but there is some little software you have to install on the Windows PCs that will use it. It's possible that it would work without the software, but I've not tried it. Hardware wise, I have an ethernet run from the router into the print server, and a USB from there to the printer. For software, I have installed the printer driver and the IOGEAR print manager software on each PC that prints to the shared printer. Takes about 5 minutes per PC with my setup.

I think I paid $80 for it. Other companies (like Linksys and DLink) make similar products. I've seen the same thing, only wireless, for slightly more money. I absolutely love not having to have a 'server' for the printer, and if it died today, I'd go buy another one immediately, although I'd probably get a wireless one this time and try to get one that didn't want a client app on each system.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Damn, now that I think about it, I believe the printer (an all in one) will be compatable with most print servers (if not all of them). The other computers only need the print functionality, but the desktop it is connected to uses the fax and scanner.

 

[clarkmo]

Originally posted by: SarcasticDwarf
Damn, now that I think about it, I believe the printer (an all in one) will NOT be compatable with most print servers (if not all of them). The other computers only need the print functionality, but the desktop it is connected to uses the fax and scanner.

Corrected