i have an old crappy computer

[Inspector Jihad]

it would be awesome if there was some OS or whatever that I could boot off a flash drive that would turn it into a print server. i would turn it on along with the printer whenever i wanted to use it. any ideas or some other suggestions?

 

[MDE]

There are a few (don't know exact names though), but it sounds like you don't need a print server if you want to turn it on when you need it. Maybe if you make it into a firewall\file\print server it could be more beneficial to you.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

any suggestions on that? i could use a file server, so that would be awesome.

 

[JackMDS]

Sharing Printers is a little more complicated than sharing Files since it involves Printer Drivers, and Printer Drivers are OS dependent.

 

[Modelworks]

http://www.clarkconnect.com/
Free
Put it on a extra pc and it will do routing/firewall/print server/network storage.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

is there anything simpler than clarkconect? all i want is a file and print server.

 

[JackMDS]

File and Printer sharing do not exist in a "vacuum" they need an OS.

You can Run Windows 2000 on an old computer with 196MB RAM. Win200 default installation takes about 1.8GB Hard Drive space.

 

[doan]

Most "Windows compatible" printers will lose features if not connected to a "windows" box. Windows2000 or XP makes a good file/print server. ClarkConnect is linux based.

 

[Loop2kil]

I have never really looked at the clarkconnect software...but it looks pretty nice and robust...even the free version looks great.