Print Server that has USB & Parallel capabilities? (without port 9000/9001/9002)

[duritz]

I've been trying to find a single print server that will connect to a single printer but have the option of parallel or USB.

Every print server I find that has both USB and Parallel ports wants to act as a multi-port device and it usually has USB1 pointing to port 9000, USB2 to 9001, and LPT3 to 9002. If they hook up to LPT3 you have to configure the print queue to point to 192.168.100:9002 and if you don't have the port at the end it tries to send it to USB1. No printer attached to USB1 means the job just hangs out in limbo....

The software I'm using doesn't have the option of assigning port numbers to print queues. Well not easily anyway. I need a device I can send to clients that will work with either a USB or Parallel printer but not require any special ports after the IP address.

Do they make anything like this? Even a print server that has a physical switch you can move between USB or parallel would be fine. Everywhere I look though it's always setup as a "You can hook 2 printers or 3 printers up to this device!" I just need to hook up 1 printer to the device but I need the device to support both new and old printers :-/

 

[Googer]

I've been trying to find a single print server that will connect to a single printer but have the option of parallel or USB.

Every print server I find that has both USB and Parallel ports wants to act as a multi-port device and it usually has USB1 pointing to port 9000, USB2 to 9001, and LPT3 to 9002. If they hook up to LPT3 you have to configure the print queue to point to 192.168.100:9002 and if you don't have the port at the end it tries to send it to USB1. No printer attached to USB1 means the job just hangs out in limbo....

The software I'm using doesn't have the option of assigning port numbers to print queues. Well not easily anyway. I need a device I can send to clients that will work with either a USB or Parallel printer but not require any special ports after the IP address.

Do they make anything like this? Even a print server that has a physical switch you can move between USB or parallel would be fine. Everywhere I look though it's always setup as a "You can hook 2 printers or 3 printers up to this device!" I just need to hook up 1 printer to the device but I need the device to support both new and old printers :-/

I think the solution for you is to search ebay for older Intel brand print servers for parallel port (rock solid, bullet proof, and faast) and then use a second USB only print server for your USB devices. Intel made both single and tipple port ieee1284 servers. I would also give Axis Print Servers a good look they make some that attach directly to each printers parallel port, I have had a lot of success with those in the past.

I have a d-link USB print server and it's always worked intermittently. Big mistake if you ask me. For USB I haven't used one but I would consider a USB device server, which allows any USB device (storage, printer, card reader, etc) to attach to a network; but my gut intuition is that a dedicated print server will better suit your needs.

http://www.axis.com/products/print_servers/index.htm