What's the benefit of a dedicated print server?

[arswihart]

What's the point of a print server unit? You can easily add a printer to another computer on your home network using the file and printer sharing feature Windows XP, so what's the difference/benefit of getting a print server, besides that you have to connect to printer to the print server vs. a PC? I've never tried either method myself.

 

[EatSpam]

In a home environment, the advantage is that the printer is hooked to the server, not a PC.

That means that no particular PC has to be on for you to print to the printer.

 

[JackMDS]

On Sharing Printer.

If a printer is connected to one Networked computer, other computers can share it.

Using a printer that is connected to a specific computer is easy but necessitate the computer with the printer to be ON as long as some one else would need to use it from his computer.

In addition, if the printer is an All in One type and or have Extra functions (Copy, Scan, Fax, etc.), the extra functions would not be shared.

To make the printer independent off a specific Network computer there are two options.

Option 1. Get a stand alone printer server. Such a device (comes in Parallel USB or both flavors), connect on one side to the printer and on the other side to any RJ-45 jack on switch (or a Router's regular port) that is available on your Network.

This devices ( (they cost $30-$80) should work with most printers. However, the device would support only basic printing and probably would not support any advance features of the printers.

Stand-alone Printer server that was not designed specifically by the printer's manufacturer would not support Scanning, Faxing, etc. of an All in One printer as well.

Option 2. Buy a Network ready Printer (or All in One). These printers usually have a regular printer connection as well as an RJ-45 connection. (Brothers Brand and others offer such units starting at $150).

Connect the Printer to any available port on the Network; install the client software on all Networked computers, and Voila, every computer would be able to use the printer to its fullest.

Note, assign the Network Printer a static IP to make sure that it is always easily available at the same Network address. Many Routers might change the IP given by the DHCP server according to the sequence of Network boot.

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