Printers, sharing them from the server?

[Punkrulz]

This is something I probably should have asked about a long time ago, but I haven't thought about it until now. Right now at my customer we have like 10 printers or so floating around the two floors of the building. Typically we have the printer connected to the Network, and when setting them up on a computer we do a "Local Printer attached to this computer", and setup a port to the IP address of the printer. Then we have to go and also add the driver.

Is there a better way of doing this? It isn't good because we have to find the IP of the printer every time. If I just install it on the server, and then share it out, will it make things easier? Will it install the driver on the machine also?

Just looking for some food for thought! Thanks!

 

[madmatt]

Install the printer on a server, IP address and driver, share them out, then add them to the client from the server.

To easily add the printer you can navigate to \\SERVER-NAME and then right click and choose "Connect" to add the printer to the client.

Is this what you mean or am I missing something?

 

[Punkrulz]

I knew how to do it, but I was wondering if there was any real advantage to doing so.

If you do it that way, does it automatically install the driver without having to download it yourself?

 

[madmatt]

Yes. When you "Connect" it will install the drivers automatically.

 

[fitz]

You can always view Microsoft's reasons of When to use a print server