Are all print servers created equal?

[PineRidge]

The office where I am currently sitting has 3 hard wired networked computers all running XP. One computer has a HP Laser-jet 2300 and two thermal printers attached to it.

We would like to use a printer server so that any processor can share the HP without more than one processor powered on at the same time.

We see lots of printer servers offered at eBay starting for just a few bucks on up. Is there a difference between these gadgets that I should know about, or should we just get in there and bid?

 

[gws]

You need to make sure you printer can be shared. Once upon a time they put some big horsepower in a printer and the printer did most of the work. Now a days many printers are pretty stupid by themself and they move all the smarts into a driver that does all the processing.. Some printers are 2way printers, they want to report status back. Your print server must be able to handle the 2way messages. The Laser-jet 2300 is a smarter printer and also can take an internal print server card so that one would be easy. Without know the model of the other ones its hard to say if they work. Unless you know it will work, dont buy on ebay, go to a local computer store with a good return policy.

I will tell you that you will love network printers. I use them at work and it makes shareing so much nicer. I also have 3 network printers at home and everyone can share without leaving a specific printer on.

 

[BobReeves]

Without looking up the 2300, most mid to high end HP lasers have a network server option (Direct Jet) and it would be best to get the one designed for the printer.

 

[MadReferee]

I have 2 print servers connected on my home network. They are very easy to setup and are invisible to any application software. They connect right to the network and do not depend on any other processor or device except for initial setup.

One is a NetGear PS110 two port server and the other is an older Hawking 3 port server. Both work well and do not care which printer is connected to their parallel ports since the driver is on each individual machine. Each also has a special port driver that loads onto you machine to allow your choice of protocols.

Be careful with any eBay special. Make sure you are getting something that is currently being supported by port drivers. The port driver software for my Hawking will only run on Windows 95/98 and Windows NT. That's why I got the NetGear so I could use it with Win2000 and XP.

 

[JASTN70D]

I would not be concerned if a print server would work with your model printer as I know it will. There is no longer any compelling reason to use the printer manufactures P Server. Unless of course you would like to spend to much. But the interface on print servers is getting to be a issue make sure it matches your printer. Also make sure the model is supported by visiting the manufactures web sight.

 

[beagdog]

I'm running a D-Link DP-300U on an HP 1100 Business Jet color printer, an OKI 600e laser printer and a Dell 922 AIO printer. The HP and OKI are connected with parallel cables, the 922 with a USB. I have absolutely no issues and can print from any PC in the house both wired and wireless. I'm running 3 XP laptops, 3 XP desktops and a Win2K server. All print on any of the 3 printers with no issues. Its all in having the correct drivers on the PC.

 

[thcri]

A few years back we used the Hawking Print Servers. We had an HP printer and was told we had to use the Jet Direct one, which of course out computer guy could not get to work. I ordered one of the Hawkings and it worked great. I think I paid around $50.00 for them each. I ended up buying more of them as we got more printers.

But lately we have purchased printers that have the net card built right in them and our server does the work.

murph

 

[rdricks]

I'll put in my 2 cents. For work I am in product development on laser printers, typically smaller printers for office work. We have network, non-network, and external print servers we release.

If your Network is Wired any of the units will perform fairly well. There are advantages to the manufacturers unit IF you are using an application to monitor and adjust your printers from a centralized group. This is typically large companies with hundreds of printers they want locally managed. For a few printers it won't make that much of a difference. You may lose some reporting functionality (like if the printer reports back to the computer how much toner is left), but printing will work fine.

If your network is wireless it can get tricky. But that has more to do with the details of wireless as opposed to brand.