Network printers

They are printers that can be directly connected to the network through some form
of network
interface card. These printers usually have settings that can be configured for
your
network needs. For example, if your network uses DHCP, you can set the printer to
be a
DHCP client.

Print servers
Print Servers are servers that have a connected printer, where the server handles
all
printing issues. This is an excellent solution for printers that cannot directly
connect to
the network. Once the printer is connected to the network (through the use of a NIC
or a
server), the end user just connects to the printer and prints. To the end user,
there is no real
difference between the two options.

Before an end user can print to a network printer, an administrator must connect,
set
up, share, and publish the printer for use. An administrator must also set the
permissions
on the printer to allow users to print to that printer.

Next you need to verify that the printer will be listed in Active Directory. Right-
click the
Text Printer icon, and select Text Printer Properties.
Next select the Sharing tab and make sure that the List In The Directory box is
checked.
Click OK to accept the settings.

Configuring Printers

The General Tab The General tab (see Figure 4.9) allows you to set some basic
printer
attributes.
■ The field at the top of the dialog box contains the display name of the Printer
object.
■ The Location field should contain text that helps users physically locate the
printer. This allows users to search for printers based on location (location-aware
printing).
■ The Comment field allows an administrator to put in any additional information,
such as the printer type.
■ The Printing Preferences button takes you to controls that allow you to change
the
layout and paper type of the printer.

The Sharing Tab The Sharing tab (see Figure 4.10) allows you to configure your
printer
for sharing on your network. This is what allows users to use a network printer (if
they
have the proper permissions on the printer).
■ The Share This Printer check box allows you to share the printer on the network.
■ Share Name is the name your users will see on the network.
■ When Render Print Jobs On Client Computers is checked, the client computer
caches the print job until the printer is ready to print. If unchecked, the print
server will cache the entire job before it prints to the printer.
■ When List In The Directory is checked, users can search the directory for the
printer.
■ The Additional Drivers button allows you to load additional drivers for your
clients. It is especially useful for giving access to drivers for older client
systems.
One advantage of a print server is that the server will automatically download
drivers to client computers.

The Ports Tab The Ports tab (see Figure 4.11) allows you to configure the port to
which
your printer is connected. You can add ports or configure existing ports.
■ The Port check boxes allow you to choose to which port your printer is connected.
Options are the printer port, serial port, local port, and print to file port.
■ The Add Port button allows you to add a custom port (for example, a TCP/IP port).

■ The Delete Port button allows you to remove a port from the Port list.
■ The Configure Port button gives you settings to configure an existing port. For
example, if you use TCP/IP, this button allows you to change the TCP/IP options.
■ Enable Bidirectional Support allows your printer and computer to communicate
back and forth. If this check box is disabled, your printer cannot support two-way
communications.

■ A printer pool allows two or more identical printers to share the print load.
When
a document is sent to the printer pool, the first available printer receives the
print
job and prints it. Enable Printer Pooling allows a large department or organization
to get print jobs done faster. Users do not have to wait for one printer to get
their
print job. You should follow these rules when setting up a printer pool:

n All printers in the pool need to be the same model and type.

n All printers in the pool should be in the same physical location. Print jobs will
be printed to the first available printer. If these printers are located all over
the
company, it may take a user too long to find their print job.

Printer Pooling
In a large organization, one issue that you may run into when you print a document
to a
print device is that you may have to wait a while for that document to print. If
you have
hundreds of print jobs being sent to a print device, it could take time until your
print job
appears on the print device. This is where printer pools can help.
A printer pool allows an administrator to associates multiple printers (identical
print
devices) with a single set of printer software. When you send a print job to a
device, the print
job will print to the first available device in the printer pool. This allows print
jobs to
print faster to multiple devices. For this to work, you must make sure that all
devices are in
the same physical area. You do not want a user traveling all over the company
looking for
their print job because they don’t know which device printed the job.
To set up a printer to print to multiple devices, follow these steps:
1. Open Devices and Printers.
2. Right-click the printer you are using and then click Printer Properties.
3. On the Ports tab, select the Enable Printer Pooling check box.
4. Click each port where the printers you want to pool are connected.

Easy Print Driver

One printer configuration that is a little different from normal is when you are
setting up
a printer for a Remote Desktop server. However, Microsoft has included a feature to
help.
That feature is called the Easy Print Driver.
Remote Desktop Services gives you the ability to do printer redirection. What this
means
is Remote Desktop can route printing jobs from a server to a printer that is
attached to a
client computer. On an RD Session Host server, an administrator has the ability to
use the
Remote Desktop Easy Print printer driver to help simplify printer configuration.
The RD Session Host server first tries to use the Remote Desktop Easy Print driver,
and if the RD client computer does not support this driver, the server looks for a
matching
printer driver on the server.