Printer sharing: HP JetDirect500x versus AD

[dsmcd]

Hello...

I'll have a few parellel printers connected to a HP JetDirect 500x
printerserver. I have a Win2k-Server and Win2k/XP clients.

These days, is it better to share the printer off the server, or just have the
clients print direct to the HP printserver. Are there pros and cons to either?

Thx,
D.

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Having printers attached to a physical server puts a load on the server
whenever clients are printing, and if the server is down so are the
printers. Better to use a JetDirect device, printing will be spooled on
each PC rather than on a server; and if the server goes down, the printers
are still available.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Hello...

I'll have a few parellel printers connected to a HP JetDirect 500x
printerserver. I have a Win2k-Server and Win2k/XP clients.

These days, is it better to share the printer off the server, or just
have the clients print direct to the HP printserver. Are there pros
and cons to either?

Thx,
D.

I always share printers off a central print server - that way,
configuration, management, and changes of any sort can be done once,
centrally, and not on every computer. If you have a ton of printers and a
busy server, get a dedicated server for this. However, in smaller networks,
I've happily shared all network printers on a single
DC/Exchange/DNS/File/Print/DHCP/Backup/etc server installed on very robust
hardware. .