Home Print Server

by **hightimber** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 12:13 am

Ever wanted to share a printer between two or more home computers?

Well, I did and I didn't want to leave the print server computer on full-time to utilize the built-in printer sharing feature of Windows.

So I opted to buy a NetGear PS110. It plugs into a hub/switch/router via ethernet and then you plug the printer you want to share into the print server via parallel cable.

A simple little config program to let each computer know where to find the Print Server, add a printer that points to the new NetGear port and "voila" you've got a print server.

Works like a charm. Set me back $100 including shipping.

I highly recommend this for anyone with this need.

It supports two printers as well. Two parellel ports on the Print Server box. This is the next best thing to true IP printing.

by **WeSSiN** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 12:50 am

I never understood the point of a print server for a home user. Is it really worth $100?

Originally posted by hightimber
Well, I did and I didn't want to leave the print server computer on full-time to utilize the built-in printer sharing feature of Windows.

I thought a router let you print stuff from a second PC, even when the host computer was off?

by **shockwave203** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 12:55 am

i have a router, and it has a printer port on it. as long as the router is turned on, you can print from any of the computers.

hightimber what kind of router are you using?

by **Ryan** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:27 am

Originally posted by shockwave203
i have a router, and it has a printer port on it. as long as the router is turned on, you can print from any of the computers.

hightimber what kind of router are you using?

Usually, those have the long printer connectors. 88 pin, I believe its called?

Anyway, I believe the one he is talking about is USB, which is hard to find in a home router.

by **hightimber** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:21 am

Originally posted by shockwave203
i have a router, and it has a printer port on it. as long as the router is turned on, you can print from any of the computers.

hightimber what kind of router are you using?

Shockwave, I have a Motorola SURFboard cable modem attached to a LinkSys 4-port cable modem/DSL router. Neither of which have a parallel printer port.

I still run my printers off of a parallel cable as my early results using USB with printers was abysmal and even HP (at the time) said their printers run much better parallel than USB.

F12ick, I don't know how a computer could be used as a print server without being powered-up. The traffic would have to flow through the print server computer and down the parallel cable. If this is possible, it's news to me. I'm willing to be educated though. Getting back to your "is it worth $100" question, it is for me. To live without the hassle of having to turn on a 2nd computer and wait for it to boot up so I can use its shared printer, it's WAY worth the money.

by **Bossman** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 9:49 am

Here's a slightly different twist to the question. I have a similar setup to HighTimber, Motorola cable model but my linksys is a wireless router. I currently have my canon s820 printer connected to my Dell PC through a USB. I also have a work laptop that I am always working on.

Because the laptop is for work, it is setup with a different domain/workgroup (and whatever else goes with finding my work network) than the home PC. Both are XP machines.

Is there a way to have the laptop find the home PC and then the printer without being part of the same workgroup? I am afraid to change the laptop configuration and screw up my connection to the work server.

Right now I just email docs from the laptop to the PC to print them.

by **hightimber** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:00 am

If your Dell and the laptop are utilizing the same router (are on the same network), you should be able to map a network drive to copy files. I suspect you could also XP-share your printer and it could be used from both PCs but (to my knowledge) both PCs would have to powered-on.

by **RCinator** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:00 am

Originally posted by Bossman
Is there a way to have the laptop find the home PC and then the printer without being part of the same workgroup? I am afraid to change the laptop configuration and screw up my connection to the work server.

You can either create a public share on your desktop and drop documents in it, or (even better), share the printer, granting rights to the "Guest" and/or "ANONYMOUS LOGON" accounts if necessary.

You can get started by right-clicking the printer in the printers control panel and choosing "Sharing". To grant access, use the "Security" tab.

Once your share is configured, use the Add Printer Wizard on the second machine to browse for the new shared printer.

by **Bossman** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:36 am

Originally posted by RCinator
You can either create a public share on your desktop and drop documents in it, or (even better), share the printer, granting rights to the "Guest" and/or "ANONYMOUS LOGON" accounts if necessary.

You can get started by right-clicking the printer in the printers control panel and choosing "Sharing". To grant access, use the "Security" tab.

Once your share is configured, use the Add Printer Wizard on the second machine to browse for the new shared printer.

So it doesn't matter that the machines are configured to be on totally different networks? I can still share a printer between them? I will try it when I get home...thanks!

by **RCinator** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:56 am

Originally posted by Bossman
So it doesn't matter that the machines are configured to be on totally different networks? I can still share a printer between them? I will try it when I get home...thanks!

They're not on different networks - you have them connected to the same router. They're on different "domains". That's why you _may_ need to grant the guest/anonymous account access to the printer - because your home PC has no knowledge of the domain to which your laptop belongs. Enabling guest/anon access circumvents this by skipping the security checks.

Good luck!

by **MoDyna** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 1:39 pm

Originally posted by hightimber

A simple little config program to let each computer know where to find the Print Server, add a printer that points to the new NetGear port and "voila" you've got a print server.

I have a Linksys WRT54G and a Linksys Print Server, spent two days tearing my hair out trying to get the server setup so my PC's would see the server and printer. No luck. Finally I just gave up. Spent a few hours googling around trying to find some links to help me since the Linksys instructions were pretty useless, to no avail. Really in some cases, there is just too much info out there. Hard to sift through to what you want. I sure could of used a utility like that....

by **RCinator** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:39 pm

Originally posted by Bossman
Here's a slightly different twist to the question. I have a similar setup to HighTimber, Motorola cable model but my linksys is a wireless router. I currently have my canon s820 printer connected to my Dell PC through a USB. I also have a work laptop that I am always working on.

Almost forgot: as an alternative, this wireless USB print server works fairly well for wireless networks.

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=33&scid=37&prid=440

by **Evan** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:50 pm

Originally posted by RCinator
They're not on different networks - you have them connected to the same router. They're on different "domains". That's why you _may_ need to grant the guest/anonymous account access to the printer - because your home PC has no knowledge of the domain to which your laptop belongs. Enabling guest/anon access circumvents this by skipping the security checks.

Good luck!

RC, he said he's on two different networks. One at his house, one at his job. Usually there are problems when switching between two different networks.

Anyway, try Google - I hear there are some programs that you can use to automatically configure yourself for each network and save the settings and execute them at a later date when switching between networks.

by **RCinator** » Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:58 pm

Originally posted by Evan
RC, he said he's on two different networks. One at his house, one at his job. Usually there are problems when switching between two different networks.

Anyway, try Google - I hear there are some programs that you can use to automatically configure yourself for each network and save the settings and execute them at a later date when switching between networks.

Once he's at home the "different networks" issue disappears - both machines are now on the same network. They may be configured to run on different *domains*, but they are on the same *network*. The only issue to work around at that point is permissioning, and that is easily accomplished by sharing the printer and granting the proper permissions.

by **hightimber** » Thu Apr 22, 2004 9:25 am

Originally posted by MoDyna
I have a Linksys WRT54G and a Linksys Print Server, spent two days tearing my hair out trying to get the server setup so my PC's would see the server and printer. No luck. Finally I just gave up. Spent a few hours googling around trying to find some links to help me since the Linksys instructions were pretty useless, to no avail. Really in some cases, there is just too much info out there. Hard to sift through to what you want. I sure could of used a utility like that....

I had done some research before I made my decision to buy NetGear and I'd read a few horror stories about the LinkSys box so I went NetGear. It was so simple. I hate struggling with stuff like this so I was elated that it went so smoothly.

I was also somewhat expecting to have a bunch of garbage programs stored in memory but it only uses one small process apparently.

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