Topic: Printing to a network printer

[Charlie Nyman]

I have a small network that has several Windows 95/98 machines and an E-Smith Server. Several of the Windows machines have shared laser printers. This setup is problematic and want to improve on it. Would it be benifical to setup E-Smith as a print server, using the shared printers? I can't direct connect the printers because E-Smith is in a data closet. If this is benifical, what is the correct syntax in the E-Smith printer setup, assuming the shared windows pc is "service" and the printer is named "hpljIII" on LPT1.

Thanks in advance

[Darrell May]

One alternative, since you mentioned you can not direct connect to the e-smith server are to connect the printers to a print server device such as an HP JetDirect.  There are internal JetDirects for all HP lasers as well as generic external models for all printers.  The JetDirect 170X is a low-cost external unit.  You can then configure the JetDirect to act as the print server, no workstation required however it does need a network cable connection.

It's even easier with Windows NT/2000 as they can be configured (with HP software) to print via TCP/IP direct to the JetDirect.  No print server required, just an IP address!