Faster and cheaper printing with dedicated print servers

A growing trend in smart office computing is to have a print server sharing a single printer between several users. According to Traci Maynard, product manager for Hewlett-Packard peripherals at Tarsus Technologies, the distribution arm of MB Technologies, the benefits of this configuration include great cost savings as well as reliable and efficient printing.

"Sharing printers and peripherals reduces the level of investment required by a company when compared to the expense of acquiring and maintaining individual personal printers," says Maynard. She adds that print servers are a fraction of the price of a PC or file server. "Using a PC as a server to connect printers to a network is slow and inefficient and you would need an additional printer driver installed for all PCs on the network. This configuration is time consuming and difficult to upgrade."

The benefits of making use of a print server are also felt through time savings. "Printer status information is immediately available at the users desk, simplifying printer management and reducing help desk calls" says Maynard.

Print jobs are also processed significantly faster by using a print server. "Having the fastest printer is well and good, but networking it slows it down significantly. However, a print server such as the JetDirect range from Hewlett-Packard results in considerably improved print job processing over a printer networked via a PC or a file server," says Maynard.

What is especially attractive about print servers is that a range such as the HP JetDirect will allow printers from different manufacturers to be effectively networked. "The beauty of this functionality is that a relatively inexpensive print server can be purchased and put to work as long as your existing printer supports networking, regardless of its manufacturer," says Maynard..

The simplicity and versatility of print servers is further highlighted with Hewlett-Packard software. The company`s Internet Printer Connection software provides a fast method to send high quality print jobs to available HP JetDirect connected printers across the internet.