print servers: Is it better to print directly to the printer by IP or use a print server?

Question

We have 75 users and my boss wants to stop using the print server. We always have and I like it, but what are the advantages and disadvantages either way

Answer 1

A print server would be a better choice as it can take care of managing and queueing jobs. Printing directly to the printer's IP address has the disadvantage that the printer itself has to both manage the print jobs and also print.

Why does he want to remove the print server anyway? If it ain't broke then don't fix it is my motto.

Answer 2

I assume that you mean that you are using a server to spool the print jobs to the printer(s). The print server is the device that interfaces the printer with the network. If you remove that, you won't print at all.

The problem with printing directly to a network printer is that if a large number of users send print jobs at about the same time, they will all be effectively locked out of the application that is sending the print job until the job completes printing. If several users send large jobs at the same time, people may be left sitting for an extended period of time.

It might be OK to forego the cost of a print spooler if only a very few people are using a printer -- 3 or 4 at most. In an office with 75 users that would be foolish beyond imagination -- productivity will take a nosedive and you'll have a LOT of upset users.

Then of course there's the issue of having to visit 75 computers and manually set up the new direct print queues -- one for each printer in the office. And users will no longer be able to browse the network to locate printers either.

Whoever is counselling your boss to get rid of the print spooler server is an idiot. There is NO advantage to doing this!

Answer 3

Using a Print Server enables a scalability of management and administration:
• add/change/remove a printer centrally (greater transparency to users)
• jobs are queued and printed in the order they were sent by users
• errors in print jobs can be handled centrally by the administrators (should be delegated to printer operators otherwise the sysadmin must do it all)
• print jobs are handed off to another system to process thus freeing local resources on user workstations

Not using a Print Server potentially means in your case, 75 times as much work. It depends on the users in question:
• Errors in print jobs must be dealt with locally. If the users cannot cope then you need to either Remote Control their system or visit them
• Add/Change/Remove printer must be done at each workstation (e.g. new drivers required for new printer must be installed on all workstations)
• when the printer is busy, all users wait to print - when the printer is free, the next job it takes is from whichever waiting workstation gets in first. Those workstations with faster response times to the printer will always get in first and marking a job as urgent is only relevant to the local workstation and not the print queue in general.




If you have a very small number of users (e.g. home network), then the overhead on a print server is probably not worth it.

I once worked for a hospital. When Finance got a new system, the users also got new PCs and management agreed to pay the extra for NT4 licences rather than Win95 for greater stability. However, they refused to buy an NT server licence or allow the creation of a domain from which to manage the users. This is the only time in business in which I have stuck with direct IP Printing.

Answer 4

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