unclear about many printers networking...

[leepalao]

Hello,
I'm confused on something. Some people here said that they have 3 or 4 printers and 5 to 6 computers connected to a switch. How can a printer connect to a switch?? Isn't only the printer connected to a server or a computer using a parallel or usb only??? I'd like to have a couple printers, but how can you do that? Also, is buying a switch and a router separate better than buying a combo box?? Which would be cheaper? Would it work the same? Thanks.

[Great_One]

many high end printers come with built in ethernet ports. this allows the printer to be physically placed where its convient and frees it from being attached to a pc. for printers w/o network ports you can buy stand alone print servers which typically have a network port and parrallel(s) or serial port(s) built in.
they go between the printer and the switch (or hub).

[zione1]

leepalao,

If you only have 1 computer and 2 printers the cheapest easiest way is to just use a switch box.

[glc]

zione - cheapest, easiest, and most dangerous to the health of the PC's parallel port and the printers themselves. Put a parallel port expansion card into the computer and throw that mechanical switch box OUT the window - they were fine in the days of one-way parallel ports and dot matrix printers, but NOT so advisable these days. You can also run a second printer off the USB port if one of the printers is USB capable. Sure - you can get an "electronic" printer switch, but by the time you buy that and the required cables, a port card is cheaper.

lee - I have been installing quite a few print servers on small networks these days. They work very nicely - as Great_One has indicated, they plug into your network hub or switch and have ports for connecting printers. You can of course just share locally connected printers, but the print server eliminates the need for the host PC to be on and will put all the printers in a central location.

[zione1]

GLC is right about the mechanical switch boxes, I personally have never had a problem with them but I've heard stories. Anyway, adding a second parallel port is easy cheap as well. If you want to take the print server route I'd recommend an HP Jetdirect.

[glc]

HP Jet Direct is an excellent product, but Linksys also makes good print servers at half the cost of the HP. How does 3 parallel ports for $150 sound? (EPSX3)