One computer, two printers question

[tiffany26]

An elderly friend has, for some reason, purchased two printers for his new Dell computer which has Windows XP installed. I think he plans to use one printer for text and the other for photos. One printer is an Epson, the other a Lexmark and they are both USB. My question: must he attach the printers through a switch box so that he can switch back and forth from one printer to the other, or can he just use a USB hub and plug both printers into that with no switching involved? I seem to remember that with parallel printers, in addition to changing the default setting in the printer properties window when you want to switch from one printer to the other, you need a switch box to physically switch printers but I know nothing about Windows XP or how to attach two USB printers to a computer. He is 85 years old and has no idea what he is doing. I'm afraid I'm not much help. The more information you can give me on how to do this the better. Thank you very much. Tiffany

[BFD Deadeye]

No switch, just set them both up on the computer (should set up just like a regular printer install.) Refer to your documentation. . Then, set his preferred printer (or the one he thinks he will use the most) as the default. If he wants to use the other one, he will have to go to File/print/then select the other printer from the drop down menu.

[tiffany26]

Thanks BFD Deadeye, I appreciate your help. Now I can go help the old guy get set up. This is a great place to come for a quick rescue.

Thanks again, Tiffany

[glc]

The computer may have enough USB ports to hook them both up without a hub. The other option is to put one on the parallel port if either one has a parallel connection available. Switch boxes fell out of favor when people stopped using dot matrix printers.

[tiffany26]

Thanks GLC. This old friend of mine is quite a character. He just bought his first computer at 85 years old and hasen't even learned how to point and click yet but he bought a digital camera, scanner, two printers, an optical mouse and is paging through a catalog wondering what else to buy. All his peripherals are USB but he has only two USB ports so he needs a hub for sure. He'll be happy about that....something else to buy. He asked me to connect everything for him, then teach him how to run it. I'll connect everything tomorrow but he'll have to hire a teacher because I know nothing about Windows XP and haven't the patience to teach him anyhow. He's an elderly man with too much money and doesn't know what to do with it. I wish I had that problem (the money, not the age). My systems are Win 98SE so I'm not XP literate yet. I'm sure glad. Tiffany

[glc]

Make sure you get a USB hub that plugs into AC power. You might also consider a USB 2.0 addon card to add a few ports.

[BFD Deadeye]

Man, you got that right, glc. I bought a Maxtor 4 port USB 2.0 card for $50 at Staples a few months ago. You should see data transfer having my Maxtor 40GB USB HD on that sucker...it flies!

[glc]

Looks like the price of USB 2.0 cards has come down - Newegg is selling a Koutech for $25.