Making a printer available on a home network

wildman · 26 Apr 2011 at 14:39

I want to set up a printer that I can print to from any machine on my home network. DO i need to get a print server to do this or can I get a printer and simply hook it up to my router with a cat 5 cable so anyone on the home network can see it as a network resource ?

This sounds a bit too easy so I am sure I must be missing something here ? WOuld the printer when its networked act as some kind of print server ?

Energize · 26 Apr 2011 at 15:07

Any decent printer will have an ethernet port allowing your pc to see the printer the same way as if it was connected by usb.

True_Scotsman · 26 Apr 2011 at 15:08

You can share the printer over the network, as long as the PC the printer is connected to is on when you want to print something.

Menthis · 26 Apr 2011 at 16:14

Just connect it to a computer and then share it out from that computer, obviously has to be on if you want to print from another computer

Energize · 26 Apr 2011 at 16:18

I find it a huge inconvenience personally to use printer sharing like that, and wasteful of electricity. A nice network connected laser printer you can just forget about, rather than switching on another computer when ever you want to print something.