We will shortly describe the three most common ways to use and share a inkjet or laserjet printer on your network:

• Printer sharing
• Printer with built in network card
• PrintServer

Depending on how much money you want to spend, the number of the computers on the network and how you want to admin later the printer, there are different ways to set up a network printer.

* Bear in mind that even if you have a multifunctional device, you will be able to share only the print jobs. Just few network printers with LAN support have limited fax sharing ability/I have good experience with the hewlett packard printers/. For a network sharing of a scanner, take a look at here:

Printer Sharing

The first option is to use your OS build in option for sharing a printer. It is free, easy and fast to set up. Basically, what you need to do is to install the printer on one computer in your network, enable the share option which you can access with a right click on your printer. After that, you need to go to each of the computers in your network and use the add printer over the network option.

Almost any printer could be used in such a network. It does not matter how old it is or if it is with USB, LAN, or even LP.

How to share a printer using Microsoft print share in Windows XP can be found in a detailed tutorial here

A tutorial for Vista can be found here

You can find the tutorial for Windows 7 here

According to the information in the last link, there is no problem to create a local network between computers using Windows XP and Windows 7. Even with different OS it is still possible for the printer to function and print over one network.

Advantages of the method:

• It is a cheap option as there are no requirements for an additional device
• Easy to set up
• No expert knowledge required

Disadvantages of the method:

• You are dependent on the machine that is connected to the printer, if it shuts down for some reason or malfunctions you will have no connection to your printer.
• The printer needs to be next to the computer on which is installed as shared printer
• It is not energy efficient compared to the other methods, so if you plan for the printer to be available 24h on the long run it will cost you more money and it will be less environmentally friendly.

Tips:

• Connect the printer to the computer from which you do most of the print jobs.
• Use on old computer without a screen to connect your printer to. This will help you reduce your energy bill.

This method was quite a popular option in the old days and those computers which had printers hooked on them were known as print servers and they were usually controlled remotely by network administrators.

But let’s move to the 21 century!

Printer with network card (Printer with LAN support)

They have built in LAN or WAN (wireless card) . Those printers are a bit more expensive than the other models but are still very affordable especially if you need a robust printing solution for a business or a place which is running some medium size network. So if you are looking to buy a new printer it would be good to choose a model that supports a network. The WAN (wireless) printers are still a novelty and I would not recommend them for use in professional environment, but they usually come with LAN card too so if wireless does not work for you then use a LAN port. To install the printer with a network card is easy and straightforward. You just need to run the software provided by the manufacturer on every computer and follow the instructions.

Advantages:

• The printer has its own IP address on the network and as long as your network is stable and running, the printer will work flawlessly
• Uses less electricity then first method
• Easy to admin and control printer remotely
• Your printer does not have to be next to the computer

Disadvantages:

• Could be time consuming to run installation software on each computer
• Printers with a network card built in cost more than the same model without a card

Tips:

• Choose a hewlett packard printer with a JetDirect LAN or WiFi support.
• If your office or home printer is wireless, make sure that it supports the G standard.

PrintServer

The third option is a PrintServer. PrintServer is a separate box size of LAN switch in which you plug your printer. Besides USB, LPT (Parallel Port), LAN port there are PrintServers that support Wi-Fi as well. As a result you get a printer that is independently linked to the system and could be reached from any other computer on your network. Every PrintServer has its own interface that is usually accessible through a web browser (Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Google Chrome).

A short tutorial how to set up a Linksys PrintServer

A list with the different PrintServer options

A list of printers that are supported by these brands of PrintServers here:

For WPSM54G (Wireless-G PrintServer with Multifunctional Printer Support)

For NETGEAR PrintServers

For NETGEAR PS121v2

For D-Link DPR-1260 RANGEBOOSTER G MULTIFUNCTION PRINT SERVER 

Advantages:

• Properly set up they are stable and work well
• They are quiet, small and use far less electricity then solution one
• Your printer does not have to be next to the computer

Disadvantages:

• Made almost obsolete by affordable printers with built in network cards
• It is not beginners friendly, require from you to have some networking expertise and to thoroughly read the provided manuals and instructions
• You cannot be sure that it will support your printer model until you try it

Tips:

• Check the Print Server characteristics. It will be good for you if it supports USB 2.0, 100Base-T networks or IEEE 802.11g if it is wireless
• Make sure the dealer has a return policy if the device does not support your printer model

Hope this short review of sharing printer over the network will be helpful to you. And don’t forget if you are buying a new printer to check some basic things which would save you money in the long run:

• Consumables price (Cartridges, drums, photo developer cartridges etc..)
• Can you maybe refill cartridges on your own?
• Are there available reliable OEM, recycled or refurbished cheaper consumables? Note that you will have to wait consumables for the new models of printers come on the market. So it might be a good idea to do a research for those consumables because it can be really money saving.
• The monthly/dayly print load and other manufacturer’s specifications. Don’t be like one of my friends who bought expensive Lexmark X502N printer only to be told after few month by the tech support that he probably ‘killed it’ because he occasionally printed more than 500 pages per month. Shopping web sites advertised that printer as 35.000 pages “Maximum monthly duty cycles”. Do research and visit manufacturer web sites for more details, if you don’t find them it means they are hiding something and my advice is don’t buy.

I want to show you some of the good models on the maket recently.

Alaris30 Desktop 3D Printer can print in exeptional detail depth with a combination of 28μ layer made of very small drop and in very high resolution of 600×600 dpi.

ZPrinter 650s is designed for the hardest commersial and educational tasks. It’s performance is said to be best in the available 3D printers.

3D printing with the VersaUV LEC-300 inkjet printer and cutter. This machine can print raised textures on mostly every material out there. Cool, despite it’s not that much 3D printer.

Which laser colour printer to buy? One of the questions which people ask me most. The answer is not simple, with printer models changing all the time, companies using different ways to pursue you to use their printers and expensive toners and the not always clear claims by the manufacturers what their laser printers can do and how much that will cost you.

I will try to use as an example the experience which my friend and his small company had with purchasing one of those colour laser printers. They needed it mainly for printing colour web pages in order to choose the best web design as well as for printing Power Point presentations.

After they did their research on the internet and considering the price which they could afford they placed an order online for HP Color LaserJet 1600.
The new printer arrived and then the downfall of buying things online became obvious: the machine was huge, far bigger and heavier then any of the inkjets or the smaller black and white laser printers which they had till then. A special arrangement had to be made to fit the printer on its dedicated table. Of course, the printer did not arrive with a usb cable to connect it to the computer so there was some waist of time trying to get one.

The installation of the drivers for the HP Color LaserJet 1600 though slow went smooth enough. Alongside installing the drivers they got quite few free programs which you can use for some limited time and then purchase them if you wish. I must say, these programs are just clogging your computer and you should not install them at all or remove them once you see you are not actually interested in them.

The HP LaserJet proved itself popular in the office. It was easy to use and the prints were more than good for most of the people. Soon enough the toners which came with the printer and which were only about 50% full had to be replaced. Then a small shock, a set of four toner cartridges black, magenta, cyan and yellow costed as much as the printer itself.

That was expensive but they did find a way around buying recycled and refilled toners. There is a number of companies and places which sell recycled cartridges and toners for laser printers and so far by my experience they did prove to be a great value. Just to be warned, companies which make printers do not like that practice and they could claim that using the refilled cartridge invalidates your warranty. The cartridges don’t have to be the only expenses which you can face during the life span of your printer. Another significant cost to run can be the transfer belt, the photo cartridge, fuser, etc .

Back to my friend’s experience, his small company has been using happily theirHP Color LaserJet 1600 for the last 3 years and as he said it did handle well just about anything they threw on it. Interestingly he does complain that the colors are not realistic enough so he still uses for his designer projects ink jet printer to print them out.
As their business grew too they are looking now for a similar color laser printer but not anymore an entry model but something that can be connected directly to the office network, can print on both sides of the paper (duplex printing) and can crank pages out faster.

If you are looking to buy one, here are few recommendations:

• Be ready to do your research and do not necessarily believe in the numbers from the manufacturer and shopping web sites, try to find a really independent review of the printer.
• Check the size of the printer.
• Check its power consumption especially in standby mode as probably it will be on 0-24h and some models could cost you a fortune in electricity bills.
• Toner cartridges will be your biggest expense with the printer and I do mean big so check twice how much they cost and how many pages you can get out of them. Typically they are going in the range of 1500 to 5000 pages for 5% of page coverage. Consider using refurbished/remanufactured toners as they do work well and they will be very kind to your pocket.
• If under consumables for your chosen printer are listed any fusers, transfer belts, photo developer cartridges or something else, count that you will have probably at some point to replace them. They can be a real rip off and usually they last less than the manufacturer claims. My last photo developer cartridge on one of the color laser printer failed on 1/3 of the pages which the manufacturer claimed it can print out. And a replacement costs staggering £200 ~ 300$.
• Planning to print a lot? Check carefully what the recommended monthly page volume is. Do not confuse that with the maximum monthly duty cycle. The first one is important and it is hard to get it as most of the shops are listing the second one which gives better numbers but can be misleading.
• Do you think that more people will use it? Then do a favor to yourself and get a model with a network adapter included. These days they are cheap enough and simple to set up.
• Printing on both side of page, duplex printing? A huge majority of the users do not need that option and printers which are having it cost more money.
• The speed of printing also varies a lot from the numbers which companies are giving, if that is important to you do check independent reviews

To finish this long article – photocopying, scanning, faxing on your colour laser printer. Yes, you can have them too, these are the so called Multifunctional (MFC) colour laser printers but it will cost you more and printers with that many options can be a mixed bag of good and bad. We can maybe dedicate another article just to this multifunctional office machines but for now I hope this will be enough to help you choose your laser color printer.