Trying to setup a Printer Network

I'm setting a network for my home office. I frequently have consultants who work out of this network. The network is made up of:

4 laptops (wireless)
wireless router
3 networkable printers
internet modem

What my ultimate goal is: Is that everytime someone new comes to my office and connects to the network they won't have to install the drivers on their computer for each printer to print.

Do I need to setup a "Print Server" for this? I have an old desktop computer which can be used but I don't know how to configure it.

I need some advice as to whether my goal is achievable and what steps I would have to take to get this setup!

Thanks in advance!

 

Its not needed in WinXP/Vista unless the computer you are connecting to the print server has different OS like Win98 or something like that.

WinXP/Vista would install the drivers automatically from the print server computer if drivers are installed on that computer.

 

What OS have you on this old computer ? If its XP, just install the printer & make it shareable. When somebody connects to it, driver would be loaded automatically on his machine provided he is using XP or higher & he has proper rights on his machine.

If you really want a pass through print server, the only option I can think of right now is Linux with Samba. Its possible to configure Samba so that the print server itself composes & translates the page for the attached printer - you just have to print to a postscript printer on your machine (available in every version of Windows starting with Win98) & Samba does the rest.

 

The computer currently has Windows Me, which I will be upgrading to XP.

If I understand what you're saying, it's that I can simply attach the printers to the network, and once someone new connects to the network (with an XP/Vista computer), they simply have to go to the "add new printer" wizard and they will be able to add the printer?

Or will the printers be connected to the Print Server Desktop and the Desktop connected to the router? Therefore allowing the new computer to obtain the new drivers from the PSDesktop?

Thanks!

 

I agree with this, I wanted my other half to print fom her laptop downstairs to a printer in my computer room in another part of the house, I ran the wizard and not only the drivers were loaded but also the program that ran all the utilities also. This was using XP Home.

The only problem I had was connecting my Vista laptop, it couldn't see the printer at all, I tried it with both my Canon and Lexmark but nowt!

Not bothered really as if I want to print anything I normally use an XP machine.

I am finding connectivity between Vista and other OS's a bit lacking and connecting to other components like NAS drives a nightmare, but XP has no such problems.

Nev

 

Printers Don't show up.

Agreed. But if you browse to the computer on which the printer is connected & try to connect to the printer, the driver would be automatically loaded.