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What is a Print Server?
Anyone who works in an office these days, even a virtual office, often will work with a print server. Here is some basic information about what a print server is and how it functions.
A print server is simply a device that allows computer workstations to interface with one or more printers that are shared on a network. Each station has the ability to designate one of the printers on the network as its default printer, but may always choose to send a print job to any of the other printers recognized by the print server.
How a Print Server Works?
Once the necessary printers and drivers have been installed on the main print server, the employee workstations have to be configured to connect to the server. Printers are added through the "Printers & Faxes" control panel, where you are prompted to enter the IP address of the print server and the queue name for the individual printer. After the office printers are added to a workstation, you can designate one networked printer to be their default printer, which will be the first option that appears in all printing dialog boxes.
When you print a document to a networked printer, your computer first connects to the print server through a network connection. The print server receives the request and then directs the print job to the queue that the user has designated. The job is again sent through a network connection and arrives at the specified printer before being processed.
Although print servers allow for users to print documents without being directly connected to either the server or the printer, sometimes it is necessary to work directly on the print server, especially when troubleshooting is required. From the print server, an administrator can also add or delete a printer and check to see if a document has been successfully sent to a printer or not.
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