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printing over a network

887 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  PaddyN, 
S
Hi I am new here so I hope you can help.
I am experiencing problems printing over a network, the setup is as follows -
I have a central server running Windows Server 2003, there are about 16 PCs connected to it all running Windows XP Pro, there are 4 rooms with 4 PCs in each room and 1 printer connected via USB to one PC in each room. The printers are of various makes, HP, Epson etc and are all inkjets

When users try to print they sometimes have to log off and back on in order to get the printers to work. This happens more often on some PCs than on others. On several PCs they have to reboot every time they want to print, as you can imagine this very annoying!!!

I have tried installing the printers to a 'local port' on each machine, using the \\PC\printername route, this seems to work for a short time then reverts back to not working. I have also tried installing the drivers onto each individual machine but this has no effect.

Can anyone help as I am pulling my hair out!!
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P
couldnt you buy like print servers and hook them up with IPs..then you print to an IP rather than a hard wired PC.
We had issues whereby the users are not admins and cant print to local attached machines..only via print servers
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Hi yeah I've thought of doing that but was hoping there was some way of fixing the problem without spending more money, the system is in a local charity's office so funds are always a bit tight, the original setup was funded by a grant.

The really frustrating thing is that the users can all print intermittantly so it can't be an issue of permissions, I was wondering if it was something to do with spooling, but i'm beginning to talk about things I know nothing about!!
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P
heres a trick..i kno as you have 4 rooms it might not work.
Link all printers up to one standalone machine..some old thing, make it your print server :p
Make this one PC an admin, just hooked up to net.
If you needed another PC you could gladly have my spare!! :) just its the same as home. i dont want to pay for p.servers so i usb all the printers to one machine.
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