Print Server question

[SmokinRR]

I am currently using my DC as the print server in our office, (13 users) I know this isn't the best idea, and am looking to change this. My question is, what recommendations (hardware as well as OS) would best be suited for this task. Keep in mind we are a MS shop, so it would be between 2k server or workstation, (not sure if workstation would do this effectively) Also, we have 3 printers, one is used for general office printing, while the other two are high usage printers and when reports are being printed every afternoon, they are sent large jobs in a batch mode so to speak totaling several hundred pages.

I'm wondering if an old workstation (pentium 533 Mhz) would do the trick of keeping this load off of my DC.

Thanks for any info!!

J

 

[buddafish]

are you experiencing network problems at this time? depending on the power of the DC, print serving and 13 clients communicating with it should not really be an issue. but... per your question, you can install w2k server on that workstation and share the printers from it just fine. if all you have is 1 DC, if it were me, i would make that workstation another DC so you have some redundancy with the AD database and DNS too. And you can still run the print server on it or even split up the printers on both DC's if you like.

just some thoughts..

scottie

 

[SmokinRR]

Thanks for the quick response. To answer a couple of the questions, we do have a second dc at another site, so the AD replication and redundancy is already there. I do notice some performance decreases (plus system resources on the DC go way down) during heavy printing cycles.

Due to the size of our office, the DC is also our Exchange server, backup server, file server... you get the picture. I'm just trying to find a way to take some load off of it.

Will 2k pro work for print server duties, or should I shell the $$$ and get another copy of server?

Thanks again for the quick response.

J

 

[buddafish]

Yea, with that picture, move the printing off to another box! Sharing printers is doable with w2k pro, but don't they need to be physically attached to this box? Give a try at installing a networked printer on the w2k pro box and let me know if it works. Maybe Jetadmin will create ports, ect. on a client. I honestly have never tried, but have shared many a printer over the network from a physically attched printer(s) on the w2k pro box.

good luck

scottie

 

[buddafish]

i think i answered my own question, so yes, you should be able to share networked printers from a w2k pro box. cool.

 

[SmokinRR]

Yeah, I have shared many locally attached printers, I'm going to try attaching printers to a tcp port on my workstation and see if I can share them.

Thanks

J