Print Share on Server: Print directly to printer or spool to server?

[ServerUser]

Hi, I had a question about print shares on server 2003. I have a server which shares a printer, but the server, and the client PC and printer are at two different locations. So if you use the default setting of letting it spool to the print queue, it will upload the job to the server, then back to the printer, which is kind of slow with the connection speed. With "Print directly to printer" I seem to be able to bypass this process but are there disadvantages of doing it this way? I did notice one time that a job got stuck in the queue and I had to restart the print spooler service on the server and do a couple other things to get it unstuck. Is there a way I can connect to the print share on the server, but use a local spooler on the client PC? I could do this if I went to each PC and installed the printer software and drivers for each printer, but it is a hassle to do this and is easier to just connect to the print share on the server.

 

[58sniper]

You can't do any advanced parameters, queueing, etc. You also lose all control over printing jobs from an administrative point of view.

Pat Richard MVP
Plan for performance, and capacity takes care of itself. Plan for capacity, and suffer poor performance.

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