Sharing 2 printers from one computer - via USB and Serial

[dtorres]

I am looking to setup a wireless network in my home and I have a few questions. I wil be using a wireless router with 4 ports for wired systems. My network consist of two laptop machines, on desktop computer and two printers.

I have one computer that is going to be wired to the router. I want to share two printers off that machine running Windows XP Home Edition. One printer connects via USB and the other serial. Am I going to run into any issues if both those printers are connected to the same computer being shared? Are they going to be able to share certail dll files? I know when I connected a scanner and a all in one scanner/printer/fax to the same computer I had to turn off the "a-ll-in-one" to use the other scanner. There was a problem when them both trying to access the same .dll file. Is this going to occure with two printers?

Also, the one printer is a hp photosmart 7550 photo printer. It does not support network connections, but has two USB ports. If I were to get a USB network adapter for the printer, would I be able to wire it up directly to the router and use it that way?

Any suggestions or information would be greatly appreciated.

"D"

 

[WindowWizard]

Sharing of multiple printers via network is possible. I have done exactly like you have. One printer is on the LPT parallel port and the other is on a USB connection. Both printers are HP products and both are shared with other desktops and notebooks. No problems there.

As for plugging the USB ready printer into the router, that won't work. Printers need print server capability and networking connection firmware. That's why HP network ready printers have JetDirect cards in them (to attach to a network) and need a print server. In a p2p network, since there are no true servers, a print server needs to be attached to the printer as well, such as the LinkSys PPS1UW which is an EtherFast Wireless-Ready USB PrintServer.

 

[dtorres]

Great! Thank you for the excellent information I really apprecaite it!

"D"