On Wed, 1 Sep 1999, Roberto Safora wrote:

> Could somebody briefly explain what a print server is and when it is needed?

A print server is a machine running an OS - Unix, NT, Novell, NT.  When a
workstation adds a printer that is configured to be "spooled" from the
server, this means that the workstation sends it's print job to the
server, the server then spools it, then prints it out.  A print server can
have many printers attached to it via IP.

It makes printing faster because the print job spools away from the
workstation and onto a hard drive on the server.  This way, the
workstation can go merily along doing its thing.

You will need a server when you have many people printing to 1 printer or
have many printers and do not want to attach it to many
workstations/server LPT port.`

HTH

Eric Maquiling, MCSE MCP+I   650-506-0249
Senior Systems Administrator
Oracle Corp. Global IT Desktop Development
DH/DSS Public Key: 9B12CD29

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