Some machines are just too useful to be used by one user only. Printers are one of these machines. By sharing your printer to multiple users, you are maximizing your printer’s use. So, how do you share your printer with others? Do you just lend them your printer? If you do, it’s still the same as before. Only one will be able to use it at a time.
However, there are a number of ways to share your printer so that you don’t have to disconnect it if you want someone else to use it. That is by connecting it to a network. There are many ways of connecting it to a network, like using a wireless printer router or perhaps using another terminal as a host. In this article, we will show you the various ways of connecting your printer to a network.
Before the development of network printers, printers can only be connected to one computer at a time. So in order to share your printer with others, it must be connected to your terminal, which is connected to the network. That way, users from the network can access your printer by clicking on your host computer. There are however drawbacks in using this method.
Your computer will be taking over the task of receiving printing jobs from different users. This might slow your computer down if there are a lot of requests. If your computer is not turned on, it is also not possible for users in the network to access your printer.
The use of a host computer can be eliminated by using a network printer. There are printers nowadays that support network connectivity. It has the same port for a network cable. Unfortunately, this is only applicable if your printer is a network printer. Compared to ordinary printers, network printers can be a lot more expensive just because of the network feature. This brings us to the next method of connecting the printer to a network.
As mentioned earlier, you can use a wireless printer router to share your printer. This device allows you to connect your printer to a wireless network. It usually has USB ports to support the main interface of common printers today. If your printer is not a network printer, you can certainly use this type of gadget. It’s no bigger than a modem and has an antenna. It usually goes where the printer is. The advantage of using this is you can place your printer anywhere as long as it is within range of the wireless signal.
The method above presupposes that you want to share your printer to a wireless network. However, if your network is not operating in wireless mode, you can opt to use routers that have print server features. Some wireless routers have this feature as well for the same purpose.
There are many ways to share your printer to other users. You can use direct connection using a network cable, wireless connection using a router, or connecting to a host computer. However, it all depends on what printer you already have.
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