tampamark Posted September 29, 2005 Posted September 29, 2005 Hello, Just to give my background I am a fairly expert user, I just don't have any experience with this particular scenario so I am short cutting to other experts. I would like to have setup 5 printers distributed through a production room for one of my clients. They will have a central computer that is not networked cotnrolling these 5 printers. I will have a wireless router attached to the standalone PC and 5 wireless print servers attached to the parallel port of each printer. Is it fairly straight forward to setup the wireless links in this fashion? This is a bit outside of my area of expertise and I just wanted a warm and fuzzy that I am heading in the right direction. If you guys say yes, I am off to purchase a print server to initially test. Thanks in advance for your help, Mark. Quote
TCH-Bruce Posted September 29, 2005 Posted September 29, 2005 Welcome to the forums, Mark I am no expert by any means where wireless networking is concerned. I'm sure someone will be along to offer some opinions. Quote
Madmanmcp Posted September 29, 2005 Posted September 29, 2005 Mark, sometimes its easy and sometimes its a bear. See if this article helps. h_tp://www.wi-fiplanet.com/reviews/article.php/3299911 Not sure I follow your explanation here. They will have a central computer that is not networked cotnrolling these 5 printers. How will the other computers reach the printers if its not connected to them on some type of network? There are several ways to tackle to this task, and a print server would possibly be the simplest. But you also have the option of attaching each printer to a computer and then sharing it with everyone on the Network. Quote
tampamark Posted September 29, 2005 Author Posted September 29, 2005 Mark, sometimes its easy and sometimes its a bear. See if this article helps. h_tp://www.wi-fiplanet.com/reviews/article.php/3299911 Not sure I follow your explanation here. How will the other computers reach the printers if its not connected to them on some type of network? There are several ways to tackle to this task, and a print server would possibly be the simplest. But you also have the option of attaching each printer to a computer and then sharing it with everyone on the Network. There will be no other computers attached to these printers. The printers are to be distributed through a 100' x 100' room in different work cells, the only device attached to the printers will be the wireless print server. All print requests will initiate from the central computer with the wireless router, once the print job is transmitted to the server/printer it will carry that print job through a couple of hours. So there will be no sharing involved. This particular production room is a very harsh environment, 32 degrees with 80% humidity. The central computer will be a $7,000 climate proof tough station, the printers are solid metal thermal that run $3,000 each. That is the reason for one computer... That is funny you reference that article, I read it earlier in a goole search. It references more the opposite, many computers on a wireless router communicating with one printer (it looks like they specify a wired printer). Anyway, I want exactly the opposite, 5 printers with wireless print server and one hard wired pc to wireless router. Thanks for the input! Mark. Quote
Madmanmcp Posted September 29, 2005 Posted September 29, 2005 Ok, misread or misunderstood the first post. Let me think on this a little and do some research later. I think only one print server is needed, not 5. Why are you setting up shop in a meat freezer? [will not complain about the 67 degrees here again] Quote
tampamark Posted September 29, 2005 Author Posted September 29, 2005 (edited) Ok, misread or misunderstood the first post. Let me think on this a little and do some research later. I think only one print server is needed, not 5. Why are you setting up shop in a meat freezer? [will not complain about the 67 degrees here again] I will definitely need 5 wireless print servers, one as a receiver for each of the printers. The printers will be 20 feet apart so I couldn't use a single print server with multiple parallel ports. I will use the single wireless router on the computer side to transmit to the five wireless (d-link or hp jetdirect) receivers. Meat freezer is correct, this is a food production facility and it is COLD. Thanks! Mark. Edited September 29, 2005 by tampamark Quote
Madmanmcp Posted September 29, 2005 Posted September 29, 2005 Is it fairly straight forward to setup the wireless links in this fashion? This is a bit outside of my area of expertise and I just wanted a warm and fuzzy that I am heading in the right direction. If you guys say yes, I am off to purchase a print server to initially test. Let me get back to the original question... This is new territory for me also so I can only give you moral support. I would assume the wireless stuff would be easy. The PC would be used to setup the router which would assign IP's to the print servers if you use DHCP. But this might not work well and you'll probably end up having to manually assigning everything. Looks like the only choice you have is to setup a small testbed of say 2 printers and see how it goes, I see the HP Jetdirects are going for 2-3 hundred and this would cut down on cost if its not the correct solution. Quote
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