The concept of "network printing" was actually introduced by Hewlett-Packard Company before 10, and they also started the initial network printer development work. But because of the very expensive research and development at that time, so did not get strong financial support, but also did not really vigorous development.
But in recent years with the development of network technology and popularization, the figure of the network can be said to be everywhere. Not only is the traditional printer equipped with network functions to be more fully utilized, and a variety of network printer new products are gradually emerging. Especially in recent years, with the reduction of its price and the popularity of enterprise LAN, network printers have been fully advanced to all types of enterprises and institutions, become an indispensable office equipment members.
Several advantages of network printing
1. Printing speed increased significantly
In the printing process of the printer, the speed of data transmission is an important factor affecting the printing speed, especially some high-end laser printers, the computer needs to transfer to the printer the amount of data is very large, so the speed of data transmission is very obvious effect on the printing speed. The most direct advantage of network printing is reflected in its speed. Especially in the printing of some large, complex (including complex graphics, high-precision images, multiple special fonts) of documents, color documents, network printing can obviously show its speed advantage.
2. The same excellent print quality
Because the network printing has the advantage of fast transmission speed, the printer can improve the print quality by using the standard page description language, PCL and PostScript, which explains the large amount of generated data.
3. Convenient management, low operating cost
Print server with the management scheme, administrators can easily manage the printer through these management software, in addition to the large capacity of memory for user file management and other aspects than the traditional way of printing has a very obvious advantage.
4. Network more smooth, sharing more thorough
With network printing technology, multiple computers can share the same printer, and share some of the printer's additional features while sharing the printer's basic print performance.
5. More reliable work
Compared with the original shared printing, the network printing failure rate is very low, do not need to transfer the computer, not because the machine busy or panic affects other computers connected to the network printing tasks. Network printers are connected directly to the network, so there is usually no panic or crash.
6. More flexible printing position
Print servers are easy to use in simple small, medium, or large enterprise networks, and can be hung anywhere on the network via a network hub (hub), so the printer's location can be arbitrary.
7. Support for remote printing
With the introduction of IPP (Print protocol), some network printers that support the IPP protocol can achieve shared printing in the local network, remote networks and WAN environments.
8. Support different protocol file printing
The print server can transfer files from different protocols to a printer for printing and is related to the network operating system, while the original print share allows only multiple computers to share, and computers that cannot use different protocols to output to the same print-sharing device at the same time.
The specific setup steps for the network printer
First, IP address settings
After you complete the printer's hardware connection to the network, first assign the printer an IP address. Network printer IP address is mainly through the following three ways, 1, DHCP-enabled print server can be in the DHCP-supported network by the server automatic allocation of settings, 2, by the manufacturer to provide network management software, through the server or terminal allocation settings; 3, manually configured on the printer control Panel. In the latter two ways, you need to request the IP address of this printer from your network administrator, get the appropriate subnet mask, and then write the IP address and subnet mask to the print server in the printer panel or the settings software.
Second, create network port
When the IP address setting for the printer is complete, the network port is created on the server or terminal computer where you want to install the printer, and most vendors provide the network port installation and creation program under Windows, and users can create the appropriate network port as prompted. Some standard network print ports, the most common LPR mode ports, are also available under Windows NT, but in this way, it is important to add the TCP/IP Printing service in Windows NT.
Third, the installation drive
After the port is created, you can install the printer's driver just as you would with a normal printer, but do not forget to select the network port you created as the port that connects the printer during the installation process. For printers that are installed under Windows NT to have terminal shares running WinXP, you also have to follow the prompts to install the drivers under WinXP.
Iv. Sharing settings
When you install a printer under Windows, you are automatically prompted to provide a printer share to other computers on your network, a printer that is shared with Windows, and a different terminal computer that simply finds the appropriate printer and automatically prompts you for the installation process when you click. For printers installed on a WinXP computer, you need to set up a share in the printer properties option after the printer is installed. Also select Allow Printer Sharing in the computer's network properties.
Select the appropriate network installation method
During the network installation of the printer, you should choose different installation methods according to the actual needs. If there are more terminal computers in the network, the configuration of the machine is more complex, and the number of network printers is relatively few, you can choose the way of print queue installation, which is convenient for the centralized management of the printer, the disadvantage of this kind of installation is that the printing process will occupy the server resources and have certain If a terminal wants to cancel a print job, it can only be done through a network administrator. If there is no specialized personnel to manage the network and printers, the number of network printers are relatively large, you can consider the use of point-to-point installation, not only the shortcomings of resource consumption, but also more flexible installation methods, but because there is no permissions and priority issues, is not conducive to the management of printers. In practical use, there are two ways to coexist.
Characteristics and development direction of network printing
Improve work efficiency
Network is the product of the pursuit of efficient communication and information flow. As a printing scheme in the network, it should not be limited to network connectivity, such as the traditional so-called "network printing"-What we now call a shared print mode-is to connect the printer to a network terminal or server on the same port, although users on the network can output documents from the printer, But its performance is greatly limited by the computer printing and the mouth, and HP's network printing solution not only integrates the network connection function seamlessly with the printer, but also gives full play to the performance advantages of all the components in the network, and makes the whole performance of the system multiply. In the speed test, HP network printing is more 50%~70% than traditional shared print performance, while the user is reflected in the real application environment: The performance difference may be as high as 150%.
Reduce office expenses
The efficiency of the increase will undoubtedly reduce office costs, but the savings in office costs are also related to a number of factors. It is clear that today's users are still concerned about cost issues. In market research, it is found that almost all users value the overall cost (including the power consumption of later supplies), rather than the one-time investment in the purchase of equipment. This is because the cost of buying is only part of the and is the only one that does not increase with time, so the longer the use of equipment, the smaller the proportion of purchase costs, and users in the use of equipment installation costs, operating costs, management costs, maintenance costs, and so the proportion of rising, Of course it becomes a more user-focused object.
of management
The network printing scheme provides excellent management, which greatly reduces the time that managers use to handle printing related problems in the network, and directly reduces the management cost of the enterprise network, while the traditional shared printing mode has no management, and the management cost is high.
Reliability
The network printing scheme is based on the mature technology, has the extremely high reliability, rarely produces the breakdown, even if the fault also is extremely easy to eliminate, the maintenance cost is close to 0, while the traditional shared printing way reliability is limited by the computer which connects, the maintenance cost is unavoidable.
Ease of Use
Network printing schemes are easy to implement, such as HP's simple device installation technology, so that the installation of network printers than the installation of shared printing easier to deal with the enterprise environment is a breeze.
Adaptability
The network printing scheme can connect a variety of network environments, and it supports Cross-platform, simple configuration and strong adaptability, while traditional shared printing has been unable to adapt to the increasingly complex network environment in today's enterprises.
To sum up: the real network printing scheme should include: High-performance network printer, efficient, flexible, easy-to-use, reliable network printing connection parts, as well as full-featured network print management software. The establishment of a sound network printing technical standards and norms, all of these are closely around the user's actual work needs to design, to get more and more users recognition and affirmation. This is the real development direction of the network printing.