CONFIGURE SYNCHRONIZATION MANAGER

11-3Lesson 1 Introduction to Windows XP Professional Printing❑

A network interface printer is connected directly to the network via an

internal network adapter. You create a logical printer on a print server that

you can use to manage and share the printer.

Note In previous versions of Windows, Microsoft made an important distinction between

the terms “printer” and “print device.” Prior to Windows XP, a “printer” was the software on

the computer that controlled printing, and a “print device” was the actual hardware device.

The two terms were not used interchangeably. In Windows XP, that terminology has changed.

The Windows XP documentation generally defines the “printer” as “a device that puts text or

images on paper or other print media,” and the “logical printer” as the “collection of software

components that interface between the operating system and the printer.” Thus, the printer is

the physical device connected to a computer, and the logical printer is the icon in the Printers

And Faxes window that represents the printer.

Printer port The printer port is a software interface through which a computer

communicates with a printer by means of a locally attached interface. For exam-

ple, if a computer has a parallel port, the printer port configured in Windows

might be named LPT 1. Windows XP Professional supports the following inter-

faces: line printer (LPT), COM, universal serial bus (USB) 1.1 and 2.0, IEEE 1394

(FireWire), and network-attached devices such as HP JetDirect and Intel NetPort.

Print server The print server is the computer that manages a printer on a network.

The print server receives and processes documents from client computers. Note

that any computer (a laptop or a desktop) can act as a print server.

Printer driver The printer driver is a file or set of files containing information that

Windows XP Professional requires to convert print commands into a specific

printer language, such as Adobe PostScript. This conversion makes it possible for

a printer to print a document. A printer driver is specific to each printer model.

Print job A print job is a document that Windows has prepared for printing. Print

jobs wait in a printer’s print queue until it is their turn to be printed. While a print

job is waiting in the queue, users can manage or delete the print job.

Requirements for Network Printing

The requirements for setting up printing on a Windows network include the following:

■

At least one computer to act as the print server. If the print server is to manage

many heavily used printers, the task of printing documents can use 100 percent of

the computer’s processing or network capacity. This will slow down other services

running on the computer. Therefore, Microsoft recommends using a dedicated

print server if the server will be placed under a heavy load. The computer can run

almost every Windows operating system, including the following:

❑

Windows Server 2003, which can handle a large number of connections, and

supports Apple Macintosh and UNIX computers as well as Novell NetWare

clients.

❑

Windows XP Professional, which is limited to 10 concurrent connections from

other computers for file and print services. It does not support Macintosh

computers or NetWare clients but does support UNIX computers.

■

Sufficient random access memory (RAM) to process documents. If a print server

manages a large number of printers or many large documents, the server might

require additional RAM beyond what Windows XP Professional or Windows

Server 2003 requires for other tasks. If a print server does not have sufficient RAM

for its workload, printing performance deteriorates. Given the modern prevalence

of inexpensive memory, RAM is typically not an issue unless you expect a print

server to be heavily utilized. Even having 64 MB of RAM beyond what the com-

puter requires for other tasks should be sufficient.

■

Sufficient disk space on the print server to ensure that the print server can store

documents that are sent to it until it sends the documents to the printer. This is crit-

ical when documents are large or likely to accumulate. For example, if 10 users

send large documents to print at the same time, the print server must have enough

disk space to hold all the documents until it can send them to the print device. If

there is not enough space to hold all the documents, users get error messages and

cannot print. As with memory, hard disk space really becomes an issue only on

heavily used print servers. Having an extra 500 MB to 1 GB of disk space (or, even

better, moving the print queue to a spare hard disk) ensures that disk space does

not become an issue when printing.

!

Exam Tip Windows XP Professional supports up to 10 simultaneous network connections.

Windows XP Professional supports printing from the following clients: MS-DOS, Windows 3.1,

Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003,

Windows XP, and UNIX. Windows XP Professional does not support printing from NetWare or

older Macintosh clients. Clients using newer Macintosh operating systems can communicate

directly with Windows clients by using special built-in file and print services named Samba.

Guidelines for Developing a Network-wide Printing Strategy

Before you set up network printing, develop a network-wide printing strategy to meet

users’ printing needs without unnecessary duplication of resources or delays in print-

ing. Table 11-1 provides some guidelines for developing such a strategy.