Guide shared printers in the office: installation, configuration and saving tips

Usually a printer is shared by multiple employees of a company device. Choosing the best is not easy. There are many parameters that have to be considered to work optimally so we want to offer some advice with our guide to shared printers in the office. The most common is a shared printer that is made through the local network either through wired or WiFi connection. There is the possibility of sharing a local printer, but it is a solution that really works well not only to share in a home environment and even here there are better solutions today.

Installing and configuring network printer

Location of network printer

The first thing we have to consider is where we want to locate the printer physically. It is recommended that all users will be connected to it rather than take it to one end of the room is in a central, close place. In this way the path they have to travel to collect their work is minimal. It is also necessary that this place provided an outlet nearby and if we connect the printer by ethernet cable, mains. This often determines where you can place the printer, making the WiFi option more attractive by offering more independence in choosing the most suitable place to locate the printer.

We must also take into account the printing needs of the user group to which it is intended. Each printer has an appropriate group of users who can share, usually between 1 and 15, depending on the number of monthly impressions and specific to each of them needs. Exceeding this number can be raised to penalize productivity if users have to wait longer queues formed printing cost.

IP Addressing printers

For individual jobs can submit jobs to these printers must know its address within the network, the IP. Printers should always have the same IP address; either permanently assigned or associating in the DHCP server to the MAC address of your network card to the server always assigns the same. Typically in these cases is to group all network printers from the company in a certain range within our network. For example, if our network is 192.168.1.xxx, let the unallocated ranging address 192.168.1.245 to 192.168.1.255, for printers. That way if we have to map a position in a computer will be easy to remember address. Also identify any problems they may have in the network.

It is advisable not to be stingy with this number of addresses reserved for these printers, as if tomorrow the company grows and we need more devices if the IP addresses are occupied will be harder to recover these addresses. Especially if we have no problem of scarcity of IP addresses is thinking ahead.

Installing and configuring the printer

Once you have defined your IP address, the next step is to install the printer. In this case we have to distinguish whether we are going to install the printer on domain or workgroup. The first case is the most common when we have a high number of users and the second is recommended only when we have very few users and computers, usually less than 10. If you install the printer on domain have to install drivers or drivers directly on the server you must have enabled the print server functions. This has the advantage that we can apply group policies also affect printers that users can use. Thus we have a better control over the use that is being given to a printer, besides being able to manage it more efficiently.

If we do not work in the domain we have two possible scenarios when working on server or on the contrary are lacking thereof. If we work out the server but also the process of domain printer installation on the server will be similar. It is installed on the server and maps to jobs either through the wizard or the console connecting to the IP address assigned. If you do not have a server will need to install the printer on all workstations. In this case we can make a first installation wizard which will give us the ability to create a file that can be saved to a USB memory if we have to install it on more computers.

Saving Tips When Using Network Printers

We have already seen how the printer location influences the productivity of users. In general, the lower the distance of the user to the printer, get a lower risk of distraction along the way that makes you spend more time than necessary out of his job. Another issue that is not usually taken into account when choosing a printer is energy saving. Especially in regard to the states of rest and hibernation, which are the most time passes the printer. Comparing between consuming an ancient and a modern printer, printer renewal leaves it much cheaper it might seem at first. Especially when you consider that they are devices that are always on and rarely go out.

Usually a laser printer uses more energy than an inkjet printer as it has to warm up before starting to print, which does not happen with the ink. In the case of the HP Officejet Pro range of printers savings can reach 50% in energy consumption over equivalent laser printers. Another aspect to consider is the paper savings we can get. Here it is essential to use the duplex so that we can achieve significant savings in the number of pages used.

It is important not to neglect the training of users who have to use the printer. It is not uncommon as a job to the print queue is sent, it does not appear that looks up and returns to its job to repeat the order several times. At the end someone discovers or warns that the printer is out of paper, but they no longer had jobs resent that in the best finish in the paper basket for recycling are canceled.