We have a network of 9 PC's, a server, individual printers, and a
"network printer".  I installed the "network printer" to an abandoned
PC with the hopes of it becoming a sort of printer server, so when
people print to it the print job is processed on it (the abandoned PC)
rather than on their own computer.  However, that is not the case. 
The print jobs are still being processed on their own PCs and thereby
using up their resources.  What am I doing wrong?

The abandoned PC is an older one with Win 95.

Thanks.

ed

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 23 Nov 2002 03:58 PST

Hi esarkissian,

Just to confirm the obvious:
Assuming the abandoned pc is powered up and configured correctly as
the tenth PC in the network, and the printer is correctly configured
to it and is set as the default printer, and the printer is "shared"
--  so that the nine PCs have access to the abandoned PC via the
network and can see the printer there, and the nine PCs have that
printer set as their default -

You can answer yes to all of the above and your nine PCs still can't
print via the abandoned printer?

Thanks,
hummer

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Request for Question Clarification by funkywizard-ga on 24 Nov 2002 05:02 PST

it sounds to me like the other 9 pcs can print, but the trouble is
that the individual computers still have to process their own print
jobs, slowing down those computers. is that the issue here?

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Clarification of Question by esarkissian-ga on 24 Nov 2002 10:59 PST

yes funkywizard, that is the case.

As far as I know (I may be wrong), it is my experience that the
individual computers you mention would have to process their own print
jobs regardless of the setup of the computer running as a print
server. However, it may help to turn print spooling off on the
individual computers, as this would cause printing to start sooner
rather than later. Since the print jobs will likely be spooled
(cached) by the print server anyway, this likely will help speed
things up a bit, but wont reduce the load on your 9 computers when
they print.

Even with a Windows 2000 Domain Controller running in Domain mode,
there is no way that I know of to make the printer server 'process'
the printing. The ONLY way would be to run a terminal server off of a
Windows 2000 Server--but that is a VERY expensive way to do this. It
also would not run on your old machine :)

Legolas-ga

You must load proces "printserver" and instal the printer on this
computer. Then you set the computer to multi user mode(every body can
use it).

esarkissian,

a print server controls the schedule of print (i.e. who goes first
when in a network and what next to print) but does not process the
print job (how and what to print)- this would still be controlled by
your individual PCs.

What you want sounds like a separate Printer Solution which is a
separate PC where your Users can send their files to say a specific
directory on the PC and then the PC will run the print job.  Benefit
is that your end-user PC is not clogged up, but Negative is that it
would be hell waiting for each other's printout to complete as this PC
becomes the bottle neck.

Another comment - you describe the printer as a "network printer."
Typically, network printers have a print server built-in and they
don't connect to a PC. They connect directly to the network. When the
printers don't have that server built-in, then they can use a PC as a
print server, or they can use an external print server such as the HP
JetDirect products.

However, what the print server (in any of the 3 forms) does, is accept
and queue the processed print jobs, and stream them to the printer.
The pinter drivers are still installed on every PC that uses the
printer, and each of those PCs processes the print job from the
applications into something that the printer can handle. The idea of a
dedicated print server isn't to take that away from the PCs, but to
remvoe the printer from being installed on somebody's computer.
The benefits are:
1) An office can have one networked printer instead of several
individual printers.
2) There isn't one user having their computer slowed down everytime
anybody prints something to that printer, since the printer isn't
connected to one person's PC.
3) The printer can be located anywhere there is a network drop, (or
even wirelessly) instead of having to be thethered to a PC.