What you are usually trying to solve
One person can print and the rest cannot. Scan-to-email stopped after a mail change. A new PC never got the queue. The guest network can see the check printer. The address book in the printer is stale. You want the queue on the server so we are not installing a driver by hand at every desk.
What we do
- Sharp, Brother, HP, and Canon multifunction printers on the office network
- Scan to email and scan to a folder, pointed at a mailbox or a share that still exists
- A printer server: Windows print server or Linux with CUPS, one queue the PCs and Macs share
- The driver set on that server, so a replaced PC prints the same day
- A printer VLAN, separated from staff PCs, the server, and the guest Wi-Fi
- The address book, the tray, and the name people actually see when they print
- A straight fix when the queue vanishes, on hourly help or inside the care plan
Printer servers
One machine holds the queues. It can be the Windows file server, or a Linux server running CUPS. Every desk, Windows or Mac, prints through that queue. Scan-to-folder lands on a share that still exists. When someone adds a PC, they do not get a one-off driver installed by hand.
Windows print serverLinuxCUPSSharpBrotherHPCanonXeroxRicohKyoceraEpsonLexmark