Sharing USB Printer between 2 Pc's

[BFCIT]

Hi,

 

We have a number of issues sharing a non-networked printer between 2 pc's. I was wondering if anyone has had any success with a hub that can share a usb printer between two pcs with an auto switching facility so that the user doesn't have to press a button on the hub. If so any recommendations would be greatly received.

 

Thanks,

[3s-gtech]

Obvious solution is to use a USB print server, that gives the printer a network connection. Cheap and simple.

[Oaktech]

Although if the printer is a GDI based one it requires the host machine to render the print job so a USB print server might not work. The supposedly GDI compatible USB print servers are a bit hit and miss.

[BFCIT]

Thank you. Have you got any recommendations?

[sted]

or if one pc is plugged in and turned on all the time share it out from that pc to the other. Bit of a cludge but should work

[Oaktech]

EDIMAX Technology - Official Website - Print Servers

 

I've always had excellent results with these.

[3s-gtech]

I've only used HP Jetdirect ones for USB (with good results), but they're all retired off now.

[teejay]

Unless it's a specialist printer you'd be better off replacing it with a network printer, you can get some pretty cheap ones now which are fine for 2 people and won't cost much more than a decent print server.

[dry]

Share the printer from one PC is the way I'd go- quick and easy, but means that PC will need to be on for any clients to print to it. We used to have several Linksys print servers, but they were rather flakey and a pain to configure.

[BFCIT]

Thanks for all your responses. We have already got it setup to share from one pc to another and we have frequent issues with the pc not picking up the printer. Reinstalling every time we login etc - not sure if there is something else causing this though. Thanks for the recommended devices. I will take a look.

 

Cheers