Home network for 1 pc and 3 printers

trad

I am going to be doing a lot of desktop publishing shortly.

I have 1 desktop pc, a laptop and 3 printers.
1 printer is a network printer HP 4600 and another in network enabled Ricoh 3025 although it is currently connected via usb, but with network connection i could use the scanner. Other printer is a Hp 4250 (usb).

What do I need to network the ricoh and the hp4600?
Can I network them via my vodafone Hg 566a router or do I need to buy a network switch?

The plan long term is to replace all 3 printers with 1 high spec unit but I need to get the business up and running to fund it. I also like the idea of redundancy if one printer goes down.

stephendevlin

Just a suggestion you could hook them all to your PC and share the printers to other pcs/laptops on your network. you have to have the drivers installed on all machines and the PC powered on (doesnt have to be logged in) to work

Rather than going down the print server road I use this way for ease. I have 2 laptops a PC and my iphone printing of 1 printer which is USB connected to my PC

trad

Does that mean I would get away with a 3 port network car like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-1-Port-PCI-FireWire-IEEE-1394-Card-/330730366675?pt=UK_Computing_NetworkCards_RL&hash=item4d0110e6d3 ?

Alun

trad wrote: »

Does that mean I would get away with a 3 port network car like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-1-Port-PCI-FireWire-IEEE-1394-Card-/330730366675?pt=UK_Computing_NetworkCards_RL&hash=item4d0110e6d3 ?

You don't need any network cards and certainly not a Firewire card like the above.

You say the HP 4600 and Ricoh printers are network printers, so all you have to do is connect them to 2 spare ethernet ports on your router, and configure them to work in your network environment. the only thing you may need to buy is a couple of ethernet cables but they should come with the printers normally.

The other HP printer will have to be connected to your main PC via USB and then shared.

stephendevlin

trad wrote: »

Does that mean I would get away with a 3 port network car like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-1-Port-PCI-FireWire-IEEE-1394-Card-/330730366675?pt=UK_Computing_NetworkCards_RL&hash=item4d0110e6d3 ?

Can they all connect via a router/switch or usb to the main PC?

As long as you can print a page from all printers however they are connected to your PC you can share them

you dont need one of those cards.

stephendevlin

can you print from all 3 printers from your main PC at the moment with the current setup?

trad

stephendevlin wrote: »

can you print from all 3 printers from your main PC at the moment with the current setup?

At the moment I have 2 printers connected via usb although the ricoh has a printer port (usb) and a network port but I haven't used the scanner facility on it, it might come in handy.It's also a scanner, fax and photocopier.

The HP 4600 can only be connected via a HP Jet-Direct 615N print server and I am just waiting on toner to arrive before configuring it and getting it earning it's keep.

stephendevlin

In order to use the scanner you need to install the software package provided with the scanner on any machine you want to use in order to scan

trad

Grand, I can live without it short term. I have a desktop scanner but it's one more piece of kit hanging around. I'll get the software downloaded and configure it when I'm setting up the network


Thanks for the input.

trad

Got the printer up and running yesterday, connected it up as suggested, ran the hp programme for the jet drive print server and away it went.

Thanks all.