server & local printing

[stig]

Hello everyone, I'm gonna install a Ricoh MFP & the customer has about 5 pcs on the network connected to a server and 4 other stand alone pcs. They do not want the stand alone pcs connected to the server in any way for security reasons. If I install the printer on the server and then install the drivers locally on each stand alone pc with the same IP range do you think this would be a good way to do it? They also want scanning and fax setup on each pc. I'm OK at setting up the MFP to print/scan & fax its just the security issues that the customer has asked about. Thanks

[SCREWTAPE]

If you install driver on the server, share it out then search for the driver from there directory when you start to add a printer for the 5pcs. Do this step for all 5pcs. I guess if the standalones are on the same network it would work.

[10871087]

You should be able setup the 5 client-server and then the other 4 peer-to-peer, point the first five to the driver shared off of the server and then load the driver locally on the 4 remaining computers, I use a similar setup everyday.

[D_L_P]

IMHO I feel like the best setup is to install all printers locally and not involve a server if you can, especially if there are fewer than 10 workstations. To setup a shared printer off a server might be like 30 seconds to 1 minute per workstation whereas installing everything locally might take as long as 4 or 5 minutes per workstation. I'd rather spend the extra time setting everything up locally and try to minimize calls down the road. It can make troubleshooting easier too since there is only one comp involved as opposed to 2 (server and workstation).

Maybe I just get "those" customers a lot, but the installs I've done where it was setup on a server and shared out I get more calls for printing issues. It seems I get calls for nobody can print (expect this a lot), printing slow, not printing the right fonts, dropping logos, substituting different symbols, changing the margins.........Again, maybe its just my luck but the ones I took the extra time to setup on each workstation as a local printer the customers figure 90% of that ^ themselves. I'm guessing it's because local printer problems can be isolated to just 1 or 2 workstations whereas with a server problems tend to happen to everyone.

[mowpro]

i agree with d-l-p i do it locally on small accounts and never run into problems.

[RyanPacific]

Speed is not an issue if you use LPD/LPR(not emulated LPR!). If they are that worried about security don't install the driver on the server. 64% of windows security flaws come from users having partial administrative rights. I personally would install it on the server and send an email with an SMB link to click so it will install automatically. With a properly configured firewall there should be no security problems, however I am not there to configure the firewall and if they insist that no clients be connected to the server then sharing the printer would be a breach of that agreement. If you don't mind me asking why do they not want any connections to the server? Is it strictly an internet web server or a backup server or something?

[Hansoon]

.....if you use LPD/LPR(not emulated LPR!

How to recognize emulated LPR against normal LPR?

Hans

[D_L_P]

When you are looking at the printer ports, typically emulated looks like this:

IP_192.168.0.199


And true lpr looks like this:

192.168.0.199:Print


The emulated lpr will say Standard TCP/IP in the description column and can be configured for lpr or raw port 9100 but the true lpr won't have a description or be able to be changed. The true lpr needs to be added under add/remove windows components->other network and printing services->print services for unix. After installing it you will see another option when you go to add a printer port "LPR port".

[Hansoon]

Thanks very much for that explanation. I was aware of differences between LPR and Standard TCP/IP but not that the latter is "just" LPR-emulated. Good to know.

Hans

[TheOwl]

On the server, you can install the print driver and use the security permission for "Everyone" to allow the 4 other PC's to print through the queue. This will only work if the other PC's are configured correctly. This won't cause a security risk as the 4 PC's will only have access to the print queue on the server and not any of the file shares.

If that doesn't seem possible, then I would go with DLP and install locally on each of the 9 PC's as then you have a standardized setup which you can easily remember.