Hard Resource Sharing: Printer Management

By N. Ganesan, PhD© N. Ganesan, All Rights

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Hard Resource

• An example of a hard resource is a printer

• Unlike folder sharing, hard resource sharing requires a driver to be installed for the corresponding hard resource

Printer Sharing

• Printer sharing is a two-step process

• First, install the printer and then share the printer

Printer Installation

• Access the printer icon from the Control panel

• Click on the Add Printer icon and the printer installation wizard will guide the user through the installation steps for the printer

The printer would be shared later.

The printer has been installed

Sharing the Printer

• From this point onwards, the steps involved in the sharing of the printer is almost the same as sharing a folder

• Right click on the printer and share the printer with the appropriate permissions

RightClick

Give a name for the shared printer.

Current driver.

Additional driver.

Installing Additional Drivers

• Additional drives are installed for the sake of the clients wanting to install this printer for use after it is shared

• When other clients access and install the printer, the appropriate driver for the client OS will be installed.– Eliminates the need to install the driver

from, for instance, the Windows 2000 disk to use the printer

Additional drivers

are installed from the

Windows 2000 disk locally.

Allowing Users to Share the Printer

• The next step is to give the privilege to selected users to use the printer

Default assignment of users to

the printer.

Different privileges

are assigned to

different users.

Advanced permissions.

Additional permissions

and controls.

The hand indicates that the printer is being shared.

The check mark indicates that the printer is the default

printer for the local computer.

Connecting to a Printer

• At the client, the network printer must be installed in order for it to be used at a client

• The installation procedure is similar to that of installing a local printer

• The difference is that a network printer instead of a local printer is selected for installation

Note, this client also has a

printer called Office Color Jet. This is different

from the network printer that is

going to be installed.

Network printer is selected instead of

local printer.

Name such as \\computer\printer could

be entered as well.

Note the appearance of network

printer.

Local Printer

Network Printer

Properties etc. can be set if the permission is

granted for this user.

A Simpler Method of Accessing and Sharing

Printers

• Locate the network printer– By browsing the network from the

Network Neighborhood, for example• Right click and connect the printer• If the appropriated driver is

available at the network location or locally, the printer would be automatically connected

Local Printer

Network printer available on the network at

Ganesan510.

Right click to connect.

Network printer connected for sharing and available for

sharing.

Setting Printer Properties

• If permission is given, a number of printer preferences and parameters can be set by a user

Printers and Properties

• Printer properties are, of course, dependant on the type of printer installed

Summary

End of Chapter