Shared Print from Windows Server

Windows Server 2003/2008 Print Services allow printers, including those connected via a SafeQ Print roaming system to be shared over a network and provide a centralised printer management infrastructure allowing multiple print servers and printers to be managed from within the Microsoft Print Management tool. Centralized print sharing simplifies changes to the print configuration. However, this does creates a bottleneck, where all print jobs coming from any user to any printer are serialized into one single queue, drastically reducing the print throughput. There are several techniques how to optimise, or avoid this bottle neck:

• The first option is to enable Client-side Rendering (CSR) in Windows Printer Sharing properties.

• The second option is to create multiple ports and use Printer Pooling in Windows Printer Port properties.

• The ultimate solution to the bottleneck created by a centralised shared print roaming printer is to use a distributed system. This means the installation and configuration of printer drivers, print queues and ports to each individual client workstation.

Please note that apart from a printer driver, the installation of the SafeQ Client locally at every workstation is mandatory for any feature that requires any type of pop up dialogue (i.e. Billing Code selection ...)