New
#1
Network Printers and Drivers
Can someone educate me on how network printers work in Windows?
Many thanks - Rowan
- Is there only one way of setting these up, or several ways?
- Do I have to have a driver for the specific printer on the client? Why can't the material be sent to the server in some device independent format (Postscript??), and converted to printer commands on the server?
- Do I have to have a driver for the specific printer on the server? If the driver is on the client, presumably it's talking directly to the printer (using the server only as a means of communication) using the printer's own command codes, so I don't see why the server needs a driver...
- Under what circumstances can or can't the client download the driver from the server?
- What happens if the client and server are running different versions of Windows, either an older version on the client, or an older version on the server?
- What happens if the client is running 64-bit and the server 32-bit, or vice versa?
- What happens if there is no driver available for the newer version of Windows (which might be the client, or the server), because the printer is quite old?