9.4 Sharing a Printer
9.4.5 Adding a network printer
The two basic types of computer networks are peer-to-peer and client/server. Peer-to-peer networks are small computer networks where each computer has an equal responsibility. Client/server networks can be of various sizes and are made up of client computers and servers. Clients are workstations that request the services of servers, such as application information, e-mail, and web pages, and printer services.

Configuring a printer to print over a network involves a method similar to accessing a server resource or drive on the network. Simply connecting a printer to a print server is not all that is involved to allow printing over the network. The network operating system has utilities that allow network printing to be set up and managed.

There are four steps involved in network printing:

  • The application formats the document to be printed into data that the printer can understand and sends it out.
  • The redirector in the computer sends the data out on the network, and it then travels to the print server.
  • The print spooler in the software on the print server places the data in a print queue (print jobs waiting to be processed). A print spooler is a collection of Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs), which are used to acquire, process, catalog, and dispense print jobs to the printer.
  • The print data is held in the print queue until the printer is ready to print it.