Network printers are a convenient way of handling every day printing tasks on a small network of computers, or a large enterprise environment, possibilities are near endless, but do you need one?

A single home computer is really easy to pair with a printer, an USB cable, a computer capable of taking it and a printer that has USB interface is all you need to get printing, scanning, faxing on your normal printer. But in what ways are network printers different? They connect to an existing computer network through either wireless or Ethernet connection. They act as a printer server which everyone with easily manageable rights can set up and use.

An administrator user is the master, he or she can install and set up a printer, change sharing settings and set authority levels in a way that is easy to use and comfortable for all users on the network. There are possible scenarios where multiple people can maintain a network printer but only the head administrator can set authority levels, or a group of people can scan on the printer and another group can scan and print as well, possibilities are almost infinite.

Setting up a network printer is really straight forward, first point of entry is the user manual. Even if you think you are an expert I’d still suggest you to read the user manual as it saves you from lots of embarrassing and frustrating mistakes. Second step usually is connecting the printer to the network, which then gives an unique address an IP address to it where you can reach it later. It depends on model if you have to install driver to all computers or not, the latter is more common and the more comfortable of doing so as well.

A network printer is relatively the same price as normal single user printers but is much more simple to use in a case where several computers tend to print. The printer prioritizes and organizes printing jobs in a way that while working on a 50 page printout someone with a 2 page job can’t insert those pages between the bunch. Everything is nice and tidy.

Using a printer in a network environment can make return of investment faster with higher utilization rates. Also there is no need to buy multiple printers to a room where everyone can physically reach one device anyway. It is easy to maintain these printers as there is only one printer to check-up regularly instead of 5 different brands and models scattered around office.