Print server

A print server, or printer server, is a device that connects printers to client computers over a network. It can accept print jobs from the computers and send the jobs to the appropriate printers.

Print servers may support a variety of industry-standard or proprietary printing protocols including Internet Printing Protocol, Line Printer Daemon protocol, Microsoft Network Printing protocol, NetWare, NetBIOS/NetBEUI, or JetDirect.

A print server may be a networked computer with one or more shared printers. Alternatively a print server may be a dedicated device on the network, with connections to the LAN and one or more printers. Dedicated server appliances tend to be fairly simple in both configuration and features. Print server functionality may be integrated with other devices such as a wireless router, a firewall, or both. A printer may have a built-in print server.

All printers with the right type of connector are compatible with all print servers; manufacturers of servers make available lists of compatible printers because a server may not implement all the communications functionality of a printer (low ink signal, etc.).

Network printer servers

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  A wireless print server
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  Brother HL-2070N network laser printer with built-in print server
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  Dell 1320cn color laser network printer with network connection
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  An example of network printing