This may be an easy one for the right person. I’m looking for a print sharing device that will allow me to share one printer with 5 or more users. The trick here is I want to do it without using a print server where I will have to network the machines that need to print. They are all in Japanese, some have NIC’s some do not, and there is no way I am opening that can of worms. Additionally the machines are individually owned and I don’t want to screw up network settings for them. So basically I need a dumb device that I can physically connect them to which will let them all share one printer. There are regular old splitters with standard printer cables, but the most I’ve seen these devices support is 4 users, I need 5. Any ideas?
Does the printer support USB or parallel connections? How far apart are the computers?
Well, you’ll either have to find a splitter box with 8 ports or use JetDirect. Because the splitter boxes tend to suck really badly, I would go with a JetDirect. But you don’t wanna do that. Besides, I haven’t seen an 8-port splitter box in years.
Good luck!
It sounds like you’re asking for an intelligent printer switch like a Black Box SW137A, or this one from Lindy
They seem rather pricey to me.
Plus I don’t see how running five sets of parallel cables (how far apart are these machines?) will be appreciably easier than just networking the PCs and getting a cheap print server.
Keep in mind the machines are in Japanese which I do not speak or read. This pretty much precludes me from attempting to network them. They are close together, so cabling is no problem. Zoltar7, that product link you sent is PERFECT! Funny that the people at CDW failed to find the exact product I needed, and its right on their site. Thanks all!
You’re still going to have to install printer drivers on the Japanese machines though, aren’t you?
Are they all Windows machines? - if so, then networking them might not be all that bad; you’d just have to install one of the English ones first and make a very careful note of which buttons and menu options you click. Networking them might actually cost less than the printer switch box and would enable you to share more resources in the future.
Just my 2c.
The OP contradicts the title: Is it once, or it is permanent?
If you really meant just once, or even very occasionally, then forget all the fancy boxes and networking. Just install the driver on all the pcs, and connect or disconnect the cables manually as needed. Seems simple enough to me, no?
Or invest in some sort of removable storage device (one of those USB ‘pen’ drives or some such, then walk the files across the room to the machine that has the printer; crude, awkward, but cheap.
At a former job (about eight years ago) where we had a number of non-networked PCs, we bought something called a “Logical Connector” to connect multiple PCs to a single laser printer. (It was a non-profit, we were on a tight budget.) This device was a long flat box with a parallel connector for the printer, and about half a dozen serial connections for the PCs to connect into. Pretty low-tech and not very reliable but did the job. Don’t know if they still make these critters, and since one PC had to be set up to “drive” the thing this still might not be what you are looking for.