Setup Printer Server, A Step-by-step Tutorial

This is a step-by-step tutorial of setting up regular printers on a printer server.

D-Link wireless printer server: DPR-1260

The printer server I use for this demonstration is a D-Link DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server. It can be both a wireless or a wired server which can connect up to 4 printers using USB connection.

The printer I use for this demonstration is a HP Color LaserJet printer2600n. This printer is NOT in the compatible list of printer server, DPR-1260. That means the setup wizard from the printer server does NOT work on this printer. However, this tutorial will provide a much more general way of setting up any printer on a printer server.

The operating system I use for this demonstration is a Microsoft Windows® XP.

I assume that you

know how to setup a single printer to work with your computer
know how to connect and configure the printer server to the router (That requires a little bit TCP/IP knowledge or just read through the user manuals of the printer server and router. It shouldn’t be very difficult.)

Let’s get started.

Click on the “start” button, then choose “Printers and Faxes”.
In “Printers and Faxes” dialog box, choose ”Add a printer”.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, click on “Next” button.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, choose “Local printer attached to this computer”, and uncheck “Automatically detect and install my Plug and Play printer”, because this auto-detection is a waste of time. Yes! We are not choosing “A network printer, …” here. Read on.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, choose “Create a new port:”, then go to the pull down menu and choose “Standard TCP/IP Port”, then click on “Next” button.
In “Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard” dialog box, read those 2 points and get them ready. It basically says that, turn on your printer; use a USB cable to connect the printer and printer server; make sure the printer server is configure correctly and accessible(Tip: ping printer server’s IP address in the Windows command line).
In “Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard” dialog box, enter the IP address of your printer server. (The IP address most likely looks like 192.168.0.x, which x could be any number between 1 to 254). While typing the IP address, the “Port Name” field is being filled simultaneously. The port name can be changed to any name your want, something like IP address, the printer model#, or even “slave”. I name it “myNetworkPrinter”. To have an idea what this name is, just look at the most popular port names: “LPT1″, “COM1″, “COM2″, etc.
In “Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard” dialog box, choose “Custom”, then click on “Settings” button.
In “Configure Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor” dialog box, choose “Raw” as protocol. The “Port Number” is “9100″ by default. Referring to the printer server’s configuration, it assigns a “Raw TCP port”, 9101, to this printer. So, input “9101″ for “Port Number”, then click on “OK” button.
In “Add Standard TCP/IP Printer Port Wizard” dialog box, it summarizes the TCP/IP printer port settings. Click on “Finish” button.

So far, the network port setting part is done!

The following steps are the same as setting up a regular printer connected directly to a computer. Let’s move on.

In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, click on “Have Disk” button.
In “Install From Disk” dialog box, click on “Browse” button.
In “Locate File” dialog box, navigate to the printer setup CDRom or where the printer driver is located, then click on the “Open” button.
Now, it returns to “Install From Disk” dialog box. Click on “OK” button.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, select the printer driver needs to be installed, then click on “Next” button.
If the printer driver is previously installed, it will show a “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, choose “Replace existing driver”, then click on “Next” button.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, a default printer name appears. It can be edited to any name you want. If this is a default printer, choose “Yes”, Otherwise, choose “No”. Then click on “Next” button.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, choose “Do not share this printer”, then click on “Next” button.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, choose “Yes” for a test page, then click on “Next” button.
In “Add Printer Wizard” dialog box, another printer setup summary appears. Click on “Finish” button to finish the setup program.

Check out the test page. Isn’t it beautiful?

If reading pictures are more pleasurable, the following pictures will help.