Cheap Print Server
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From: gl4317 on 16 Mar 2010 06:08 For various reasons, I have a desire to set up a cheap printer and print server in a certain location. I'm thinking the best way to do this might be to get a very old Mac (cheap) and printer that will use the old style Apple serial cable. The several people that would need to use it could simply come to it with their laptops, plug in the ethernet cable, and use the printer as basically a miniature network with printer. But, how easy would it be to get a reasonably new Mac OS computer to recognize an old-ish Mac network and network printer? -- -Glennl Please note this e-mail address is a pit of spam, and most e-mail sent to this address are simply lost in the vast mess.
From: Jolly Roger on 16 Mar 2010 09:59 In article <gl4317-1603100308170001(a)69-30-10-103.pxd.easystreet.com>, gl4317(a)yahoo.com (gl4317(a)yahoo.com) wrote: > For various reasons, I have a desire to set up a cheap printer and print > server in a certain location. > > I'm thinking the best way to do this might be to get a very old Mac > (cheap) and printer that will use the old style Apple serial cable. The > several people that would need to use it could simply come to it with > their laptops, plug in the ethernet cable, and use the printer as > basically a miniature network with printer. > > But, how easy would it be to get a reasonably new Mac OS computer to > recognize an old-ish Mac network and network printer? Why not just use Mac OS X's built-in printer sharing functionality to share the printer with any computer on your network? -- Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: gl4317 on 17 Mar 2010 01:06 In article <slrnhpv51a.152c.g.kreme(a)cerebus.local>, Lewis <g.kreme(a)gmail.com.dontsendmecopies> wrote: > In message <gl4317-1603100308170001(a)69-30-10-103.pxd.easystreet.com> > gl4317(a)yahoo.com <gl4317(a)yahoo.com> wrote: > > > For various reasons, I have a desire to set up a cheap printer and print > > server in a certain location. > > > I'm thinking the best way to do this might be to get a very old Mac > > (cheap) and printer that will use the old style Apple serial cable. The > > If by best you mean "worst" sure. > > There are many wifi enabled printers. You put them where ever is > convenient and join them to your wifi LAN. > > Voila! Done. > > Or there are tons of printers that have ethernet... In that case, I would have to purchase a new printer. There is no sense in doing that in this case, as the total usage is maybe several times a month. -- -Glennl Please note this e-mail address is a pit of spam, and most e-mail sent to this address are simply lost in the vast mess.
From: Geoffrey S. Mendelson on 17 Mar 2010 11:14 Lewis wrote: > How much money would you spend on powering the existing printer and an > accompanying computer? Here in Israel, the latest Samsung black and white laser printer is on sale about once a month for 300 NIS (around $75). It comes with a 1000 page cartridge. A new, 2000 page cartridge costs about $20 more. It uses 6 watts on standby. They also seem to come out with a new model that has more features and is faster every three months. In the 15 months that I have had mine, they have came out with 4 models. At that price and power consumption, it's cheaper to leave it on all the time and buy a new one when the cartridge runs out (in my case over a year). It's not a waste, there are lots of people who would gladly take the printer, stick a off brand cartridge in it and run it to death. I on the other hand need it for the few print jobs I do a week, often 1 or 2 pages. > > How long before that cost would be recouped with a new, low power, > printer? My thoughts exactly. Geoff. -- Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm(a)mendelson.com N3OWJ/4X1GM New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation. i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.
From: Wayne C. Morris on 17 Mar 2010 15:50
In article <slrnhq1s9s.gs6.gsm(a)cable.mendelson.com>, "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm(a)cable.mendelson.com> wrote: > Lewis wrote: > > > How much money would you spend on powering the existing printer and an > > accompanying computer? > > Here in Israel, the latest Samsung black and white laser printer is on > sale about once a month for 300 NIS (around $75). It comes with a 1000 page > cartridge. A new, 2000 page cartridge costs about $20 more. > > It uses 6 watts on standby. [snip] > At that price and power consumption, it's cheaper to leave it on all the time > and buy a new one when the cartridge runs out (in my case over a year). > It's not a waste, there are lots of people who would gladly take the printer, > stick a off brand cartridge in it and run it to death. A new printer may be lower in price but it costs more over 3+ years: For 3000 pages, you end up paying $225 for 3 printers, compared to $170 for 1 printer plus 1 replacement cartridge. Unless you sell the used printers for more than they're worth, to someone who forgets to factor in the cost of a new off-brand cartridge. My laser printer is over 10 years old and uses 5 watts on standby. It may lack the speed and features of current models, but for my usage it's still more than adequate, and it's more cost-effective to keep using it than to replace it. |