Hello there,

I have a office network going with a Windows NT Server 4.0 and a mixture of Win98, ME and XP clients.

I bought a few printers (HP5100 and HP 2100 Laserjets and a XEROX Phaser 7700) and I want to install them on the server so that the server acts like their print server. Then if I want to install them on the clients I just need to "add printer" and the drivers will be automatically installed from the server.

Can someone please kindly help give me a walkthrough on how to do this. I know that I can assign a fixed IP for the printers and install each printer on each client with a TCP/IP port so they will all print directly to the printers. But after consulting this forum I feel the better way is to install them on the server and let all the drivers andprint queues reside in the server.

Can someone explain to me how?
Thank you for your kind help.

I haven't used Windows NT. However, here's how it's done with other operating systems. Very easy.

1) Install the printers on the server.

2) Set the server to share files and printers

3) On the clients, in XP go to the Control Panel; click on Printers and Faxes, then click on Add a Printer, specify Network printer, then you can browse the network for shared printers. You will see the server printers listed. Pick one.

It may work but it sometimes gets tricky when trying to "push" a XP, or 2000 driver on an NT server.
I am looking for the MS KB article on how to "push" the driver, have not found the link yet.

You could buy another PC to act as print server, rather than use your main NT file server. I would suggest Windows XP to run the printer server. Shouldn't cost more than $350-400.