Networks·41,424 discussions

I have two different networks — need to be able to print to same printer

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I have a rather large office that I have two different internet providers for-for fail safe reasons. One I will be using strictly for wireless. I need both networks to be able to access the same printers. Is there some type of print server that can handle this or software or even if I need a pc to just handle this traffic. I am open to any suggestions. I just need to get the job done. Thank you for any ideas.

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In reply to I have two different networks — need to be able to print to same printer

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Several ways

In reply to I have two different networks — need to be able to print to same printer

I don’t know of any print server appliances that are designed to serve 2 different networks. You say this is a large office, then do they have server(s), active directory, any other shared resources besides just printers? If so, how do they access the other shared resources? Do members of the 2 different networks need to share files with each other?

One way, not knowing the rest of the story, is if you have a server or PC with dual NIC’s, you can attach one NIC to each network and share the printer(s) through this PC or server.

Another way is to install a real router and route between the networks.

Difficult to suggest which method is best not knowing what else they have happening at the site.

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In reply to Several ways

Thankyou for resonding….Ok lets call them networks A and B. A is running Server 2003 and B will just be running a a wirelss network. They dont need to file share with B. Just need to be able to use some of the same printers. I have a PC that acts a print server for A and if there is a way to have a seconde nic card work for network B than I think this would be the best way. I have already physically added the second nic card to it but dont know what to do next…would appreciate any help. Thankyou.

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In reply to More Info

Cable the 2nd NIC in your print server workstation to network B, and give the print server a valid static IP on network B (leaving the default gateway blank on the network B NIC). Verify pingage from a network B wireless client to the network B IP of the PC.

The last question is that of authentication. I’m not sure if you’re running Active Directory on network A, but for B to use the shared printers on the print server, you’ll probably have to set up a dummy user on the Active Directory to allow network B users permission to connect to the shared printers.

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