Printers with more than one cable

[Guest]

I have a question that may be stupid. But can you have one computer hooked up to a printer with a printer cable, then have another computer hooked up to that printer with a USB cable? It seems one port seems to claim dominance over the other. The printer is an HP 842c and the two computers are both Win98. Thanks

 

[camieabz]

You need to have the printer operating on the one medium (USB, parallel).

I've never tried it, but I reckon if you connect two PCs and a printer to a USB hub, the PCs will try identify each other as devices.

The answer would be to get a couple of NICs and a crossover cable, allow shared devices etc. and attach the printer to one of the PCs.

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[Mavicator]

Why not just set up a small network? Plug the printer into one machine, and on the other go to the control panel and install a network printer. The only drawback is that to print from the second machine, the one the printer is connected to will have to be turned on.

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[camieabz]

If both machines have Wake on LAN then it shouldn't be a problem.

What to do is to assign PC 1 as Server. PC 2 as workstation. Plug the printer into PC 1 and have it always running. PC 2 can be switched on and will always have access to the printer.

<b>
Heatsinks, fans & whisky...Everythings Cool!
</b>

 

[Mavicator]

That's exactly what I have running. I put two printers on a server which is running 24/7. My other two machines can access the printers at any time. Works like a charm!

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