And as you might expect, each method has its advantages and disadvantages.

Connecting a printer to the file server is the easiest method since the server is already connected to the network. All you need to do is to configure it to be a print server and attach the printer as usual through a serial or parallel connection. The primary disadvantage here is that the printer needs to be physically near the server, which is usually not near your users. After all, the last place you want to have users is in the same room as your file server.

The second alternative is to install the print server software on a separate computer system. For example, a low-end Pentium or even a 486 could serve as a dedicated NetWare print server. All you need to do is install the proper software and then deploy both the printer and print server. A variation of this method is to install a print server device, which contains one network interface and multiple parallel and/or serial interfaces. The benefit of these dedicated print servers is that you do not need to install or maintain an operating system in order to support your printers. Thus, when a new patch for NetWare or a service pack for Windows NT comes out, you will not have to update the print servers in addition to the file servers. Also, dedicated print servers are more stable than NOS-based print servers and provide more functionality. There are plenty of vendors who manufacture print servers such as Extended Systems and Axil. The Extended Systems ExtendNet 100zx supports both 10/100 Ethernet and has six high-speed parallel-port interfaces. Compare that with a NOS-based print server, where additional hardware and drivers must be installed, adding to the complexity and cost.

The third and most common approach is to purchase a printer that has an embedded print server. All of the leading printer vendors such as HP, IBM, Lexmark and Xerox support an internal print server. The advantage of this method is that you can deploy the printer close to your users, all you need to do is to make sure there is a network port available. In addition, since the network interface is installed as a part of the printer, there are no cables (besides the network connection) to deal with. Another advantage to using an integrated print server is that you can get more diagnostic information about the printer since the print server is hard-wired to the bus of the printer. Additionally, some of these printers support multiple network adapters. This can be very handy when you need to install a third-party compatible adapter that supports an uncommon configuration such as twinax or coax.

There are some instances where a combination of the second and third methods is necessary. For example, many times you need to provide connectivity to an environment that is not supported by your dedicated print server. In this situation, administrators typically connect a printer to the network using its internal network adapter and then attach the non-supported network to the additional parallel or serial interface on the printer.