[OPLINTECH] Wireless printing

[Nathan Eady]

"Jessica D. Dooley" <website at ripleylibrary.com> writes:

> I'm investigating our options for providing wireless printing to
> patrons using their devices in the library. I'd love to hear from
> anyone who currently provides this service. What setup do you use? 

Currently we don't.  Occasionally we get requests for it.  If I knew of
an easy way I might consider it, but...

> What pros/cons have you encountered? Network issues? Security or abuse
> issues? Patron ease-of-use?

The major wall for me is that I'm not aware of any way to do it that
doesn't involve installing print drivers on every single computer that
wants to be able to print.  I do *not* fancy trying to install drivers
on every patron's computer.  

I've heard rumors of wireless access points that provide a printing
service that is completely automatic (the patron connects to the
wireless access point, hits print, and the print job automatically goes
to the printer connected to the WAP), but that sounds like Hollywood
sci-fi stuff to me.  No matter what you install on the server side, how
do you get around the client operating system's requirement (common to
every major operating system since the mid nineties) that it must have a
printer-specific driver installed in order to know how to print?

-- 
Nathan Eady
Galion Public Library