[OPLINTECH] Reliable Wireless Printer

[Chad Neeper]

Offering wireless printers for circulation/checkout? Or offering a printer
for wireless devices to print to?

Presumably the later.

I have a couple of libraries that have implemented a "poor-man" version.
Rather than using a fee-based service, they have put a reliable, recent
model HP printer in the same public IPv4 subnet as the wireless devices.
The printer itself doesn't need to be wireless, as long as it in the same
network as the WiFi. (In fact, I prefer the reliability of wired vs
wireless and disable wifi in this config.) Most print capable devices can
simply find it directly by IPv4 broadcast and can install drivers for the
printer and they're good to go. For Android devices, HP has an easy free
app that works really well for finding a local printer and printing to it.
Presumably there's also one for Apple devices as well. Linux
laptops/devices have pretty robust HP support too. That should cover most
popular devices that print.

Probably the biggest down-side to this solution is lack of accountability
and cost recovery. It would have to be honor system, although you could
probably maybe run it through a print server/manager system for cost
recovery. I haven't tried that, but as long as the printer is advertised on
the WiFi subnet, a local print management system would probably work fine
too.

Another down-side is that printing is limited to printing from within the
library's WiFi range. No printing the job from home and the coming to the
library to receive the actual product. If that's a service you want to
provide, then you're best going with a subscription service and not a
"poor-man" solution.

With a subscription service you might have better features and more polish.
However, unless the library just wants the additional and maybe better
service for patrons and accepts a financial net loss, I suppose you'd need
to have enough income from print volume to cover the cost of the service
you choose, as well as the cost of toner/paper/maintenance. So you may need
a pretty large volume if you're just looking at financial
self-sustainability of a subscription service for the wifi printing.

No matter whether you use a "poor-man" solution or subscribe to a service,
the device owner will probably have to take *some sort* of action at least
one time prior to printing. Most likely this is in the form of installing
something...an app, a print driver, maybe creating an account at some
website, (maybe all three!), etc.

With all the different and incompatible methods for printing, you'd think
that it was a recent invention! It should simply be ubiquitous by now.
Frustrating.  :-(


Chad


______________________________
*Chad Neeper*
Senior Systems Engineer

*Level 9 Networks*
740-548-8070 (voice)
866-214-6607 (fax)

*Full IT/Computer consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and
schools*

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Mark Sanzotta <msanzotta at acdl.info> wrote:

> Hello everyone!
>
> My Assistant Director has tasked me with offering wireless printers for
> our patrons.  Has anyone found wireless printers that are reliable?
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
> Mark
>
> --
> Mark Sanzotta
> Technology Coordinator
> Ashtabula County District Library
> 335 West 44th St.
> Ashtabula, Ohio  44004
> Work: 440.990.2339
> Cell:   440.969.5486
>
> “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back
> the right one.” ― Neil Gaiman
> <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1221698.Neil_Gaiman>
>
>
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