Technology Policies/Network Printers

Network Assignment

To properly configure network printers initially on a windows network:

  1. Leave printers setup in DHCP
  2. Check DHCP server and use the MAC address information to establish a DHCP reservation. Remember to set the reservation in ‘all’ DHCP servers.
  3. Restart the network printer as necessary
  4. Add printer on server via TCP/IP address
  5. Deploy via Group Policy

Color Network Printers

  • Configure default color setting as “black & white” which will force the end users to choose color only when the want it.
Rationale: From experience, users will not elect to go through the extra steps required to select black & white when printing and e-mail or website, even when color is not necessary. However, these extra color pages can contribute significantly toward the number of annual color pages.
  • Color printing access: depending on the printer/MFP device, along with its drivers, there are several options to restrict color printing.
  1. Use the printer configuration for access control lists within the printer itself, which will then require a “code/password” on each client’s workstation to be setup.
  2. Create two different shared printers on the server, one of which is black & white only (color disabled) and then use windows ACL to determine who has access to which features