Printer pool

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A printer pool is a network of printers in a computer network , among which print jobs are automatically distributed.

The printer pool is controlled by a print server , which offers it like a single printer. If a print job is sent to this logical printer, it is forwarded to the next free printer in the network.

advantages

  • Less waiting times when sending multiple print jobs at the same time.
  • If a printer fails or is under maintenance, printing can still be done without users having to select another printer.

disadvantage

  • The users have no way of knowing which of the printers a document is being printed on. It may be necessary to search all output slots for the document.
  • If a user prints several documents, he cannot assume that all documents will be printed on the same printer.

When using a printer pool, you should therefore ensure that all printers are in the same place. However, newer systems usually tell the sender of the print job the name of the assigned printer, so that the disadvantages mentioned no longer apply to the same extent as before.