I am in process of setting up a print server either running on NT or 2000, and have a couple of questions regarding software / hardware specs. Firstly, what is the optimum disk size I would require to comfortably run upto 100 networked printers. Also, what spec of machine would be recommended to manage a heavy pay-load. Finally, are there any print server issues with NT & 2000 which I would need to look into that I may have overlooked? Thanks

First of all : Are you working in a domain?? Is this a mixedmode domain ( W2k and NT4 servers) If not and you use only NT$ stick to NT4 do not go to mixed mode !!!! OKay that's settled Then Do you realy have 100 printers or 100 users?? In case of 100 printers buy more then 1 printerserver and make your netwerk redundant. Add printer via the loginscript so if 1 printserver will die you can easy change to the other server by changing the part from the script for the users on that server. MAke sure you have enough RAM in the printer to deal with multiple big print jobs Select part of a disk or a whole disk/drive for the spooler. Everything depends abit of your business (Grafic or Office ) I have printjobs of 100 MB running at my job Lotsa pictures on hires

What spec of server would you recommend for up to 100 shared printers? This will be a single domain, so there will be no authenication issues, hopefully. Would you recommend NT4.0 or W2K, has we currently use both

Well stay away from mixedmode (NT4 and W2k) domains Choose all NT4 or W2k I would recommend more than 1 print server. Maybe 4 and you don't need to have Heavy servers if their job is dedicated printserver. Make sure you have enough diskspace to spool the jobs and put some extra RAM in those servers ( is not that expensive enymore so depending on your OS 512 MB would be a good start ) To make it easy to yourself and your clients assign the printerdefinitions thru the loginscript The for the printers Are they laserprinters (with or without disks) maybe colorprinters or plotters that will also effect your choice but diskspace and memeory is not expensive anymore so throw in some bucks and make sure you have plenty The Processor speed is less important. I try to imagine what you people are doing with 100 printers ?? Print !! of course hehehe

Thanks for the advice Robert. The current server environment has both NT and w2k. I am inclined to choose a w2k server has this is "allegdedly" the more stable OS, would you agree? do you know if you can allocate a portion of the hard drive to specifically handle spoolled jobs?

Well if you install your printerdrivers on your server the default location is C: for drivers and spooler However you can change the location of the spooler afterwards. The size can not be set like a swapfile however if you set the spooler to a directory called spooler on your largest partition and make sure this partition is not filled with files that will do the trick otherwise make a dedicated partition for a spooler then you are sure you never have to be afraid that files will use up the space you need to spool the printjobs. succes NT and W2k are both fine for printserver.