Introduction
The backbone, or basis, of Windows Home Server 2011 is Windows Server 2008 R2. Much of the functionality of that comes with Server 2008 is turned off by default. I do not mess with this functionality very much as I am basically quite happy with my server in its main roles:
- as a file server
- as a client backup server
- for remote web access
Recently, I have been toying with the idea of trying to see if I could set my WHS up as a print server. My printer is an Ethernet enabled printer, so you might ask why would I need/want to do this. I have asked myself the same question over time, and found myself wondering the same thing.
That was then and this now, as I think I have come up a reason, or reasons, and it mostly comes from the desire to have one machine being the print spooler. Print Server = centralized print spooling. Yes, you can set job priorities and perform other print management tasks from a print server, which are mostly unnecessary for a SOHO environment. The impetus behind this desire to have a centralized spooler comes mostly from what I believe is the weak spooling capability of client (desktop) machines. Every so often, I get a spooling error on my machine; the result is a print job that cannot be restarted or deleted. If I restart my machine, the print job takes off and prints. This is a rare and minor annoyance, and I never really thought about the cause of the problem.
Then there is my wife’s computer and her computing habits. She has a laptop and has the common habit of simply closing the lid when not in use, which puts it to sleep. When she brings the computer back up and tries to print something, the spooler goes into error mode. The same thing happens when she goes to print something and she closes the lid before the job is spooled. I finally figured out that the spooler must get paused during these events and does not get properly reinitialized once the computer is brought back to life.
In addition, if the printer happens to be turned off, the spooler does not like that either and also hangs on that error, which is probably the error that occurs on my desktop machine.
So, my thoughts turned to my WHS and if it had the ability to act as a Print Server. Assuming that it could become a print server, my next question was how well it would work when using an add-in such as Lights-Out which puts the server into hibernation/suspension during cessation of client activity.
To answer the question as to whether a Windows Home Server 2011 machine can act as a Print Server, the answer is a resounding Yes! For all you IT people out there, you probably already know how to set up a server to act as a Print Server. For the rest of you, read on.
