I am looking to replace several hundred servers in my organization that happen to each be at a remote location. Our only hangup is printing, as the servers currently act as File/Print servers for each location's users.
I've been looking for a cost-effective appliance that can function as a normal print server (UNC Pathing, local queuing). So far, I've found a single candidate that performs this function, and frankly, it's cost is well above what I have expected (the HP 4250 print server, a discontinued item with an MSRP that is comparable, if not more, than the cost of our servers).
Swimming through the google-mire results in getting a lot of USB and parallel port devices for networking a non-networked desktop printer, but nothing like what I need, a dedicated print server appliance that will manage multiple network-capable printers and MFP's.
Are there reliable, less-expensive alternatives to the HP Print Server Appliance 4250 series?
Best Answer
We have several hundred printers, but only about 20 network ones (3 mfp - the rest just B&W ): mostly HP and Kyocera. I setup a dedicated Virtual Machine (on a Citrix XEN host) running Debian 6 to run CUPS. It was really easy to setup (I'm talking less than an hour for a whole process), didn't need any special hardware for it and it is able to handle all the requests for now. We print about 80,000 pages a month through it.
I would give it a shot. I can use one of the older HP G4 or even G5 servers ( get one from Ebay for a $200 - $300), setup debian ( or whatever linux distro you like) and set up CUPS. It may surprise you.