ethernet printer

I am a high school Photography teacher who is changing the class from film to digital. I have been asked to suggest a printer that can be used for the class. There will be ~26 students wanting to print their assignments; frequently all at the same time.

The school's IT department suggests that the printer be ethernet compatible.
I have found that this severely limits my selection.

Knowing that I don't want to be changing ink cartridges frequently, I believe that I want individual color cartridges that are the extra large size. Yes/No?

Being a public school, I do not have a very large account to pay for the printer, paper and inks, not to mention maintenance.

I have learned that members here are very particular about how their product comes out. As a high school teacher I am trying to get the students turned onto photography, so I want good images but I do not need great images.

Suggestions Please!!

If you cannot find a decent printer with a built-in ethernet port, you can use a standard printer and an ethernet print server. An example is my old Linksys PPSX1 print server that I use every day.

You would need to choose a print server that provides the type of connection that the printer needs. Printers commonly use either a USB or a DB25/Centronics connection.

You can also use a computer that you already have and share the printer from that machine.

A company name Keyspan also makes network print servers.

http://www.keyspan.com …ge.2.productLis​t.USB.spml

These appear be bidirectional so the printer status (paper, ink, etc) will available at the client machines.

Some earlier models of print servers did not support bidirectional communications.

Good luck.

Quad wrote in post #4931758
You can also use a computer that you already have and share the printer from that machine.

That definitely works, but it demands that the computer which has the printer connected to it be turned on when folks want to print. As long as that is done, then there's no problem.

You might consider getting a color laser printer for proofs (they're readily networkable and somewhat lower operating costs) and use a good inkjet only for the final prints. A decent colour calibration system's going to be a must anyhow.

HP do a number of networkable printers that can be used. They often use the "n" suffix to indicate they are networkable, e.g. 2600n.

A number of their multifuction devices such as the HP Colour Laserjet 2840 are also equipped with their own built-in print server with RJ-45 port.

SkipD wrote in post #4933973
That definitely works, but it demands that the computer which has the printer connected to it be turned on when folks want to print. As long as that is done, then there's no problem.

Not really mine goes into hibernation after two mins. and the print call wakes it up. It is just a way to do it if you already have a machine already, even a fairly old machine without getting more stuff. I found it to be more reliable than the printer server I had (it drove me mad) and I use it as a back up/media server as well. It is my old hard drive retirement home.

I was thinking in a school environment there must be multiple machines around maybe a few in some supply closet not being used due to being too old.

You might look into a HP 2605dn. They are going for about $250 at most stores (Office Depot, Staples, Office Max, etc...) It comes with ethernet capability, 4 toner cartridges and also allows for 2 sided printing.

Thanks for the input. I now have some ideas to bounce off of the IT dept. I know that we have some spare computers that could be used as servers.

I will also look into the HP 2605dn.