Set up a Print Pool

Printer pools are typically used in high-volume printing environments, where many print devices service the needs of network users. In the previous chunk, we set up multiple printers to print to a single device. Print pooling is the conversepooling associates a single printer with multiple print devices.

Typically, printer pools are configured when many print devices of the same type are located on the network. This is to ensure all devices understand the instructions sent by the single type of print driver.

When submitting jobs to a print pool, the first available print device services the job. But what if you want to specify that a job gets sent to a specific printer, say the one that hasn't just run out of ink? In this instance, your only solution is to take the inkless printer offline; you don't have any control over which print device will eventually service the job.

One printer, multiple devices. Here's how to quickly set up a printer pool, assuming you have several of the same print device:

1.	Open the printer's Properties dialog box and click the Ports tab, as shown in Figure 8-11. Figure 8-11. You can set up a print pool in just a few clicks.
2.	At the bottom of the Ports tab, click the "Enable printer pooling" check box and then select the check boxes for the all the ports you want the printer to send its 1's and 0's to. If you do not select the "Enable printer pooling" check box, you will only be able to configure one port per printer.
3.	Click OK.

Keep Pooled Devices Close

For the reason just mentioned, it's wise to locate your pooled print devices close together. Because there's no way to predict which device prints the job, you don't want to have these devices in separate rooms, never mind on separate floors.