Score:0

What is the best way to setup a network printer in an enterprise environment?

et flag

As far as I know the printers should get a static IP (with MAC and IP binding) assigned from the DHCP Server (in this case a router) so that the IP is taken from the DHCP IP pool.

An alternative to just setup a static IP on each printer manually got suggested.

Which option is the best? Is there an another option, which is even better?

Score:3
ru flag

It doesn't make a difference performance wise, but I recommend assigning fixed IP addresses by DHCP over manually configuring IP settings at each device.

If you assign a fixed IP address to the printer from your DHCP server you can change the IP address and other network settings in future without visiting the printer. Taking this approach is nice because most printers will request IP address via DHCP by default. You just need to know it's MAC address or some other identifier supported by your DHCP server.

Also your documentation is simpler if you assign all fixed IP addresses using DHCP - the record of what you assigned is your DHCP servers configuration, not some Excel spreadsheet lost and forgotten and 10 different versions in a filesystem somewhere.

Munchkin avatar
et flag
And this way IP conflicts shouldn't happen, right?
ru flag
That's right, the DHCP server will not issue the same address to multiple clients.
ru flag
@Chris I took a look, but I don't think the commenter understood either of the pages they linked to, as I couldn't find any reference to what they suggest they say.
Score:0
mx flag

Static IP always suggested because,

  1. Remotely you can monitor and print easily.
  2. If you wish to share the printer to other people, It will be very easy.
  3. If you wish to restrict some IP in your network, you already know the list of IP
  4. You can create IP ranges for each department.
  5. In heavy printers including scanners, you can remotely configure the directories to each user for scanner.

EDIT

Let say an example you are printing a document in 1st floor from second floor, It seems to be work. But if you restart your router the IP on the printer will change. So you will not have overhead of checking the printer IP again

Munchkin avatar
et flag
Which method exactly is recommended? To use the setup of a static IP on the printer or on the router (or equivalent device)?
Rinshan Kolayil avatar
mx flag
It doesn't matter you have different IPs for each router still you can use static IP for each printer.
eKKiM avatar
lr flag
I, personally, prefer using static leases from the DHCP with a lease time of 10 minutes. This way if the default gateway, DNS servers, ... changes in the environment you can apply these changes to your DHCP server and all printers will acquire these changed settings.
ru flag
I wouldn't recommend having such short lease times just in case you will change default gateway or DNS server addresses - not something that most networks with printers do very often. Short lease times introduce unnecessary broadcast traffic onto your network. Set your lease times long, then when you plan to change global settings set them shorter before making the change, if you have a large network. For a small network, you can power cycle devices or renew DHCP manually.
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