Printer Pooling
Printer pooling is a feature of the WIndows XP and Windows Vista operating systems. A printer pool treats a group of printers as one printer and distributes print jobs among the available printers.
Requirements for a Printer Pool
To create a printer pool for card printers:
•Install the printers to the same PC. You can use one or more of the following methods to install the printers:
—Install the printer locally using a USB port
—Install the printer using a direct network connection
•Use the Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system on the PC.
•All printers must be the same brand and have the same features to be part of the pool. For best results, use printers with the same brand, model, and configuration. Printers can be installed before or after the printer pool is set up and will be included in the pool. By default, all directly connected card printers are included in the pool, so all printers must support and use the same card features. If you need to exclude an installed card printer from the pool, see the Solutions Guide or your service provider.
•Use the method described in this section to set up printer pooling, not the Enable Printer Pooling check box on the Properties dialog box for the printer. Windows permits checking this box but does not permit displaying a message if the printer does not support it.
•Do not use special features that require interactive mode, including reading a magnetic stripe. These features and programming smart cards do not work with printer pooling. (The PC must communicate directly with the printer about a specific job, and this information is not available to the PC.)
•At least one actual printer must be installed before a printer pool can be installed.
•Do not use shared printers, which cannot be part of a printer pool.
56