Connect via a Windows PC

Last updated on Fri, 27/01/2012 - 15:30 by irtennant.

Life Sciences Computing will generally deploy printers to our managed workstations, the following information is for connection of personal computers. You may need access to the appropriate printer driver, this can be downloaded from the manufaturer's web site.

Read the printer name from the yellow label or equipment number from the white label e.g. if your label is: FIERY1632, 08:00:37:14:C5:28 or if your label is: fiery1632.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk (08:00:37:14:C5:28) ⇒ the printer name is 'fiery1632.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk' or if your label shows 22345.printers ⇒ the printer name is '22345.printers.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk'

If there is only a white asset label the printer name is <equipment_number>.printers.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk ⇒eg 22345.printers.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk

Enter the printer settings:

  • go Start > Settings > Printers
  • click on the Add Printer icon
  • progress the Add Printer Wizard
  • select the option for Local Printer
  • make sure the option to automatically select Plug and Play printers is deselected
  • next, choose Create a new port of the type Standard TCP/IP Port
  • choose Add Port > Standard TCP/IP Port
  • progress the Add Printer Port Wizard
  • at Printer Name or IP Address enter the full name retrieved from the label on the printer - eg printername.printers.lifesci.dundee.ac.uk
  • Proceed to the end of the Wizard, close the Printer Ports window
  • on return to the Add Printer Wizard, either:
    • choose the appropriate Manufacturer and Model
    • or, insert the manufacturer's driver CD and choose 'Have Disk'
    • or, choose 'Have Disk' and browse to your downloaded driver
    • NOTE: for HP Printers on Windows workstations, a Printer Control Language driver is usually the best choice. PCL uses the PC's processor to render the image, and will do that faster than the printer. However, PCL is a simpler language, and lacks many of the complex drawing and scaling functions that are available in postscript. If you are using a package which takes advantage of postscript's capabilities (e.g. most Adobe products and some others), you may get better quality output using postscript drivers.