Network Printer Explanation

A networked printer is a printer that has been connected to the client’s network and had port forwarding set up on the router, so that we can connect to it over TCP/IP from outside the client’s network. This is to avoid the printer redirection that happens as part of the RDP connection, since there are many known issues and weaknesses with “redirected” printers that are avoided by installing the printer directly on the server as a TCP/IP device.

When to get a printer networked

There’s a few situations in which our only option is to set up printers as networked printers:

• When we can’t resolve an issue with a redirected printer
• If the printer is a receipt printer or label printer
• If the printer has multiple trays
• If the printer is not the user’s Windows default printer and they would like to use it as the default for a specific report within Infusion
• If the user would like to force specific settings against the printer, for example, defaulting to print in black and white only

The common factors here are that:

• Networked printers are much more reliable as they aren’t linked to the user’s session
• We have full control over all settings for networked printers, unlike redirected printers