-tictech message:
Peggy Newton wrote:
> Printers have been a major problem for us at BF Day. Sharing the levy
> machines with the CWS has caused freezing problems on the teacher
> workstations (CWS), so we tried connecting the CWS with a USB cable to
> the printer. Then, using the parallel cable from the same printer, a
> levy computer is hooked up (but not shared with the CWS). Then, if there
Peggy, this is just amazing (I'm gonna try and hook my digital camera up to
my phone line and see what happens - ha!). It really is surprising what
will work in desperate times. Another way to make the cws share a printer
with a shared out win9X machine: use one of those old parallel printer A/B
switch boxes - the kind that was pretty popular before networking came
along. The teacher and/or students would have to manually flip the switch
to the proper machine before printing. These things used to cost about
$25 - places like Radio Shack had them. One obvious consideration is the
printer - it must accept a parallel connection. But the biggest obstacle -
and it is a BIG one - is placement of the computers. In both Peggy's
suggestion and mine, the cws machine, the printer, and the 9X machine
connected to the shared printer must be right next to each other. In a
classroom, it would be very lucky if all those pieces fell into place
without major disruptions to the classroom layout, confidentiality, and
teaching style. For most, it won't work. But I'm thinking about trying it.
Problem is, I'll have to get my box back from our speech therapist - who has
her nifty cws laptop hooked up to a shared printer via a switch box just the
way I described above :) Good luck, everybody - Mark
Mark Ahlness
mlahlness@seattleschools.org
http://www.earthdaybags.org/mahlness.htm
Arbor Heights Elementary
www.arborheights.com
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