How to Connect Multiple USB Printers

By Solomon Poretsky

Instead of incurring the network overhead of sharing printers, sometimes it makes more sense to connect printers directly to the computers of the people that use them. Furthermore, in many business settings, black-and-white output is more important than color. With this in mind, a low-cost way to equip employees would be to give them two printers -- an inexpensive single-user black-and-white laser printer for everyday output and an inexpensive inkjet color printer for occasional color printing. All you need to connect multiple printers to a single computer is a USB port for each printer.

Place the first printer's installation CD in your computer's CD or DVD drive and follow the prompts to install the driver.

Plug one end of the first printer's USB cable into the printer and the other end into the computer's USB port when the driver installation process tells you to. If it's not already powered on, turn the printer on. Wait for the software to recognize the printer.

Follow the prompts to finish the installation process and exit the software.

Remove the first driver disc from your CD drive. While the drive is open, replace it with the driver disc for the second printer.

Follow the prompts to install the second printer. Insert the printer's USB cable into a USB port on your computer when prompted.

Remove the second printer's installation disc from your computer's optical drive.

Tips

With some printers, you can skip installing the software and just plug them in. This works particularly well if you have already installed the printer on your computer. If you need more USB ports, install a USB hub.

References

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