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There is a lot of discussion about IP addresses etc for printer problems. There is no mention of a new feature for porting for printers, WSD port for plug and play of printers, I assume that IP addresses do not matter with WSD, My printer is confusingly set up for WSD port and TCP/IP port, can someone please expain

 

Below is a description that I have found

 

The WSD Port Monitor is a new printer port monitor in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.  This port monitor supports printing to network devices that are designed to include Web Services for Devices (WSD) technology.  Web Services for Devices allows network-connected IP-based devices to advertise their functionality and offer these services to clients by using the Web Services protocol.  WSD-based devices and clients communicate over the network using a series of SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) messages over UDP and HTTP(S).  WSD for Devices provides a network plug-and-play experience that is similar to installing a USB device.  Web Services for Devices also defines a security profile that may be extended to provide additional protection and authentication using device-based certificates.

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The WSD is not a port, but a port monitor.  A port monitor looks at the information coming in from the TCP/IP port and makes changes or routing depending on what comes into the port.

This link has some in depth description of the WSD port monitor:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ask-the-performance-team/ws2008-the-wsd-port-monitor/ba-p/372... 

 

Back to the comparison of the IP address as a PO box.  Once the letter arrives in the PO box, someone has to come empty the box or the letters go no where.

 

When data comes into the TCP/IP port a port monitor is there watching for that to occur.  The WSD port monitor would take over that function from the regular TCP/IP port monitor.

I was an HP employee.

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WSD is not a type of connection but a way for network connected devices to advertise their presence on the network.  An IP address is still required before WSD could start to function.

 

The IP addres could be compared to a PO box and WSD as a change of address card letting everybody know of the new address.

I was an HP employee.

Please mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution"
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What does a WSD port do, that a TCP/IP port does not do? I can set mine for either

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The WSD is not a port, but a port monitor.  A port monitor looks at the information coming in from the TCP/IP port and makes changes or routing depending on what comes into the port.

This link has some in depth description of the WSD port monitor:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ask-the-performance-team/ws2008-the-wsd-port-monitor/ba-p/372... 

 

Back to the comparison of the IP address as a PO box.  Once the letter arrives in the PO box, someone has to come empty the box or the letters go no where.

 

When data comes into the TCP/IP port a port monitor is there watching for that to occur.  The WSD port monitor would take over that function from the regular TCP/IP port monitor.

I was an HP employee.

Please mark the post that solves your problem as "Accepted Solution"
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Greetings

 

First timer.

 

What's better a TCP/IP port or a WSD port?

 

Thank you!

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this reply is useless, think about the person who is looking some semblance of understanding the issue, your blog entry is useless.

 

the point is: suppose I have a printer on the moon and the only things the printer has  is power, paper and wireless tcp/ip port so NASA can sent it printing instructions, how then does wsd for devices help in this case!. does the printer device have to have a wsd server on it or what? is that simple!

 

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The replies so far have actually been very accurate. There useless to you as you seem to be looking for someone to make you understand what these ports do rather than give you good technical advice.

 

To reply to your question re NASA and the Moon. WSD is not a printing port so you obviously need IP to print to it as WSD is not a network protocol or a network address  - you have said this yourself in your own question - your printer has a wireless TCP port. WSD is a different type of port which allows secure communications and discovery over a network. WSD wouldn't make much difference on the Moon as NASA knows the name of the printer and its address, if they were trying to print to one of their NASA office printers here on earth then WSD would help as their Win7 PC's could discover the printing device and use it without having to tell all their users the printer name, which IP address it has been given or which server it is queued it is on.

 

You should respect the contirubters more on these forums. It's not their fault if you cannot grasp the difference on these technologies. WSD and IP are not the same thing so no comaprision can be made between them. Whether you can use them or not depends on which operating system you have on you client. Whether or not WSD is an advantage depends purely on the situation.

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The explanation of what WSD does is excellent.  My issue is why in the world would my I.P. printer port get replaced by "WSD..."? this has happen twice now and  I'm not sure why. I have a Win 08 R2 print server.

 

Thanks,

 

DTG

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OK, I feel I'm pretty versed in older networking info such as tcp/ip,UDP but why windows constantly comes with with new names and protocolish things.

I find it confusing. And someone asking questions obviously also does.

ANYONE on this forum that spews out technical speak to some asking a simple "which is better?" or "which should I use?" type of questions is obviously NOT looking for detailed tech speak.

So, you do them and the rest of us a disservice by responses of indignation "That was explained very well...It is not theposters fault you don't understand." is a unwarranted and inappropriate response.

You and other speak of WSD as some special magic that uses TCP/IP ALSO....in fact the article that was referred to says it uses UDP  NOT TCP/IP.

While TCP/IP isuniversally usedfor network communications it is a hand shaking, reliable protocol SET and has the associated overhead and lower transfer due to the three way handshake and reliability function of the tcp transfer.

UDP on the other hand is a realtime/time critical protocol used when data packet loss is not as critical as in dns lookup and skype communications (this is why skype sometimes makes those annoying buzzy and dropped out missing parts). UDP sends the data packets in a stream, one after another and has no mechanism to resend missing or bad packets -the advantage of the tcp handshake and reliability...send packet,recieved packet, packet (missing/bad) resend request, transfer complete(end).

 

I beleive the simple answer to posters here is ...

 

WINDOWS 8 and some windows 7 really like to connect using WSD...from the article:

"For WSD-based print devices,  the WSD Port Monitor is used by default.  If the print device does not support the WSD Port Monitor, then the Standard TCP/IP Port Monitor is used instead."

 

So my best guess is WSD replaces the TCP protocol functionality and uses the IP protocol connectivity.

 

WE ALL have gotten so accustomed to TCP/IPbeing used together we forget sometimes they are two separate protocols and can function separately.

 

IP protocol is like the house addresses for where did a letter get sent from and where is it going.

 

TCP protocol is like if you sent the letter requiring a signature for reciept request and automatically sending the letter again if you don't get the reciept signature.

 

WSD replaces the TCP functions with it's own delivery controls. 

to use WSD you MUST supply the IP address and because it uses TCP as a fallback when WSD isnot working correctly, TCP protocol is also set up for the printer.

 

WSD devices will try to use WSD and IP, if it isn't working it will try TCP and IP to transfer the data.

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Most likely reason is that you have updated or installed the HP Universal Print Driver to run the pritners on your server. If you wanted to keep WDS off permenantly you would need to only use PS or PCL driver packages. WDS is more of a discovery / "advertise your presence"protocol. There is no harm is leaving it as WDS as it should be transparent to your operations or possibly benneficial to users if they have not been setup onto the printer by the IT staff or logon routine.

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