What is the difference between a standard printer and a network printer?

I am looking for an new HP 4000 series printer for my office. I have found that some printers are labeled as network printers. The printers we have are not network printers but are "shared" through our network. What is the difference?

Same terminology as many Government Agencies and Corporate Businesses will buy and equip their commercial grade HP Laserjet Printers like HP 4000 with supplemental "HP JET DIRECT CARD" so it can be used on their NETWORK and shared among authorized users.

Then again sometimes same HP Laserjet can be set as LPT1 standalone printer for one particular user/employee or workstation where other coworkers have no access and this HP Laserjet printer is running strictly on LPT1 parallel cable

Hope the Above Info Helps!

Any printer can be networked, but the bigger, faster printers are often advertised a network-ready because they are more suitable for shared usage, and may even have an integrated server-interface card.

Network printers have their own network jacks built into them, and can be "stand-alone" network printers. That means that they do not need to have a computer attached to them in order to be accessed over a network.

NONE!