Re: [H] Wireless Print Servers

[Winterlight]

I recently hooked up a new Netgear USB Print Server to my Laser. It is the 
first time I have used one of these. It works fine, but there are issues 
with print servers like this that you should be aware of . According to the 
Netgear manual, no print server supports bi-directional, and in my case I 
had to turn it off in order to use the print server with my printers.

The result of this was that in order to use it with my Lexmark Z52, I had 
to use native windows drivers which had little or no adjustments, and were 
unacceptable. The laser works fine with the print server, but I can't use 
the utility that ships with the driver, in order to determine how much 
toner is left, or anything else it does.

For a print server, and I realize you wrote wireless, you are much better 
off using an old laptop, maybe with a wireless NIC. I am using my old 
Latitude 233CP, Win 2K SP4, 128 megs of EDO. These can be bought on Ebay 
for under 100 bucks. Using this as a print server, I can use the Lexmark 
custom drivers, the Laser's utility and as many printers as I want. It has 
the added advantage of being my FTP server, and the FTP program to upload 
back files to my remote server. And with it's 20GB hard drive I can store a 
few files on it if necessary.


At 08:24 PM 4/5/2005, you wrote:
Hello HWG-ers.
It's been awhile since I've given much thought to new purchases, but can't
hold out any longer ...
What's hot in wireless print servers? We have two USB printers that I would
like to have remote access to in a closet away from the loft where our main
desktops are. I have a D-link 802.11b network now, but will be upgrading the
WAP/Router/firewall to 802.11g in the near future.
All suggestions and/or personal experiences appreciated.
_jim