Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer WPS54G – Print server – Hi-Speed USB – Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, 802.11b, 802.11g – 10Base-T, 100Base-TX
Product Description
The Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer lets you connect a USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print sharing chores. Using a PrintServer frees up your “print share PC” so you don’t have to leave it on all the time. It also removes the printing bottleneck, and sets your PC free to do more useful work.Connect the PrintServer directly to your network by 10/100 Ethernet cable, or wirelessly over 54Mbps Wireless-G (802.11g). The wireless option lets you put your printer wherever you want to, without having to run cables. Whichever way the PrintServer is attached to your network, both your wireless and wired PCs will have access to it, and the printer it’s connected to. And if you don’t use wireless for general networking in your office, you can still use the Wireless-G connection in ad-hoc mode to print from visiting Wireless-G and Wireless-B PCs.The USB port is compatible with USB 1.1 printers, as well as printers that support the new high-speed USB 2.0 specification for even faster throughput. Your data is protected by up to 128-bit WEP encryption, or pre-shared-key WPA. A user-friendly Setup Wizard makes installation easy, the compact case fits anywhere, and the three megabyte print buffer size handles even large graphics-intensive print jobs. Let the Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer for USB 2.0 bring efficiency to your printing tasks.
I am fairly tech-savvy, and could never get the wireless on this device working properly. It wasn’t a big issue for me as I just have the printer up by the router, but it was disappointing to see that I didn’t have any options.
Whenever the power is cut to the device, it loses all memory. The firmware doesn’t keep the IP address settings (if it isn’t set up for DHCP, which incidently I couldn’t get working properly either), so every time it is unplugged or there is a surge of any significance, you will have to plug this into your system and reconfigure it WHILE BEING VERY CAREFUL NOT TO UNPLUG IT.
Complaints aside, what did work worked very well. It was able to print correctly to all USB printers I had hooked up to it — even through a USB->parallel adapter.
If I hadn’t a clue what I was doing, I never would have gotten this working – even with the PDF manual I found online. If you are a technical novice, this is probably not the printserver for you.
Rating: 3 / 5