[NA]Printers, still[NA]

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dave Taylor
OK I think I found one or two I can live with. I didn't say 'like'!
Opinions please:

I have a couple of Lexmark printers that have served well so I thought I'd try one of their color ones, on sale for $150:
http://www.lexmark.com/uncomplicate...,204816596_380027908_331712249_en_0_6,00.html
but if I want to do it wirelessly, they say I cannot just use the router in my house, I have to buy their $150 print server:
http://www.lexmark.com/uncomplicate...,204816596_248790254_338225218_en_0_1,00.html
I am worried the computer will be confused by the presence of a 802.11 router and an 802.11 print server.

Then there is a competing product, the $359 HP with the wireless capability built in:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...g=&category=&subcat1=&catLevel=#defaultAnchor


Whatdya think?
 
The print server acts as a client, not a router/access point (usually there is a mode to switch for these things). I wouldn't worry about it. I've installed a bunch of print servers (although not Lexmark's and especially for that price).

I'm not a big fan of how HP handles wireless. I haven't had good experience with them.
 
Dave, I agree with Brian as far as the comment about HP's print servers (and not just wireless ones); they tend to want you to load HP bloatware on each PC just to make it work.

There are plenty of very inexpensive wireless print servers available, from names like Linksys and Hawking, and most of these are stone simple to install and use.

Here are som eD-Link ones for pretty cheap: http://store.yahoo.com/justdeals/dlwiandlanne.html

I prefer to let the printer maker build the printer, and the network guy build the network stuff.
 
Oh man you guys are so far ahead of me on this tech stuff...

So. If I get the Lexmark printer and buy a Wireless Print ServerWPS (yikes which one, Spike - that page had 12 of them!) I can plug the printer into the WPS and it will somehow know to communicate with the 802.11 card in my (and Janet's) notebooks so that we can both send commands?
Thanks!!
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Oh man you guys are so far ahead of me on this tech stuff...

So. If I get the Lexmark printer and buy a Wireless Print ServerWPS (yikes which one, Spike - that page had 12 of them!) I can plug the printer into the WPS and it will somehow know to communicate with the 802.11 card in my (and Janet's) notebooks so that we can both send commands?
Thanks!!
Click to expand...
You'll have to do a little configuration but I know the D-Links and Linksys both come with CD-based wizards to set everything up for you. Not sure about the rest.
 
PanPanPan Spike, I just called both Linksys and DLink & they say they do not have servers compatible with multifunction (copyprintscanfax) units.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
PanPanPan Spike, I just called both Linksys and DLink & they say they do not have servers compatible with multifunction (copyprintscanfax) units.
Click to expand...
Nobody does. That's a complete separate series of functions. If you require all of that, you may as well hook it up to a computer directly.

Personally, I have an Epson RX500. I have a separate print server for network printing. When I scan, I save it to a CompactFlash card and transfer it to the computer. Easy and relatively painless (plus no extra driver crap).
 
Thanks Guys, I am learning more than I planned to know! (for [non-av] devices, I prefer plug and play - a big "ON -- OFF" switch!)
 
Don't even get me started on those HP wireless printers. :mad:

The drivers are over 400 megabyte of absolute crap.

That's right. 400 megabyte for a printer driver.

Next up, They make all kinds of mounts (for the memory card readers) so what will happen is the customer will forget to turn their printer on. Plug their memory card in. Go to their computer and try to open the mount. Windows says it's not there.. Customer deletes mount. Not only that you get multiple failed mount errors on boot which customers also don't much care for.

I cannot even count the times that I've had to go onsite to set these up only to have a very frustrated and upset customer. Then you get a phone call the next day where they messed it up again. And back onsite you are.


Give me a wireless printer that speaks post script / ghost script for under $200. Then I'd be happy.

It can get worse though....
You want to talk about bad printers.. ...Epson RX600.
 
Dave, if you want to have a wirelss connection to a multifunction device, you'll have to do it like I did- I have a Brother MFC3820CN (now superceded by a couple of better and cheaper and smaller unit), which is fax / scan / color printer and is network-enabled from the start; then, you connect it to the network by plugging into your wireless router, or (if the multi-function device is going to be located away from the rest of the stuff) by using a wireless bridge- plgs into the printer's ethernet port, and connects to the wireless access point as if the MFC is plugged directly into the network.

Mine works, although I cannot claim it is perfect (the Brother MFC software does not always play nice with 3rd-party software, such as my OCR software). Works fine for (for example) scanning photos and printing whatever.

Look to spend about $150-200 for the MFC, and another $60-100 for the wireless bridge (hint: if they call it a "bridge," it costs more than if they call it a "wireless gaming adapter," but they do terzakly the same thing, just different packaging).

Here are three of the Brother devices.

http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do...FILTER(domestic)&N=1000000488+10324&An=browse
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do...FILTER(domestic)&N=1000000488+10324&An=browse
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=391800&N=1000000488+10324&An=browse

Cheap bridge:
http://store.yahoo.com/justdeals/nemewietbrac.html

Gaming adapter which should also work (connects to an 802.11g so could be faster if your wireless access point is a g)
http://store.yahoo.com/justdeals/wge111nar.html

Hope this helps; FWIW, I have gotten pretty good print quality from the Brother, but (as always), YMMV.
 
Thanks all - Spike; I dunno.... I remember hating Bro for some reason years ago... and to be honest I want to avoid anything that is remotely troublesome. The danged HP was so hard to get the computer to see, the paper wouldn't feed, it had other probs. If networked printing is going to be anything but a sure thing I guess I will just rely on the usb cord til the technology advances (or I get some spare dough to afford the pricey stuff).
Now I just have to worry about what will happen when we want to share the printer between the two notebooks... what will happen when we move the USB cord from one to the other computer.
[icon for X'd fingers]

Thanks folks!
 
Dave, if printing, alone, is what you want, a $50.00 print server is all you need. I have not installed one since... oh yeah, today, a Hawking ethernet parallel. Plugged and played as advertised, box to test print about 3 minutes. USB models work similarly,and they are bidirectional.

Come to think of it, the parallel one I installed today must have *some* bidirectional ability, as the setup utility knew what kind of printer the "server" was plugged into.

Decide what you want to do, be specific, and there's an answer. never a GOOD answer, but hey...
 
I have the HP Photosmart 2710.

Jesse is right and wrong... if you want to access all the features AND have all the extra software that HP includes (image editing, image sharing, etc) then its 400+ MB.

The core driver and connection software to access just the basic printer features is more like 50 MB.
 
Greebo said:
I have the HP Photosmart 2710.

Jesse is right and wrong... if you want to access all the features AND have all the extra software that HP includes (image editing, image sharing, etc) then its 400+ MB.

The core driver and connection software to access just the basic printer features is more like 50 MB.
Click to expand...


And.. you are right. Core driver is 37.41 M

I could have sworn the last time I downloaded it from their website the smaller driver lacked wireless support. Oh well.

btw (the extra software is..crap)
 
SCCutler said:
Come to think of it, the parallel one I installed today must have *some* bidirectional ability, as the setup utility knew what kind of printer the "server" was plugged into.
Click to expand...

The original parallel port specification was unidirectional. When the PS/2 was released by IBM they added something called SPP. This was bidirectional.

A little bit later Intel and two other companies released EPP which basically was just faster. It was targeted at storage devices.

and then.. Hewlett Packard & Microsoft released ECP this was basically a faster parallel port targeted at printers.

Then sometime in the mid 90s the IEEE 1284 standard came out. It included both EPP and ECP.

Pretty much any computer is going to support either one, But you can count on essentially every parallel port you see being bidirectional.
 
Well Jesse its bloated, I'll agree - but I do like the ability to scan or pull pics directly from the printer to a computer of choice. I plug the mem card in downstairs, tell the printer to dump them to my laptop upstairs, and pull the card back out then go upstairs and the pics are on my laptop w/o me runing up and down stairs several times.

But I can appreciate your frustration with the size and tech problems - I had to reinstall it twice on my wifes pc b4 it would work...
 
And... testing...
:fcross:

What a perfect icon for testing.

Now if I had the tools here modify it to have a transparent background...
 
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