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Share your USB printer and expand your network with one compact box The Linksys PrintServer for USB with 4-Port Switch is a double upgrade for your network. First, it lets you connect a USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print serving chores. Using a PrintServer frees up your print share PC so you dont have to leave it on all the time. It also removes the printing bottleneck, and sets your PC free to do more useful work. In addition, the PrintServer includes a 4-port 10/100 switch, so you can easily add more devices to your network. All four ports are auto speed negotiating, and have automatic MDI/MDI-X crossover detection, so you dont have to worry about the cable type.
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Technical Details
- Product Type - PrintServer- Connect your printer directly to the network, with no need to dedicate a PC to print server chores
- Also expands your network with a built-in 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch
- Remotely administered through your web browser or the included utility
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By Timothy S. Johnsrude (Bremerton, WA USA)
Linksys (Cisco) appears to believe that the only computer operating system is Windows. If you have a Mac running OSX, the setup disk makes a good coaster, or a sun catcher, or anything else but what it was intended for. Prepare to search the Internet for the support that Cisco won't/can't provide. If you are using a Mac because you are not a computer person, look for another print server.
I got the print server running after an hour and a half of trying this tip and that tip from the Web. If you're a Windows user, it might be easier to set up but I'll never know. If you do buy this server and find the correct configuration advice, print it and frame it and sell it to your Mac friends because you will have a hard time remembering how to do it later if you need to.
Are you listening Cisco?
By G. Vocks
I might be doing something wrong but I've given up on this as a print server. I read a lot of the reviews before I bought it but I guess that I should have read closer and paid more attention to them. I consider myself reasonably tech savy but this just wasn't very easy to install. I'm running MS Vista and I did get it to work, finally. I started out pretty much following the instructions (such as they are) and everythng seemed to work okay. But when I went to print the system just acted as if the printer wasn't there. I eventually did get it to work correctly and happily printed away from a couple of different computers on my home network. Then, at the end of the day, I shut the computers and the printers off, as I do every night. I did leave the print server, the router, and the modem powered on. Got up the next morning, powered up the computers and the printer, and tried to print. The system acted again as if there was no printer attached to the print server. Reinstalled the printer and everything worked fine until the next time that I shut down the printer. Had to reinstall it again the next day. Figured if I was going to have to reinstall the printer every day it wasn't worth the hassle. Took the printer and installed it on the main computer as a shared printer and took the print server and threw it in a drawer. It'll probably go in to the recycle bin the next time I head that way. Very disappointed in this product. Expected more from Cisco/Linksys!
By Jen
After hours and hours on the phone with Linksys support, we finally had a rep inform us that this print server IS NOT compatible with Windows 7 or Windows vista. They could rig it so it MIGHT work, but could not assure us that it would work reliably. Save your money, and time, and do not purchase this print server if your computer is running vista or windows 7.
By Buddypup (North Carolina)
A number of people rating this product stated it was difficult to install. I found just the opposite. I am running Windows XP, SP3 on my three computers (1 desktop and 2 laptops). My printer is an HP K550. I use automatic update to keep their software up-to-date. From the time I opened the box to the point I was printing from all computers was about 20 minutes. The install CD executed exactly as described in the Quick Install guide. While I will go back and change some parameters to be consistant with naming/numbering in my network, the out of the box install did everything necessary to start printing.
By Richard J. Maggio (NJ)
After reading reviews about this product, I was a little skeptical about how well it would work. However, given the prospect of being able to turn a PC off, I was willing to give it a try.
The setup of the device itself was easy. Since it has a built in switch, I didn't have to run more CAT-5, I just plugged what I had in and connected the provided cable between the PC and the switch. They even provide a USB cable!
The device configuration is straightforward - you set DHCP on/off, set an IP address, subnet mask, etc. if appropriate. Change account/password, give device another name if desired...done. You actually don't need to use their software to do this - it can all be done from the configuration web page.
I've read reviews that said the device ran very hot. Mine is running cool as a cucumber! The case is made from sturdy metal and is rather small. It is easily tucked away to the side.
The difficulty came in with setting up the printers on my various PCs. This was pretty straighforward on Windows XP. I found out that you don't need the Linksys software for that either! You just need the printer driver software for your printer. Configuring the printer on Vista was challenging, but with some Googling, I was able to find a solution. The short version is on Vista, you need to configure it as a locally attached printer (this is counterintuitive) but specify an IP port. At some point you enter the IP address and in the end, you have a working printer!
The only bummer is that I can't get bi-directional to work. This wasn't a surprise. I can live with this...this inconvenience is overshadowed by the fact that I was able to turn the PC my printer was originally connected to off! My printer is a Canon IP4600. All you lose with no bi-directional support are ink status messages, paper jam messages, paper out messages, etc. You'll get an error, but no indication why...but that will be made obvious once you wander over to the printer :-).
I dinged a star because it was difficult to find information on using this with Windows Vista. Windows XP is really long in the tooth now, so saying it supports Windows ME, XP, etc. is pretty lame. They should update their documentation with instructions for configuring printers on Vista/Windows 7.
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