Wireless Print Server Guide
Reduce your cable clutter and place your printer anywhere in your home or office with a wireless print server.
A Range of Wireless Print Servers
from Epson, Linksys and Hewlett Packard
All you'll need an existing wireless network and not much else - The network print server installation cd should take care of the rest.
What's a Print Server?
A Print Server is a device that connects your printer to your network sharing. Your PC can act as a print server and share a laser printer attached to it to others on your network but your pc must be switched on and close to the printer. A dedicated print server does nothing but queue up print jobs all day long.
A Print server is a simple device in computer terms - it has some memory for queuing print jobs, a network port (either cable or wireless) and one or more printer ports. Most have programmable firmware but can't be physically upgraded - No adding memory or printer ports later on. If you buy a single port wireless print server and later want to make that spare black and white inkjet wireless you'll need to buy another print server.
USB & Parallel Port Wireless Print Servers
Linksys PPS1UW
Wireless Print Server
Wireless print servers support connections to all major printers via usb, serial and parallel ports. Check to see what type and how many printer ports each wireless printserver supports before making your purchase.
Why buy a Wireless Print Server?
Some of the Wireless Print Servers are expensive - especially when you've just spent all your cash on an expensive color laser printer. If you consider the convenience and savings of wireless over wired in the long run wireless networks are the only way to go.
network cabling is inflexible, expensive to install and maintain and unreliable when not installed properly. Why spend hundreds of dollars cabling your house? In 5 years time the cables will be obsolete. Moving house? your wireless printing network moves with you. Wireless networks are more scalable than cable based networks, more easily configured to suit the physical demands of the laser printer user.
Wireless Networking Standards
Wireless networking standards are now stable with 802.11b and WiFi compatible devices. If your existing wireless gear is also WiFi compatible then you're in business. All of the major wireless networking manufacturers are behind the Wifi standard : HP, Apple Airport, Cisco, 3COM, Lucent amongst others.
wireless networking is now fast safe and secure. Wireless security problems are a thing of the past. The WP110 supports 40, 64 and 128 bit encryption making your data safe from prying eyes.
Separate Print Servers can be the cheapest option
Not many printers come from the factory with an Ethernet adapter built-in and on-board wireless print servers are expensive and will only fit the higher end of the color laser printer range. The pricing of color laser printers with built-in-print servers is aimed at the big spending corporate market and you pay accordingly.
Before spending your hard earned cash its worth checking out what the cheaper model color laser printer with less memory and no network port costs and supplement it with an external wireless print server. At home or in a small office you may not need large amounts of printer memory. The 11mbs wireless transfer speeds will be more than enough for your needs.
Still not convinced about wireless technology? If you want to know more check out these wireless printserver links.
Wireless Print Server Resources
- Linksys Wireless Print Servers. Linksys.com. Linksys are half the price of other manufacturers wireless print servers without sacrificing quality or performance.
- Wireless Access Point Placement Advice ZDNET.COM
- DLINK multi port & combined wireless router & network print server DLINK.COM
- Hewlett Packard Wireless NetworkingHP.COM
- Signup for wireless print server updates from Hp HP.COM
- Download HP Wireless Print Server Software HP.COM
- Wireless Security Advice PracticallyNetworked.com