Need a SoHo LAN Printer Sharer - advice/recommendation please

[Land After]

I’ve just taken delivery of a shiny new Toshiba R100 Laptop from my generous employers – funding a Apple PowerBook is not going to happen in my corporate environment!

This has presented me with a problem in my home office: my previous laptop had a docking station with an old fashioned parallel port, which I plugged straight into my Lexmark laser printer. The USB connection on the Lexmark is plugged into my iMac, and it manages to share the printer though the hidden world of OS X with an iBook. The new laptop has only USB connections, so I’m looking for recommendations for the any of the following:

• Affordable printer sharer to sit on the LAN (wired into the router is fine)
• A software solution for the Mac to allow printer sharing with computers from the dark side
• A nasty USB hardware switch

My home network is a Netgear ADSL Wireless/Router. The iMac is hard wired into the router, the iBook connects without wires and the Toshiba laptop connects either way.

Thanks in advance!

[Saab Dastard]

Land After

Sounds to me like you need an Ethernet Print Server. Some of these will have a parallel interface, some have USB interface, together with an ethernet interface that allows any network-attached device to print to them.

Rather than suggest a make/model (there are dozens), I suggest you search for "Ethernet Print Server" and make up your own mind about what features / prices you are interested in.

SD

[Evo]

I got an HP Jetdirect EX Plus from ebay for £18, it is excellent. Just sits quietly on the network at 192.168.0.100 and drives the printer. If it ever crashes then I guess it just reboots itself because it's always there. No problem printing from Win XP, 2k, OSX Panther or Linux...

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Land After,

If you have broadband, a Broadband Router with a Print Server would give you what you want and a Hardware Firewall as an added bonus. ;)

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/33-127-002-10.JPG

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/33-127-002-08.JPG

Take Care,

Richard

[Evo]

I agree with Richard, the all in one boxes are very nice (I'm using one) but be very careful about buying anything called a "broadband router" in the UK - some are intended for ADSL, but others are for the cable-type services provided by NTL (?) etc. Check before you buy that it will work for you.

[Land After]

Guys,

Thanks for the replies so far, but to reiterate from the original post

home network is a Netgear ADSL Wireless/Router

I'm looking for recommendations for another box to help me share the printer. (If I was working on tech suport, I'd be tempted to say RTFM, but that would be un-gallant).

[SoftTop]

I managed to get a 10/100 ethernet printserver from Dabs.com at a knock down price. It took a while to configure so that it would work - sorry should have said: Linksys EPSX3 version 1 and an Epson 890 photo printer.

It works fine with three PC's on the network routing via a D-Link DSL504. I ended up fixing the IP addresses for all PCs and the print server instead of allowing the router to allocate them as the equipment was switched on an off.

The only problem I have with the printserver is that I can no longer "see" the status of the printer and it's ink, although it does print without any apparent problems. I had a long struggle getting the Linksys helpdesk to reply to any e-mails on the subject and their "live" on-line help system just isn't "live".

Essentially, the printserver can't handle nonstandard signalling that the Epson uses for status monitoring.

So, two lessons:

1. make sure that you can chat easily with the helpdesk for the product you choose.

2. make sure that if you do have any status monitoring on-screen for your printer that your chosen product preserves that functionality.

Other than that, if your printer has expansion/accessory slots, it might be worthwhile spending a few extra bob and getting a Lexmark printserver card. Down side with that is if you want to add, say, a photo printer to your system, you'll need to get it a printserver, because the lexmark internal one will only feed that one printer.

Hope that helps.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Land After,

If you just want a Print Server then something like this will do:

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/33-127-021-03.JPG

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/33-127-021-04.JPG

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. I do try to RTFQ every time. ;)

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Land After,

Another Option is a Wireless Router with Print Server Built in:

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/33-127-024-02.JPG

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/33-127-024-05.JPG

(The price of the stand alone Print Server is just about the same as this Router with Print Server built in.)

Take Care,

Richard

[Land After]

Richard,

Thanks for coming back. My pricing over here shows the smaller printservers coming in at around 45GBP. My only worry is the support for appletalk over the Negear router, which is a bit of a dark area. Without that, the Mac wouldn't be able to talk to the printer.

<Thinks outloud> Unless I put the printer on the network with the parallel sharer for the benefit of the Windows machine and kept the direct connection to the iMac with the USB, which it already shares quite happily with the iBook.

I can't justify 100GBP on a new router, when the old one is still working, my line in is only 1Mb and I have no desire to stream video over the wireless element.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Land After,

The difference in the U.S. is:

DP-101P+ $57.00

DI-714P+ $83.00

That was why I recommended the all in one, since the prices were so close. If you want to go with just the print server, its Protocol Support is:

TCP/IP

NetBEUI

AppleTalk

Take Care,

Richard

[Land After]

Richard et al,

Thanks for the feedback to date.

I've just realised that there's a further complication to the printer sharing situation: My PC is company issued and is used for work - hence it spends most of it's time on my LAN connected to the company via a VPN. When active, the VPN software prevents the laptop from seeing the rest of the network - hence it would not be able to see a shared printer on the network. (I can't get into the iMac shared drive with the VPN s/w running) So I've decided to try option C - A nasty (though cheap) Belkin USB splitter, which should allow the iMac (which acts as a print server for the iBook) to share with the occasional laptop visitor. Hardwiring is not a problem as my work laptop normally stays in my office, unless I'm catching up on email whilst watching TV.

Cheers,
Land After.

Cost = 18 GBP

http://images.belkin.com/F1U201/FUL1_F1U201.jpg

[Lost_luggage34]

Appletalk ?

I suddenley feel rather unwell !

:=

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Land After,

I hope the Belkin USB splitter does the trick for you. :ok:

Take Care,

Richard