Wi-Fi and printers
 

Buddy called me on the phone yesterday.

He has a laptop computer - and a printer. Wants to put the printer in a dedicated place but move around with the laptop.

Was hoping to use wireless kit to get laptop to talk to printer with no direct cable connections.

Possible?? Easy or nightmare?

Easy, I do it myself. I have a wireless router with a paralle input. I just plug my printer into the router, assign in an ip address and use IP printing from my laptop.

If he wants a small dediciated link for the printer, go for something like the D-Link DP-311P. You'll see they also have the DP-311U for USB printers. He can pick one up for about $130

For more flexibility get any wireless router with a built in print server.

In my experience, the D-Link routers have been pretty dodgey, there's a good router called the Asante Friendlynet series. It's relatively cheap and has good wireless range.

I have a D-Link setup at home, 2 PCs and a laptop. Also an inkjet and laser set to share via one of the PCs. Once I got the D-Link setup sorted, it works absolutely fine. Connects every time, with no dropouts.

I have an ad-hoc wireless network using D-Link DWL-520+ in the PC and DWL-650+ in the lappy. The printer is USB, connected to the PC, and the lappy sees it and uses it 100% reliably.

Ad-hoc networks are cheap to set up - mine cost about Oz$200 all up, but not as flexible or secure as the more expensive wireless access-point/router way of doing things. Good enough for home use, IMO, though I am increasingly aware of the security short-comings of ad-hoc.

Knowing what I know now, if I were to start again I'd go the access-point/router way.

D-Link is ok, as long as you download and install the latest firmware for whatever device you are using - I have yet to find one that works straight out of the box without upgrading first.

amofw