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Print server

Yeah, everybody now has at least one laptop in their family.
So, has everyone ran out and bought a wireless enabled printer?
The problem is, unless you do, you have to manually go up and connect to the printer .
Well, I already had a perfectly functional printer, and it wasn't even a year old.
The price of wireless enabled printers hasn't really came down all that much either, so what to do?

You have the option of the  wireless enabled printer, a router with built in print server,
  a totally wireless print server, or a print server that connects to an existing router via ethernet.

Hope I've managed most of the common options......

My option was to search the internet for reliable print servers and price them.
Then, a visit to E-Bay for comparison to see what I could find.

I found a second hand Netgear PS121 (including postage) for well under £20.

ps121
This is a deceptively simple piece of kit.
Above, you can see the ports for the power (comes with its own supply), and the ethernet.
I didn't get an ethernet cable with mine, but a quick visit to a local computer shop got me one for a couple of quid.
Alongside the ports, it is possible to make out the small hole to stick a pin into to complete an overall reset of the unit.
On top of the unit, there are two indicators, one for power, the other to show status.
My unit came with the CD, but you can easily download the manual and any files required from the Netgear site
Since I run a dual boot system, I installed the server on both Linux and windows.

As you may expect, it isn't exactly hard to do as Netgear makes the settings similar to their router page.

The netgear uses a default of 192.168.0.245 as the url for the configuration.
Here's the status page.

Power it up , plug it into the router and off we go.


net1 



The settings pages are simple and easy to figure out.

net2

Remember to set a password, preferably one you can remember.

As with their router, help text is provided on the right hand side of the page.

net3

If the address doesn't suit , or you are using a different address from the normal netgear ones, change them in the TCP/IP page.

net4

That's it for the configuration, now for the computer.

linux

I won't bother showing how to set up the printer, suffice to say, tell the computer where the printer resides (192.168.0.245 in this case),
tell it the port it uses (9100), make sure your firewall allows it through and give it the driver file.
It isn't greatly different under windows.
So, what does it mean for you?
Well, it means you can print wherever you are in the house as long as the printer and router are on.
If it's like mine, both are always on!
More than one user can print as it queues the files.
The only downside is that your laptop/computer can't monitor ink levels.
It will tell you if the printer is unavailable, but you have to go see why.

So far, I haven't had any problems with the server, and it has printed faithfully for me from all the systems in the house.
A highly reliable piece of hardware which helps make life simpler.
Highly recommended for all those who use a laptop sitting on their lap and would like to print out a document.



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