Product Description

The Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer with Multifunction Printer Support lets you connect a multifunction USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print sharing chores. Using a PrintServer frees up your "print share PC" so you don't have to leave it on all the time. It also removes the printing bottleneck, and sets your PC free to do more useful work.The PrintServer is compatible with most USB multifunction printers, and allows full access to printing, faxing, scanning, and copying functions. Like any print server, users on the network can print anytime. The other functions are treated a little differently - any user can request access to one of the other functions, and get exclusive use of that function until his task is complete.Connect the PrintServer directly to your network by 10/100 Ethernet cable, or wirelessly at up to 54Mbps via Wireless-G. The wireless option lets you put your printer wherever you want to, without having to run cables. Whichever way the PrintServer is attached to your network, both your wireless and wired PCs will have access to it, and the printer it's connected to. And if you don't use wireless for general networking in your office, you can still use the Wireless-G connection in ad-hoc mode to print from visiting Wireless-G and Wireless-B PCs.Your wireless data is protected by up to 128-bit WPA-PSK encryption. A user-friendly Setup Wizard makes installation easy, the compact case fits anywhere, and the big print buffer handles even large graphics-intensive print jobs. Let the Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer with Multifunction Printer Support bring efficiency to all your home office tasks.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1557 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Linksys
• Model: WPSM54G
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 3.50" h x 9.70" w x 11.30" l, 1.80 pounds
• Networking: Hi-Speed USB

Features

• Share a multifunction printer with everyone on your network -- works with most USB printers
• Allows full access to printing, faxing, scanning, and copying functions
• Connects your printer directly to the network by 10/100 wired Ethernet or 54Mbps Wireless-G
• Prevents congestion on your PC with other users' print jobs

Customer Reviews

Setup is tricky but once it works, it works well
Once you get this gizmo going, it works nicely. You can connect multiple computers on your home network to a printer that's within WiFi range. But setting it up is a challenge, because you have to do exactly the right things in exactly the right sequence, and some of the things you have to do right aren't mentioned in the setup wizard that runs when you insert the Linksys setup CD into your computer, or they're mentioned so late in the process that you may have to start all over again!

The process takes about 90 minutes if you do everything right the first time around and don't have to double back. Most of the time you're watching software load - it's as exciting as watching paint dry. Here's what you have to do, as far as I'm able to recount from having just done it for a friend's home network. If you think the following is written in Greek or maybe in Geek, get someone else to do this for you. If you're up to the challenge, this review may save you time and frustration and prevent more 1-star reviews.

(1) Before you set the print server up, it's a good idea to go to the web site of the company that makes your router (Linksys, D-Link, Netgear, etc.) and download and install the latest "firmware" for your router. That takes maybe 15 minutes.

(2) Move the printer close to the PC that's connected to your wireless router. It has to be close enough to the router for you to connect it via a standard Ethernet ("patch" or "Internet") cable. It's not a big deal, but it means you may have to set the printer up in one place and then move it back to where you want it to be. (Linksys supplies the necessary cables in the box, which is to their credit. Most printer manufacturers make you buy your own cable.)

(3) The printer needs to be set up on the computer using a wired (USB) connection *before* you try to set up the wireless connection. If you're just going wireless with a printer you've already installed on the PC that's connected to your WiFi router, you're all set. But if you're installing a new printer, or trying to go wireless with a printer you've moved from some other computer, be sure to install it as a USB printer first. (3-a) Once you have the printer set up as a wireless "network" computer, you may want to uninstall the USB version of the same printer, because when you boot up, some versions of Windows will give you endless warnings that the local printer isn't connected. (3-b) This also means that if you ever buy a new printer and you want to connect it wirelessly via the Linksys print server, you have to install it first as a (wired) USB printer, and then re-run the "Set Up Computer" wizard from the CD that comes with the Linksys. Don't lose that CD!

(4) The setup wizard asks for a password for the print server. You can use any password you like, BUT then it asks for a passphrase, and the wizard fails to point out that you need the exact WEP passphrase or WEP key you've (already) used to set up your wireless router. (You are using WEP or stronger security on your wireless router, right? If not, go find out how to set up WEP security and do it immediately.) (4-a) The setup wizard asks for a passphrase, but if you've used a passcode on your router, there's a way to enter it you look carefully at the screen.

(5) Once you complete setting up the wireless print server, the wizard leads you through setting up your computer. Again, you must have already installed the printer onto the computer via a USB cable before you get to this point! Follow the instructions and by gosh - it works! Then at the very end there's a small note saying that if you want to set up other computers, you have to install the printer drivers first. Nice of Linksys to point that out at the very end; it would have saved me an hour of messing around if they'd said that at the beginning!

(6) Once the printer is set up, it's the default printer, and it wasn't possible (at least for me, with Windows XP) to set a different printer up as the default printer on one of the computers on my home friend's network. A minor irritation, in most cases, and there may be a workaround. If I find it I'll add it to this review.

So: 5 stars for convenience once it's set up; 3 stars for the glitch with the default; 2 stars for poor setup instructions... how do you rate this thing? 4 stars, I guess.

Seems to work great with a canon mp530
I would consider giving this product 5 stars, but I haven't yet put it through it's paces. However....

I received this device today and within 30 minutes I got my canon mp530 (print/scan/copy/fax) connected to it and printing and scanning wirelessly! This is the first device I've seen that has good support for multifunction printers, and setup was a really easy and well-documented.

As of Jan 4, 2007, this device must be VERY NEW. So new, in fact, that the linksys website has almost no documentation of this device. There is a list of MFP's that this device is known to support. See:

[...]

But note that this list is not exhaustive. For instance, my Canon MP530 is not listed here, but the printer was recognized by the printserver and everything seems to work fine. (Note that the next model up, the Canon MP830 IS listed as being supported, however.) Nonetheless, if the printer isn't listed here, buyer beware!

For each computer that you want to use w/ your networked printer, you need to first install the printer drivers (e.g from Canon/HP/Epson/whatever). Then you install the drivers that came w/ the linksys printserver and you're pretty much good to go.

One last note: This print server supports 802.11g (54Mbps max rate). However, my wireless router only supports .11b (11Mbps). Therefore, when I scanned a big image, the "download time" (from scanner to computer) seemed slow. My guess is that the 11mbps link speed was the bottleneck

Addendum: If you want to use this device from a computer that has a software firewall installed, BE SURE TO MANUALLY DISABLE THE FIREWALL DURING THE PRINT SERVER INSTALLATION. (In other words, go into your system tray and manually turn off ZoneAlarm, Symantec Firewall, etc.)

Addendum #2: This applies specifically to the Canon MP530 that I'm using with this PS, but might also apply to other printers. In order to install the Canon printer driver (not the LinksysPS driver), I am required to physically connect the printer to the computer in question via a usb cable. This MUST be done BEFORE the PS is installed. Therefore, I needed to lug the printer around the house to connect it to the various desktop machines I had. This was a minor inconvenience, but would have been a major hassle if there were >5 desktop computers to connect to.

Working great with Canon MP830
I was able to easily setup this print server with three computers. I have been printing and scanning sucessfully! I do not expect to fax with it so I haven't tried that function.

If you have the printer already installed, I found that I had to uninstall the printer first then re-install it then install the print server next. I had a bit of an issue until I found in the manual, 'NOTE: Linksys strongly recommends that you set up your printer and install your printer's driver before you install the PrintServer's driver.' I found this to be a requirement rather than a recommendation.

I found very little info on the Linksys website. In fact I only found one website out of 14 that had more than just the model number and price. I found out about this model from Linksys Tech support while trying to make the WPS54G work with my Mult-function Machine.

I am using the WPSM54G with a built-in WI-FI w/Speedbooster and a Linksys WMP54GS w/Speedbooster PCI slot adapter. The print server is not a Speedbooster product however all my printing and scanning has been fast enough for me!