|
Linksys PSUS4 PrintServer for USB with 4 Port Switch
|
| List Price: | $72.99 |
| Price: | $59.99 |
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from and sold by Buy.com
51 new or used available from $29.90
Average customer review:
Product Description
Share your USB printer and expand your network with one compact box The Linksys PrintServer for USB with 4-Port Switch is a double upgrade for your network. First, it lets you connect a USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print serving chores. Using a PrintServer frees up your print share PC so you dont have to leave it on all the time. It also removes the printing bottleneck, and sets your PC free to do more useful work. In addition, the PrintServer includes a 4-port 10/100 switch, so you can easily add more devices to your network. All four ports are auto speed negotiating, and have automatic MDI/MDI-X crossover detection, so you dont have to worry about the cable type.
Product Details
- Brand: Linksys
- Model: PSUS4
- Platform: Windows
- Format: CD
- Original language: English
- Dimensions: 2.50" h x 6.20" w x 9.90" l, .44 pounds
Features
- Product Type - PrintServer
- Connect your printer directly to the network, with no need to dedicate a PC to print server chores
- Also expands your network with a built-in 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch
- Remotely administered through your web browser or the included utility
Editorial Reviews
From the Manufacturer
Share your USB printer and expand your network with one compact box!
The Linksys PrintServer for USB with 4-Port Switch is a double upgrade for your network. First, it lets you connect a USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print serving 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.
In addition, the PrintServer includes a 4-port 10/100 switch, so you can easily add more devices to your network. All four ports are auto speed negotiating, and have automatic MDI/MDI-X crossover detection, so you don't have to worry about the cable type. Each port independently negotiates the best speed and half- or full-duplex mode, for up to 200Mbps of bandwidth per port. Fast store-and-forward switching prevents damaged packets from being passed on into the network.
A user-friendly Setup Wizard makes installation easy, the compact case fits anywhere, and the one megabyte print buffer size handles even large graphics-intensive print jobs. Let the Linksys PrintServer for USB with 4-Port Switch bring efficiency to your printing tasks and expand your network, in one cost-effective device.
Customer Reviews
Works - confusing setup
It's operation is flawless, once it's set up properly. I use this to add ports to my existing router, it's just plug and forget for that.
Setting up a printer wasn't so easy, but, after two attempts, it finally installed the network printer driver properly. It might be the way the software automatically loads from the CD - but I was getting errors, until I reinstalled it manually from the disk.
But now that it's installed, it handles an HP Officejet v40xi. Since I have a new scanner, the loss of scanning capabilities isn't missed, so bear in mind you won't be able to scan.
The print queuing is a little strange. You will get messages if another print job is being fed to the printer, but it does handle the jobs in order.
Good but tricky
Like a number of the other reviews mentioned, the PSUS4 works fine as a printserver but the included setup software isn't worth even removing from the box. I am by no means a networking expert but I had the time to tinker with the device and found that you really need to be ready to configure the PSUS4 directly using your browser and then configure each computer for local printing by creating a new TCP/IP port using the IP address of the unit and configuring it for printing to "USB1". If this sounds complicated it really isn't and with a bit of searching you can find quick and easy instructions from an article on the Linksys website (note the lack of mentioning USB1 in the article).
Long story short, don't buy this if you want plug and play but if you have a basic understanding of networking you will find this works fine after a bit of a painful initial setup. I found that it took much longer just to find the information I needed than actually setting up the unit.
Works fine
I payed about $56 here at Amazon. Watch those price variations. It's tiny, blue, warm, and has been working with no trouble for two months. It comes with a power supply, cat 5 cable, and a usb a-b cable, and an install CD.
I really wanted a print server for my home network. It's a perfect fit. Install was easy. With all the complexity of modern networking it only had one hitch - my HP Laserjet 1200 wouldn't print after the install. I went into control panel/printers and deleted the printer. Got my HP cd and did a fresh install. When the HP install got to "Where is the printer connected" I noticed a new option "Lblahblah" so I picked that and it worked perfectly.
I don't notice an printing speed differences. There has been no odd behaviour.
Really I'd give it about 4.5 stars. I recommend it for home networks that need a print server.
