Customer Reviews

Cisco-Linksys Wireless-G Print Server with Multifunction Printer Support

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(23)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(85)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

So many problems - where to begin?
- The antenna point is week, one small bump and the plastic breaks off.
- Software very buggy. Windows Defender will shut it down every time because it's unsigned and unnamed (suspicious flag).
- Huge firewall issues. If you're willing to KEEP your firewall off, fine. I'm not.
- Two-way doesn't work, even on multi-function printers that were supposedly supported. My HP DJ 4180 is fine, when hooked up via local USB - wirelessly wouldn't scan. And _PRINTING_ was incredibly slow.
- Wireless discovery is awful and unreliable - put the computer program on 8 laptops and desktops around the house - half of them _NEVER_ found the print server.
- The three printers I tried all pretty much REQUIRED the printer be hooked up to each by USB for initial driver loading _THEN_ remoted - this is impractical. Not necessarily this product's fault, but you will spend TOO MUCH TIME trying to get this work. Just go back to printer sharing.
- Linksys support was awful. First time, the guy tried for 45 minutes, then said he'd kick it up to his immediate supervisor and I should try back in 30 minutes.
- Second time I called, that support person couldn't even find evidence of my previous call, and wouldn't let me talk to a supervisor, and wanted me to try to do a bunch of things all over again, including permanently uninstalling Windows Defender.

I am very unhappy with this Linksys product, who I have always had good luck in the past. It has a very bad "wizard" interface that will not let you print any other way except using this interface. I could not connect through the wizard (despite being able to connect through the "secret" web interface) and was unable to use this device. I'm very knowledgable about print servers and networking and have never had an issue setting them up before this (I have two other network servers in my house already). I recommend a different brand.

I'm a dedicated user of Linksys products, mostly because they're more readily available in this part of the country. I had simple experiences installing routers, USB adapters, and network cards for myself and others. Linksys accessories, however, always proved to be a headache in installation and setup, and sometimes didn't even function properly (see the Wireless Game Adapter).

However, with this product, they finally did it right. While the included setup instructions were typical of Linksys--under-detailed and a bit incomplete--the basic gist of the setup could be gotten. It was far less taxing to get this up and running than other Linksys accessories I've dealt with, and it worked right out of the box. I did require a little bit of help from the Live Online Technical Support to get it to initially recognize my printer, but that was only because the printed instructions did not give sufficient aid in that task. (By the way, I'd recommend the Online Tech Support over the phone tech support any day.)

Once the product was installed, it worked fine. If it seems like it's performing slowly at first, be sure that you've given it all of the necessary clearance through your firewall, etc. I have Trend Micro PC-Cillin Internet Security, and for about an hour or so, the server printed very slowly. Once the firewall's wireless detection section picked up on the server, however, and I set it to being "trusted," it worked like a charm.

This is absolutely compatible with all the functions of my HP PSC 1400, and works just as quickly and accurately as it would if my laptop were connected to the printer directly. The only thing that keeps me from giving the product five stars is, as usual, Linksys' poor printed instructions. The product itself is great, and isn't nearly as difficult to get up and running as other accessories.

Those of us with wired multi-function printers can rest easy knowing that we finally have a working solution for wireless printing, scanning, and copying.

I purchased this wireless print server to work with a new laptop using Windows Vista. I was told by linksys that this product would work with Vista. The tech support has worked very hard with me, however after several attempts have not been able to solve the issue. I am still unable to print with this product.

I bought this print server primarily because of the mixed/poor reviews of other printers from linksys, dlink, netgear, etc. Setup is easy, simple and straight forward if you don't plan on running WEP or WPA. Just put the CD in and follow the directions in the wizard. However, if you want to run WEP or WPA, the wizard should be smart enough to know that a fixed IP address is _REQUIRED_!!! I found this out by searching Linksys' support site. Once I learned, this, I just ran the setup wizard again, and created a fixed IP address for the print server and then chose WEP, entered my WEP key, and it worked. As others have mentioned, you do need to have the printer driver installed prior to configuring the network printer driver, which I don't think is a big deal. The wizard does tell you this, but it's not in big bold flashing letters, so if you just skim through the text, you may miss it. I'm not using an MFD, just a simple Epson C88+ inkjet printer. My wife is ecstatic now, as she can print from her laptop. I would have given this product 5 stars, but the seemingly glaring error on Linksys' Setup wizard to not know that a fixed IP is required for WEP & WPA takes away. Additionally, the requirement to have the printer driver installed prior to installing the Network Printer Driver should be made more noticeable (read big bold print). Other that those two small points, it has functioned flawlessly as a print server. I can't attest to it's ability to perform MFD functions (faxing & scanning), as I don't own an MFD, but it works flawlessly as a print server.

I installed this unit on 3 laptop computers, one with XP and two with Vista Home Basic. It took me two days to do it because I didn't completely understand the installation instructions. Once I got the technuque down, it took less than 45 minutes total and about 20 minutes for each additional computer. The instruction manual is actually on the provided CD so the only written documentation is the "Quick Installation" guide. These are things to remember before and during installation. 1. The desired printer must be setup and able to run from the computer via the USB cable before installation is starated. Test the printer first before you start. 2. You can use the provided CD to install or you can download from Linksys the "setup wizard" and run it from your hard drive. If you download from Linksys, it is a ZIP file that must be expanded and the start up is "Wizard.exe" Running it from your hard drive is faster. (There are probably two different set up programs in one, for XP it is ver 1 and for Vista it is ver 1.1) 3. There are two separate procedures that must be performed. The first sets up the print server. I used the "Manual" step up as I think it was easier to enter the SSID of the router as well as the pass phrase and other information. There was a problem with determining the actual encription method of the router, WEP, WPA, WPA2, (TKIP and AES) so before you start this setup make sure you know what exact encription method the router is set for, it must be exactly correct for the print server to work. 4. When the "quick installation" guide says to connect the power supply to the printer and/or the print server, it means to not only connect the power supply, but to power them up. Also, when you power up the printer and/or the print server, let them complete boot up before you click on "NEXT". 5. The second step to the process is to set up the computer. While the print server must be only set up once, each computer must be set up separately. 6. When the written instructions and on screen wording says to close down all other running programs, LEAVE YOUR INTERNET SECURITY PROGRAM RUNNING. I turned Zone Alarm off and it then blocked all of the access when I tried to print after installation. On a Vista machine with Norton IS, this was not a problem as long as you leave the program running. 7. Play close attention to the screen as you will have to accept the "unapproved" program to install several times as well as allow the installation with VISTA. Now that the print server is installed, it works like a champ with a HP Color LaserJet 1600. My firmware version on the print server is 1017 from the factory which is the latest. If you do not have this version, other reviews have suggested that you update to the latest firmware version if you are running Vista. I hope this not only encourages you to purchase the Linksys WPSM54G wireless print server, but help you install it.

Works pretty much as described, and the quirks are as people have described them.

Make SURE you load the printer driver on your PC first. If you have multiple PC's around your home of office, this may be a bit of a pain, ecause in some cases (I have a Canon MP-780) the PC has to be attached to the printer, which means moving the PC or printer if they are not located next to each other.

Once you have loaded the printer driver on at least one PC, you can hook up the print server and configure it. I recommend doing this - set everything up on pne PC and test it all before spending a lot of time loadign printer drivers on a bunhc of PC's. Follow the instructions to the LETTER. There is a lot of "plug this in", "unplug this", "push that button", etc. which for an experienced PC user such as myself, sounds a bit childish, but it works. READ what displays on the screen CAREFULLY. I made the mistake of entering the WEP key when it wanted the passphrase. Guess what? It didn't work. I tried to be clever, and log into the print server directly. That worked even less. I started over, read carefully, and all was well.

Once the print server is configured, you have to then set up each PC with print server drivers. Again, follow the driections and all will be well.

It is basically a 3-step process
1. Connect the printer & load printer drivers (repeat for each PC)
2. Set up and configure the print server (do this only ONCE, for the print server)
3. Load the print-server driver on the PC (repeat for each PC)

I set up 4 laptops and the entire process took a little over an hour, including the printer drivers.

A couple of quirks.
The print-server is normally in an off-line mode. When you try to print something, it turns on automatically and prints the page. The printer sometimes spits out an error message before it has a chance to turn on, but once the print-server comes on the message clears and it works jsut fine, it just may take a few seconds extra.

The same is not true for the other functions, primarily scanning. You have to right-click on the tray icon and select "connect". You can change the settings so it always stays connected once it is connected, but that is a matter of preference and how much you scan. Of course, you can now scan on a pc where before you couldn't, so that is a plus.

Overall, setup was pretty easy and I am happy with the product.