D-Link DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server

by D-Link

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 2.7 inches ; 11.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EUJ1PQ
• Item model number: DPR-1260
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (187 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #8 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Networking Products > Print Servers
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 3, 2006

Product Description

Wireless Print Server, 802.11g 4-USB 2.0 Ports, 108Mbps

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best One I Could Find, December 19, 2006

By 

Jeff Mackay "A woodworking geek" (Waukesha, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: D-Link DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server (Personal Computers)

Okay. It isn't perfect. Installation isn't as easy as it should be. Instructions aren't as good as they should be. Some printers work with it, and apparently some don't.

But go look at the ratings on all the other print servers. You'll see the same problems. I tried at least three others, and couldn't get any of them to work. I've been able to successfully get this print server to work with an Epson R300 (USB 1.1), a Canon MP830 all-in-one(USB 2, print only), and even a Lexmark Optra T610 laser printer(parallel, with a USB-to-parallel adapter from Belkin).

Printer manufacturers have gone nuts with bi-directional information going back and forth between the printer and the computer. The result: really pretty printer drivers that give you loads of information and options, but depend on the printer being physically connected to the computer. But when you want to easily share that printer with a bunch of other people (especially a bunch of people with laptops), it's much more difficult. Either everybody has to swap cables, or you buy a print server--and give up the pretty driver screens that pop up to tell you to buy more ink.

The D-Link DPR-1260 is the only one I could find that actually listed compatible printers on the box. They say that they tested with 100 different printers. I believe it. Their competitors don't seem to have done nearly as much testing.

If you aren't comfortable setting up a wireless router on your own, or if you needed help installing your printer the first time, don't buy this. If you can figure out what the d-link is doing by setting ports on your printers to print to an IP address, give it a try.

If the market had some better entries, I probably wouldn't rate this with 5 stars. But it appears to me to be the cream of the crop.

Update (12/2007): We've had it for about a year, and we've had trouble a number of times. It repeatedly loses settings. If I could reduce the number of stars, I'd give it two or three.

38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Horrible Setup, Lousy and Incomplete Docs, Prints Well, Scans Not So Well, May 31, 2007

By 

Null Pointer (Southern US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server (Personal Computers)

Pros:

Combination wireless 4 port USB print server, scanner interface, and single port bridge. So far, the bridge's single ethernet port has worked flawlessly. Printing, once I got past the configuration nightmare, works great using a Kyocera FS-1010 laser printer and a HP-6110 Office Jet MFP from either Win XP or Linux/CUPS.

Supports scanning for some HP and Epson products, but not all. Check the D-Link web site and users' web reviews to see if yours is supported. Ditto for printers.

Works with some "problem" printers that other USB print servers either can't handle at all, or handle poorly. This unit replaced a D-Link DP-311U that had to be reset after every print job on my FS-1010. A SMC 2621W-U wireless print server would not work at all with that particular printer.

Supports WPA and WPA2 encryption. Anything less is really not secure. This has allowed us to retire a separate WEP encrypted wireless system that we used just for printers.

Works with most OS's, including Linux. Once it is set up, it doesn't know or care what operating system you are running, at least for printing.

Cons:

Absolutely the worst setup possible. Out of the box it only works with DHCP. No default fixed IP whatsoever, even after a timeout. Wireless encryption must be off. SSID must be "D-Link" This thing's setup requires that your wireless network conforms to its requirements, instead of the other way around. It is absurd.

Scanning is browser based, not HP or Epson native, and it doesn't work properly with all browsers. Linux is worse than Windows. IE and Firefox worked OK for me on Windows, Opera did not. Nothing was 100% on Linux. Scanning resolution was less than the scanner was capable of, even at the highest setting. White tone scans to a light blue color.

Completely inadequate documentation. Most of the set up info in this review is either not mentioned, or is buried in useless garbage. Nothing at all on browser javascript requirements for scanning.

User interface inadequate. There is no signal level indicator. You can't tell how well the unit is receiving, other than the wireless LED id lit. The printer wizard doesn't always provide an error message when it is unable to function. It just returns and sits there silently. The pages require a manual refresh to update. It does not work properly with all browsers.

No telnet interface. [ If you don't understand that, you won't care; it's a command line thing. :-) ]

Other Points Typical Of Wireless Print Servers, Neither Pro Nor Con:

It can't work with so called winprinters, also known as GDI printers, or host based printers. These cheapies lack internal smarts, and rely on Windows for ALL their processing. That's not D-Link's fault.

Ink level reporting and fax functions of multi function devices aren't supported, as D-Link states.

The USB ports are for printers only. They can not handle other USB devices.

A printer driver has to be installed on every PC on the network for EACH printer connected to the print server, unless there is no need for a particular PC to print to a particular printer. A printer instance (print server connected printer) also has to be created in the Printers and Faxes folder, or its equivalent, on each PC. This can be a lot of work and seems to be frequently misunderstood.

The Basics Of How To Set Up A DPR-1260:

This is the stuff that is either missing or not readily apparent in the documentation.

1. Your network MUST have a DHCP server running. If you don't know what this means, you almost certainly have one running already.

2. Either set your wireless to unencrypted and broadcast an SSID of "D-Link" (caps matter) OR connect an ethernet cable between your DPR-1260 and your router/hub/switch. I recommend the latter. That way, it's less likely that you will end up with your print server connected to your neighbor's unsecure-default-settings D-Link based wireless network, which is entirely possible.

3. If you DID NOT use the cable method, the wireless LED on the unit MUST be on solid to proceed. That indicates that the DPR-1260 has associated with your (you hope) wireless network and can get an IP via DHCP. If not, recheck steps 1 and 2.

4. Follow the Install Guide's procedure for connecting to the print server, which might work, OR log into whatever box has the DHCP server and note which IP was served to the DPR-1260. Paste the IP into a browser to bring up the print server's user interface, which will work.

If you have the print server cabled to the network, you should be able leave it there for the rest of the setup (except firmware updates) if you like. Otherwise, connect a PC to the print server's ethernet port.

5. I strongly recommend that you assign a fixed IP to the print server, so that you can always find it with a known IP address that can be bookmarked. Naturally, I also recommend you use WPA encryption or better on your network, and change its SSID to something other than D-Link.

6. If the printer wizard doesn't work properly, reduce the security settings on IE. Other browsers don't seem to work here, BTW. The print server will download a windows executable, which will run on your PC and set up a wireless printer instance. It works best if you install a standard driver first, so you may have to temporarily move the printer to the machine first, or vice versa. Linux users use CUPS, instead. It is much, much easier.

Final Thoughts:

The javascript that drives the user interface shows a lot of errors on browsers that can report that sort of thing. It appears that D-Link has written the scripts for Internet Explorer instead of using standards based code. They need to fix this.

They also need to fix the ugly light blue/gray that passes for white in the scans.

My unit came with firmware v1.20. I updated to v1.21. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the update did not reset the unit to the factory defaults. Hopefully, further update releases will improve scanning and the UI. This is badly needed.

D-Link should absolutely provide a documented default fixed IP after DHCP timeout in the next software release

If you have a D-Link based wireless network running no security and all the original default settings, the DPR-1260 will probably work right out of the box, and you will think it is wonderful and give it a five star rating. ;-)

On the other hand, if the last paragraph doesn't describe you, then you have some degree of work ahead of you. How much depends on your networking knowledge, and to some degree, how well we users have written our reviews, which is a good indicator of how poor the documentation is.

Two stars for the functionality it does have. Nothing for setup, documentation, or user interface.

Our wireless is almost 100% D-Link. Nevertheless, they have convinced me to look elsewhere for wireless products in the future. No wireless device should require that the network be made insecure in order to install it, even temporarily, and nothing should be so poorly documented.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DPR 1260 works for me -- here are some tips for setup, December 3, 2008

By 

Bilbo - See all my reviews

This review is from: D-Link DPR-1260 RangeBooster G Multifunction Print Server (Personal Computers)

I have an HP Photosmart 2410xi AIO. Both printing and scanning work fine for me. I tried several print servers in the same price range unsuccessfully before I found this one, which I think is great.

Based on the reviews, some out there are not so happy. I agree that the documentation for the DPR 1260 leaves much to be desired, so I thought I'd share some helpful tips:


NETWORK SETUP

I did not have problems with network setup like some others have reported. Maybe I'm just lucky?

1) I think the trick is to start by just using the cable. Use it to connect the DPR 1260 to your *router* (NOT to your PC). Once you've upgraded firmware and got the printer set up, *then* you can switch to wireless.

2) Some firmware versions for the server assign a manual IP address to the server and assume your router is using the 192.168.1.0 subnet (with mask 255.255.255.0). If you're having problems, browse to your router's web page to check (usually the router is at IP address 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 -- just type the IP addr into your browser's address bar).

3) IMPORTANT: If the server is using DHCP, you'll want to assign the print server a fixed IP address. You can do this from your router's web page using the print server MAC address, or by assigning a manual IP address to the server from the server's web page. Have someone help you if you don't know how.

If you don't do this, your server's IP address could get reassigned and your printer will stop working. If this *does* happen to you, you'll need to reinstall the printer on your PC (using the server's wizard -- see below) so that it points to the correct IP address again. This isn't the server's fault; it's just the way printer network port monitors work in Windows XP/Vista.


PRINTER SETUP

1) To use the printer from the DPR 1260, you MUST install the printer on each PC that you want to print from, EVEN if you already had the printer working directly connected to your computer. The reason is that you must create a new 'print queue' on your PC with a port monitor that points to the print server via port 9100 or LPR.

2) Your best bet for installing the printer for the DPR 1260 is to use the setup wizard found under the 'Setup' tab in the server's web page. The problem with using the Add Printer wizard in the Windows XP/Vista control panel is that some printer manufacturers choose not to display the printer in the list of available printers, even if the printer driver has already been 'staged' (i.e. installed previously on your computer).

3) IMPORTANT: In step 3 of the server's Setup Wizard, if you are asked to insert the driver CD, this means insert your PRINTER driver CD, and NOT the CD that came with the print server. If you can't find the CD for your printer, just download the driver from the printer manufacturer's support page, unzip it if necessary, and then point the wizard's browser to the folder with the driver (it's looking for the .inf file in the folder).

Note that the DPR 1260 wizard downloads a setup exe to your Windows XP/Vista PC which automatically installs the printer for you (i.e. adds a new print queue). The exe is what sets the DPR 1260 setup apart from other print servers -- most others I've seen expect you to use the Windows Add Printer wizard which often does not work.


SCANNING

1) Scanning only works for HP and Epson models. My HP 2410xi worked fine for scanning, even though it wasn't in DLink's list of supported printers.

2) To use the network scan feature, you must use the server's software accessed via your internet browser. Just browse to the server's web page that you used for setup and click on the 'Scan' tab (IE or Firefox both worked fine). The software that came with your printer will not work for scanning over the network.

3) I haven't notice any odd discoloration with the scans like someone mentioned earlier. The scans look just as good as when using the HP 'bloatware' scan software.


MISC

If the printer stops working for some reason, make sure you didn't plug it into a different USB port than it was in when you first installed it.

Problems like this, when printing from a PC seems to stop working, can often be solved by reinstalling the printer using the server's setup wizard.

BTW I am a computer engineer and do this kind of thing for a living. I know computers are frustrating, so hope my comments will help to ease your pain somewhat :-)