90 of 93 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mac fans - this works, November 9, 2003
This review is from: NETGEAR PS101 Mini Print Server (Personal Computers)
After a herky jerky start, my rating of this product jumped from 2 stars to 4. Don't fret Mac owners. If you are trying to integrate your Mac OS X system to print to the Netgear PS101, there is a solution: configure your Mac for IP printing, set the printer type to LPD/LPR, enter the print server IP address, input the queue name, example HPLASER4L_P1 (netgear device name_printer port), and make sure you select the right printer model. If you select Generic or any other model than your printer you will waste paper. I hope this is helpful...
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works as expected, September 15, 2005
This review is from: NETGEAR PS101 Mini Print Server (Personal Computers)
I would have given it 5 stars, but the unit is too big to fit correctly in the back of a Laserjet 5MP. So I will have to buy a Centronics 36 M/F extension cable, but in the mean time, I have the printer cable cover off. It would have been nice if Netgear included a 6" cable extension.
It's very easy to get working without touching the CD and having to install any software. I can print from a W2K server and a XP workstation. The steps, I used were:
1. Get the MAC address from the back of the PS101.
2. Have your DHCP server assign a static IP address to the MAC address. I did these 2 steps as the DHCP server could assign a different IP address on the next power up as my system did not use a default value for the PS101. Either method is fine as long as the IP address for the PS101 never changes. But if you do not assign the IP address, you will have to figure out what it is. I assume that this is what the CD does for you, but I didn't want to install any software.
3. Connect the PS101 to the network.
4. Use print wizard to add a printer and select "Local Printer".
5. Then check "Create New Port" and choose "Standard TCP/IP Port", which will pop up the port wizard.
6. Type in the IP address assigned in step 2, for example, 192.168.0.12 and just use the default "Port Name".
7. For "Device Type", just use the default choice "Generic Network Card" as Netgear PS101 is not listed. Default settings for "Custom" also work.
8. Select the printer type, etc. and print a test page.
That's it, no software and works like a charm. Picked it up at a local store for $80 + tax - $50 rebate with 21 days to return so I figured I had nothing to lose and this solved the problem with my wife's XP computer not being able to see the network printer when using Cisco VPN. Granted there is something going on with the VPN as it would not work if the IP address was 192.168.0.x, but a different DHCP server using 192.168.1.x did work. But that's a problem with the VPN and has nothing to do with the PS101.
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28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Product, Wrong Solution, September 30, 2004
This review is from: NETGEAR PS101 Mini Print Server (Personal Computers)
I had my HP1100A networked to my LAN over a SOHOWARE Plug&Play mini port print server for the past 3 years. Product worked great out of the box except I had to build a special interface because the SOHOWARE print server has a standard Centronics-36 interface and the Laserjet has a Mini-Centronics-C connector. When I started upgrading my PCs to WinXP I found that this print server, while it worked under Win98/2000 perfectly, wasn't compatible with XP and had been discontinued by the maker anyway.
I selected the Netgear PS101 Mini Pocket Print Server as a replacement because it's XP-compatible and uses the same Centronics-36 interface so I could just swap it for my old SOHOWARE print server in my set up. I thought. While the Netgear may be XP compatible it wasn't compatible with my setup. My PCs installed and "see" the port just fine, they detect the printer and install the correct drivers for it but nothing actually prints, even from the Netgear Administration Webpage. Buried in the reference manual is the statement that the device is not compatible with the mini-Centronics-C connector used by HP. After fussing with it for a few days I replaced it with a D-Link print server and that worked perfectly right out of the box.
I'm giving it 3 stars because the documentation is good, the software loads and runs perfectly, and my LAN could install and run the print server w/o a hitch. It just isn't compatible with my printer even with an adapter and that's not immediately clear from the technical discription on Amazon.
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