Need Help - Options for Setting Up USB Printer Wirelessly???

[rpr]

Hey guys, I just purchased a new photo printer (Canon Pixma Pro9000 Mark II), but it is just a USB printer and I really need to set it up wirelessly. Unfortunately, my wireless router (Netgear WNDR3700) does not have a built in print server and the USB port on it is only good for storage.

I do not have any other computers on my network that I leave on all the time, so accessing the printer wirelessly through another computer on the network is not an option.

I can purchase a wireless print server (the Silex C-6700WG seems to be the highest recommended for this printer), but that's 1/3 the cost of the printer!

Do I have any other options? Can I configure an old wireless router to act as a dedicated print server and access the printer this way without losing any functionality through my existing wireless network?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[subinsu]

Unless you are willing to get the "wired" version print server, there is realy not many options.

If you do decide to get the wired or wireless print servers, make sure to get the one that supports multi-functional printer. These type of print servers require installing a software utility on the computer, which would fool the printer (now it is connected to the print server on the network) to think that it is connected directly to the computer and you would have better chance to make it work over the network.

I beleive D-Link and TRENDnet sells wired and wireless multifunction print server(s) and you may find them less expensive.

Compatibility (between the print server and your nice printer) is also important here. If Canon suggest Silex, I would just go with that to avoid any possible issues.

 

[DaveMcLain]

A couple of years ago I used a Linksys wireless print server and it worked fast and flawlessly with some printers. It worked without trouble on a couple of different inkjet printers but I could never get it to work well with an HP 1012 Laser. It also wasn't compatible with any sort of multi-function device.

Hopefully someone will recommend one on here that's really good because it sure was handy to be able to set the printer on the shelf somewhere away from the PC's in our shop.

Right now I'm just sharing a printer on one of the computers and it works fine. It's only used when I need hard copy data from my flowbench and dyno so the number of pages printed is pretty small.