USB print server

  • Thread starter Thread starter nk
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nk

I have a netwrok of 1 Mac and 2 Windows XP (Home and Pro). They are
connected to a wireless router. I wish to place my printer (Espon Stylus
Photo 895 - US spec is 785EPx) on the network. I do not want to have it
attached to any computer. The printer is USB only.

Does anyone have any experience with the USB print servers? (A search on the
web has led me to consider the Axis products)

- Do print servers in general support bi-directional comms
- Are they reliable

Grateful for any help/experiences.

nk
 
nk said:
I have a netwrok of 1 Mac and 2 Windows XP (Home and Pro). They are
connected to a wireless router. I wish to place my printer (Espon Stylus
Photo 895 - US spec is 785EPx) on the network. I do not want to have it
attached to any computer. The printer is USB only.

Does anyone have any experience with the USB print servers? (A search on the
web has led me to consider the Axis products)

- Do print servers in general support bi-directional comms
- Are they reliable

Grateful for any help/experiences.

nk
Click to expand...

I don't have any knowledge of USB print servers but they sound expensive!

However, have you considered a simple USB switch instead? The one I use is
manually operated, ie you physically press a button to select which computer
you wish to connect, but there are automatic (software driven), devices too.
Mine will connect 4 computers to 1 USB device but that device can actually
be an entire USB network!

In my case, I have several computers wired via standard USB leads into the
switch and the other side of the switch is wired away to everything I want
them to access on the USB network, including three printers, wireless mouse,
wireless keyboard etc. Thus each computer has access to the entire USB
network, although not simultaneously.

The advantage of these switches is that they are cheap (my manual one was
about £12 !!), easy as pie to install and extremely versatile (given that
you can attach absolutely any USB device to them!), plus mine doesn't even
need a separate power supply as it uses minimal current drawn from the USB
bus.

Hope this helps.
 
Sorry but that defeats the object of what I intend to achieve. I will
operate on a WLAN using notebooks. The Axis print server is about £90.00 so
not expensive.
 
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