A Cheap(er) Way to get a Wireless Network Printer
Network Magic will enable you to share your tethered printers on your home network -- and by "tethered" I mean attached to a PC by way of the printer or USB cable. This is a fine arrangement for sharing these printers that don't have networking capability -- and when the computer that they are attached to is a non-mobile desktop machine that's always on when you need to print something.
In my house, I had the situation where the only printer we owned was in my wife's study upstairs, normally tethered to her laptop. However, she always turns her laptop off, and recently she's taken to coming downstairs with it, thereby removing my ability to print out anything. A solution had to be found.
Our house is 100% wireless. No wires running anywhere. If you've ever shopped for wireless (and I mean 802.11, not Bluetooth) printers, you'll see that they are amazingly expensive. The most affordable 'network-ready' printers only have Ethernet capability, which isn't too bad when you have a wired router or somewhere appropriate to place the printer near a Ethernet jack.
So my solution? I bought a HP PhotoSmart 2575 colour laserjet multifunction printer (which one of the most affordable network-ready printers I could find. Then I hooked it up to a Linksys Wireless-G Game Adapter to hook it up to my wireless network.
The Game Adapter needed a little configuration to get started, but it's all pretty straightforward -- you just attach the Game Adapter to your PC by ethernet (you don't even need an internet connection!) and insert the CD. It autodetects the Game Adapter and leads you through a wizard to set the SSID of your wireless network and your WEP or WPA security details. Then the Game Adapter connects to your wireless network and you're set.
You then connect the Game Adapter to your printer using the ethernet port on the printer. Run through the printer setup and you're done! You've got a wireless network printer online in your home network.
I bought my printer and adapter for about $159 and $79 respectively. So for less than $250 I have a good printer online in my wireless network!
Comments
How is the paper feed on the 2575?
Posted by: Adam | August 28, 2007 07:57 AM
Searching the web to find instructions for connecting my new HP Photosmart 2575 to a WPA ethernet hub.
I always hit the web before opening a box, especially when the salespeople at the computer store were of little help.
I bought the USB cable and the Ethernet cable (jic I have to USB-connect to slip the ssid and password into the printer before connecting via ethernet), but the store wasn't very helpful in the twists presented by wanting to connect via ethernet to WPA hub.
Any links to connection instructions would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
B Smith
PS: you know the trick with the email address provided. :)
Posted by: B Smith | April 9, 2006 01:35 PM