Wireless printing

DubGF

Hi everyone,

My brother has a wireless LAN at home via Eircom Wireless.

He also has his house wired with CAT5.

He wants to be able to print wirelessly from his laptop to a printer located in his home office.

I have suggested buying a printer with a LAN card in it, wiring this onto his LAN and assigning an IP to it. Then map to it from his laptop using the IP address.

Does this sound like a good solution?

Any other sugestions?

Thakns in advance,
Gary

aidan_walsh

That sounds good.

Another thing he could try is to keep the printer he has at the minute, and buy a network print server like the Netgear PS121 I have. Connects to the printer via USB and to the router via Ethernet, give it a static IP and set it up on the computer.

DubGF

Thanks Aidan. His old printer is a pile of sh1t, do you have any suggestions for me?

He wants to scan, and print in colour ...

Thanks again,
Gary

Tom Dunne

What's this got to do with HTPC's and Media Center?

SouperComputer

....moved to Comp&Tech. Although it deals with wireless its more of a general LAN question.


Buying a printer with a LAN card built ing could be comparatively costly. If he plans printing enough to justify a LASER printer, then there are some nice Multi Function ones from Brother. They aren't the cheapest to buy, but they are pretty cheap to run.

You basically have three options:

1. Get a router that has a USB port and supports printing
2. Connect to a PC and leave the PC running
3. Get a "print server" either in wired or wireless form.
4. Get a printer with a LAN\Wireless port. Use the former with a wireless bridge if needed

HungryJoey

If your interested at all, I know you mentioned he wants to scan and copy etc.. But PCW have a LexMark Black laser printer with a network interface ( Cat5 ) for 119 euro if thats any good. The price makes it tempting..

Hj

SouperComputer

HungryJoey wrote:

If your interested at all, I know you mentioned he wants to scan and copy etc.. But PCW have a LexMark Black laser printer with a network interface ( Cat5 ) for 119 euro if thats any good. The price makes it tempting..

Hj

Ive seen lexmark inkjets go in bulk for as low as $7 because they dont make money on the printers, they make it on the ink. This is true to an extent with most companies, but lexmark take the proverbial with it.

Price out the toner, work out how many sheets you get and get your average cost oer sheet. I know the Lexmark LASER's aren't quite as bad as the inkjets, but still find the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership)

DubGF

Thanks everyone ...