printer server advice

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

I have an old HP 832, economical to operate, never given me any trouble, also have a wireless hp printer. But wife's a school teacher and has to print a lot of material for her students and the wireless cartridges are very expensive.

If possible I would like to make the 832 wireless. We're using Windows XP (printer is connected to this computer [desktop] , Win. 7 on laptop, and Win. Vista on laptop.

Any recommendations on a server that could do the job, preferably under $80.00. Thanks Lewis

[Matt Meiser]

For free you should be able to share the printer from the XP desktop then connect accross your network from the laptops.

[Robert LaPlaca]

Not too familiar with a HP 832, but we will assume the printer has a USB interface on board.. If you Google wireless print server several such devices show up in the $80 price range, the print servers have a USB interface that connects to your existing Hp 832, the external interface is wireless. Now having said that, I have never personally used any of the external wireless print servers..

A no cost solution is to just share the printer USB connected to the desktop computer, the down side of this solution is the workstation will need to be booted and operational to print..

[Greg Portland]

For free you should be able to share the printer from the XP desktop then connect accross your network from the laptops.

+1. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457001.aspx

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

I really don't want it tied to the xp I hope to phase that computer out. Have no clue as to how to use it anyway. not that good with them.

[Greg Peterson]

Print server is a good way to go, IMO.

My mothers setup uses a HP printer connected to her XP desktop and shared. Up until several weeks ago she was able to print from her Windows 7 laptop. Now not only can she not see the printer, she can not even see the XP machine. I took my Windows 7 laptop out to her place, added the shared printer and printed just fine.

At this point I am going to suggest a wireless print server for her. Trying to get XP and Windows 7 to play nice is apparently a hit or miss proposition. And if they don't get a long, good luck.

[Curt Harms]

I just did this yesterday albeit with a wired print server and a HP 940C. It was pretty straight forward and the 10+ year old print server had a web admin page, much to my surprise. It is helpful to be somewhat familiar with TCP/IP conventions but it was more straight forward than I had expected. Trying to use the same print server with Win 9X now..:mad:. If you want wireless printing and it isn't built in, a wireless print server is the only game in town AFAIK. The problem with wireless print servers is they generally cost $60+. You can buy a new printer with wireless networking included for $69.

[Curt Harms]

Print server is a good way to go, IMO.

My mothers setup uses a HP printer connected to her XP desktop and shared. Up until several weeks ago she was able to print from her Windows 7 laptop. Now not only can she not see the printer, she can not even see the XP machine. I took my Windows 7 laptop out to her place, added the shared printer and printed just fine.

At this point I am going to suggest a wireless print server for her. Trying to get XP and Windows 7 to play nice is apparently a hit or miss proposition. And if they don't get a long, good luck.

That's one advantage of attaching the printer to the router, either wired or wireless as opposed to sharing a printer attached to a PC. You don't have to dink around with Microsoft's attempts at networking and device sharing. You also don't have to have a host PC running in order to print.

[Curt Harms]

I have an old HP 832, economical to operate, never given me any trouble, also have a wireless hp printer. But wife's a school teacher and has to print a lot of material for her students and the wireless cartridges are very expensive.

If possible I would like to make the 832 wireless. We're using Windows XP (printer is connected to this computer [desktop] , Win. 7 on laptop, and Win. Vista on laptop.

Any recommendations on a server that could do the job, preferably under $80.00. Thanks Lewis

To keep ink costs under control, you might consider refilling cartridges. I have a Brother multi function device that uses LC61 cartridges. These are nice because they don't have any electronics or electrical connections built in. I then bought 4 cartridges designed to be refilled and bought ink from a local vendor. So far so good and $26 worth of ink is at least 4 refills. I bought mine from this ebay vendor: item # 230721158171. If the link doesn't work just search for Brother LC61 refillable cartridges. I kinda think the plugs were in the wrong holes though according to these instructions:
http://www.refillinstructions.com/Brother/B10.htm
You can also get continuous ink systems but I have no experience with those.

[Bryan Morgan]

I have an old HP 832, economical to operate, never given me any trouble, also have a wireless hp printer. But wife's a school teacher and has to print a lot of material for her students and the wireless cartridges are very expensive.

If possible I would like to make the 832 wireless. We're using Windows XP (printer is connected to this computer [desktop] , Win. 7 on laptop, and Win. Vista on laptop.

Any recommendations on a server that could do the job, preferably under $80.00. Thanks Lewis

Whatever you get, make sure it doesn't require any special port drivers (other than the normal print driver) and just prints off port 9100. Some cheaper print servers (like Hawking, etc) require some rediculous port drivers which never seem to work right. HP Jet Direct servers are nice but expensive. I've had good luck with the Trendnet stuff at home (its not exactly enterprise class hardware).

[Bryan Morgan]

You can also get continuous ink systems but I have no experience with those.

If you can keep the pressures right and keep them from leaking all over, bulk ink systems are nice. But then you really need to print a lot to justify the upfront cost.