| D-Link DP-311U Wireless Print Server, 1-USB Port, 802.11b, 11Mbps |
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Model: DP-311U
Brand: D-Link
Manufacturer: D-Link Systems, Inc.
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 32
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b
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| Features: |
Supports all major network operating systems and protocols
Supports both infrastructure or ad-hoc wireless modes
Easy configuration with a web browser or Windows-based configuration program
Transmit to high-speed laser printers faster than a PC parallel port
Extremely portable and inexpensive compared to a PC-based print server |
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| Description: |
| The DP-311U Wireless Print Server is the ideal network printing solution for small offices, home offices, schools and other businesses that require printer sharing. With its high-speed USB port, accessing a network and sharing a printer device will be easier than ever. The DP-311U supports all major network Operating Systems and protocols. |
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| User Reviews (32 total): |
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Hard to install, August 19, 2007
By H. Klein (CA)
Although I'm not a computer novice, this unit was hard to install. While the green LAN (Ethernet) light came on when plugged into the router or DSL modem, it didn't work when plugged directly into my PC or laptop. Someone here wrote that in such case you need a "crossover" ethernet cable (or adapter). THANK YOU! I learned that routers have the smarts to figure our what type of unit is plugged in, and automatically assign transmit and receive signals to the proper pins. My PC and laptops didn't do that, and the DP-311U wasn't smart enough either. Hence I needed the cross-over cable (just for the one-time setup). Sad thing, before I figured this out, I spoke with 2 people at D-Link's technical support; we spent easily two hours. But neither one suggested the cross-over cable. They must have had tons of calls like this before. Of course, the manual says mothing about this either. Amazing how they waste time and money.
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Works Great, after you're done setting up it up..., May 23, 2007
By Nicholas A. Keehn (Seattle, WA USA)
The server works great on my HP 2200. It's fast, reliable and can be easily velcro-ed to the side. Downside, it's got to be the single most difficult piece of hardware I've ever had to setup. NO WIZARD! Anyway, I followed the instructions to the letter and after setting my network IP address back to normal, the box would cease to work. I tried a bunch of things to get it to work, but in the end it was something simple. I'm using a Netgear WGR614v6 which is set to be a DHCP server. The list of available IP addresses missed the default 192.168.0.10 so the computer could not recognize it. I changed the DP-311U's default IP address in the PSadmin program and BAM! Works first try! The morale of the story, if you're running a DHCP server, check the list of IP addresses.
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Didn't work, March 9, 2007
By B. Cauley (SLC, UT)
Wouldn't work with my HP K80. I guess I should have done more research
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Difficult setup, works after it gets going, October 8, 2006
By Computer Guys (San Francisco)
I could not get the wireless portion to connect for a while. While searching for a solution, this site was at the top of the list so I decided to post my fix here.
It seems that when the 311U is configured using the ancient-looking PS Admin utility, it has a small bug/feature. PS Admin converts the wireless SSID to ALL CAPS where as my wireless network name has mixed case. Talking directly to the 311U, via a web browser, I was able to set the SSID correctly and get m'self up and running.
Hope this helps.
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Configuration is big task, August 22, 2006
By Raja (NJ USA)
I bought the product 2 weeks before and I have a thought this will work with all printers but not. D Link technical support is very bad I called at least 10 times to find my printer is compatible or not.
User manual is not complete so configuration is very difficult. Changing the IP Address manually and re assigning the new IP Address is very difficult. And it cause problem for other wireless divices (Mouse,Keyboard,Wireless web camera and External wireless hard disk). Because of this product I spend almost 8 hrs to solve other wireless network issues.
If you have enough time then it will entertain you.
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The most difficult thing in the world to configure, July 29, 2006
By Chip Gandy
Problem #1 - out of hte box, these units are assigned 192.168.0.10 as an IP address. find if your network is on the .0 subnet. So I had to change my entire network over to this in order to get it configured.
Problem #2 - once changed, now i have Ip address issues because of the existing clients picking up the .10 address.
Problem #3 - If you incorrectly specificy the SSID/wep key or IP address, you have to put it back to the defaults and start over. there's no way to configure the unit
Problem #4 - it just plain don't work as it should.
Easily the most difficult unit i've ever had to configure. It's a shame that I'm swearing off linksys as their prices are good. Despite it's decent price, stay away from this one.
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Terrible, May 28, 2006
By P. Mansour (kirkland, wa United States)
I have a D-link router, and I couldn't even get this thing to connect wirelessly. It works if connected with a ethernet wire, but that isn't really the point, is it?
I called customer support, and the call dropped 4 TIMES!!!! Even when I was able to stay connected, they obviously weren't listening to me, and were of no use in the end. I'm off to go return. Save your time, money, and aggrevation. Avoid this like the plague.
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DP 311U does not work for me and the tech support is terrible!, March 3, 2006
By Mike (Texas USA)
I bought this DP-311U print server. I set it up according to the manual and i can print from different computers to the printer. However, a few hours later, it stopped working. I disconnect then reconnect everything, it started to work again. But a few hours later this same thing happened again. I called the tech people at D-link and started to explain the problem when the line was disconnected. I thought this must be an accident. I called again. After transfering to a different number and waited for about 10 minutes, i was just about to describe the problem again, the line was droped again. I checked my telephone lines, they were ok. D-link's tech support is just a waste of time. By the way, i have other similar products which work fine.
Mike
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D-Link never again, February 22, 2006
By Conn (California)
Had wireless running for a year with no problems. Purchased the DP-311u for my laser-fax, made sure it was compatible with the print server. got it hooked up and all went to hell. Called tech, spent 2 days with and went from a working network to a dead dls/router (another d-link product). they recomend I send it to them for a inspection and see if I can get a replacement (ha, ha I'd be paying for shipping and that's it, over a year you get nothing). Bought a new router by Bilkin went up and setup was a breeze. But the d-link print server could not be found by 3 other computers in my home, 3 more days on the phone. Finaly gave up and am returning the item, tech suppot has no clue, they have a limited time they are allowed to spend on the phone a any given call. I hope this helps any future buyers.
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Not even worth a star, December 11, 2005
By Aruba60 (Huntersville, NC USA)
I bought this unit over a year ago and still haven't figured out how to work it. I have used the D-link wireless router with no trouble, but no matter what I do, I can't get the print server to work properly. This is after hours with their customer service people and doing everytihing possible. Based on other people's reviews this unit actually does work. It just hasn't for me.
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NOT compatible with multifunction printers, September 9, 2005
By N. Herriges
After 3 hours of banging my head against a wall I finally called Tech Support. They finally figured out that this is not compatible with multi-function computers. You can learn that on their support website but no-where in the standard documentation that comes with it.
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A Solid Little USB Print Server, May 17, 2005
By Big Hal (Richardson, Texas)
I too had a little difficulty getting the right IP address of this device so that I could connect to it via my web browser. That was overcome by reading some reviews and the instructions. Amazing huh? hehe.
After getting this thing working, it has been working great and I feel that there is little that needs to be tweaked/modified to make it work just the way you want. Basically you want to share a printer, and that is exactly what this lets you do. I need to upgrade toe 802.11g now though.
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Solid, but tricky to setup, April 29, 2005
By thel2020 (Cambridge, ma)
As several other reviewers have noted, this can be a beast to setup. The difficulty, I found, comes to trying to get the dp-311u to work wirelessly. After 50 minutes of fiddling with it, I started to suspect that it might not be wireless (a mistake several other reviewers shared).
The steps given by s.banks below are better than the lousy manual. But even after following them I had trouble. I eventually found that it was the MAC address security filter on my router that was preventing this thing from working wirelessly. What you have to do is: add the device to the MAC filter list, then disable MAC filtering on the router, unplug the dp-311u, re-enable the MAC filtering, then turn on the 311-u. It then started working wirelessly.
I'm subtracting a star for the majorly painful setup, and another for the very limited printer compatibility list.
Other than that, it seems like a solid product.
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Works well for only under a year w/ a PC, April 10, 2005
By Max (Brooklyn, NY)
I could not for the life of me get this working for a while, but once I did get to the web-configuration I couldn't get it to work with my existing wireless network. Although this was due to my stupidity, the lack of Macintosh documentation and software made it quite difficult to set up on my mac, and I might have been able to get it working sooner if it had this documentation. Finally, about a year after the year-long warrantee expired, it broke. I called customer service, and, despite what other reviewers have said, they were extremely helpful and tried everything within his power to fix my problem. But, the product was indeed broken and now I can't return it because it's beyond warrantee.
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Good unit IF you can get it working, December 22, 2004
By Hafizullah (Seattle, WA United States)
As others have said, the documentation is wretched. It has very clear screenshots of a Windows XP installation, but as has been noted by other reviewers, much is left out.
I was attempting to get the DP-311U to talk to an Actiontec DSL router supplied to my client by Qwest, but at first I could not even get the computer itself to bring up the management screen for the DP-311U through the Ethernet interface. The LAN link light stayed dark. On impulse, i tried a *crossover cable*, and the LAN light lit up and I was able to launch the management screen in a browser window. The straight-through Ethernet cable supplied by Qwest with the DSL router could not be made to work, even though it worked just fine in configuring the router.
The second wrinkle for me was configuring WEP. The DP-311U supports all the newer security protocols, including 256-bit encryption, but I used 128-bit WEP because I just needed to get this installation working and will fine-tune it later. Different units require the key to be entered differently; some, such as the Actiontec router supplied by Qwest, like dashes between the hex digits (as I recall). The DP-311U, will not accept a dashed key and will not tell you it's rejecting it; the key won't "take" and there is no error message. You only find this out when you start going through your settings one at a time and discover that WEP isn't active. The DP-311U requires that the encryption key be entered with no dashes or spaces. It would have been REAL NICE if either the documentation or the browser interface had given an example.
Other than crappy documentation, it seems to be an OK unit. The power transformer is skinny and probably won't keep you from using another plug right next to it on your power strip. it's light-weight enough that it's easily mounted (they did supply screws and mollys) on a sheetrock wall. And, has been noted, USB 1.1 is probably fast enough for most printing tasks.
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a very good print server, December 10, 2004
By A worker (Northern California)
My home networking is pure D-Link, router, adpaters, print servers, and even my USB bluetooth adapter. I already have a DP311U connected to a laser. 2 months ago, I bought another DP311U for an inkjet printer. I got the problem on how to differenciate the 2 same print servers. After some research, it just requires you to set the 2nd server to a different address. The original is 192.168.0.10. You then set the 2nd (or the 1st) to a differnt one, like 192.168.0.20 and everything will be just fine.
Seemed D-Link is dumping DP311U now because they have a 802.11g server (DP-G310) and sometimes you could find a < $60 DP311U. But believe me, you won't need a 11g for print server. 11b is fast enough. If you think printing is too slow, it's the problem of printer, not the PS.
D-Link's quality is good. My router (DI-624) never died for the past 1.5 years. I would recommend their products.
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Don't Waste Your Money, November 1, 2004
By Electronics Owner
I purchased this wireless print server from Office Max. Beware of purchasing any electronic item from them. They have a 14 day return policy. I have two Macs at home, one IMac and one Powerbook, as well as a Dell notebook. I tried to get the print server connected to a Brother Laser printer, but gave up after a couple of hours. After a few more tries, I called up the D-link tech service and tried all the things they suggested. When that did not work, I tried to return it, but it had already been 14 days, so Office Max would not accept it.
I called up D-link again and went through everything they suggested--to no avail. They finally declared the item defective. This meant that I needed to return it, AT MY COST, to D-Link. I would encourage you to stay away from this product. I wish I had read some of the other reviews on it at various websites. They are generally quite negative. Now I have spent over $100 on a pice of junk.
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useful for Macintoshes, October 7, 2004
By one_kaleberg (Port Angeles, WA United States)
Having interfaced a QWEST ActionTec wireless DSL modem, a DirecTV satellite internet portal with a wireless router and then configured a Hawking wireless webcam, I figured I had a clue for getting a wireless printer server running for our Macs.
I'm sorry to say, I failed. I couldn't even figure out how to talk with this box. You might think they'd give it a number like 192.168.0.10 and let you connect to it, but it doesn't even connect via a wire.
While trying to figure out what was wrong, I found out the awful truth. The box doesn't even support IPP, so you can't use a Macintosh with a non-Postscript printer. I punted and returned the piece of junk.
P.S. The hint for the ActionTec modem: Rename your Macintosh COMPUTER when you are wired up to it or it will forget your settings when it reboots. (No I'm not making this up. Maybe all PCs are named COMPUTER or something).
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sucks!!!, July 17, 2004
By unknown
Stay away from DLINK if you expect ease of use or have mixed operating systems (XP and MAC)!!!
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worked for me with XP Home, Linux and HP d135, July 13, 2004
By unknown
I REALLY like the small size of this unit. It fits great into my new home office setup where I don't have a lot of space near the printer, or an easy way to route a long USB cable.It is true that the quick start guide is only for Windows XP. I was able to follow the instructions and get everything working on the first try. The only problems I had were with friggin' Windows, not the DP-311U. Once I had it set up in Windows, I added the Linux connection to the DP-311u's LPR deamon via CUPS and it worked the first time. I did not bother with the d-link admin program. I never inserted the CD into my CD drive. Corrections to other postings: 1. This is definately wireless, you only need a 10BaseT wire when you first set it up. 2. There is a "Reset" button that must be pressed with a pin.
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