| Linksys WPS54G Wireless-G 802.11g Print Server |
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Model: WPS54G
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 138
Operating system: Windows
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Share a printer with everyone on your network -- works with most USB 1.1 or 2.0 printers
Connects your printer directly to the network by 10/100 wired Ethernet or 54 Mbps Wireless-G (802.11g)
Prevents congestion on your PC with other users' print jobs
No need to leave a PC on 24/7 |
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| Description: |
| The Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer lets you connect a USB printer directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print sharing chores. Using a PrintServer frees up your ""print share PC"" so you don't have to leave it on all the time. It also removes the printing bottleneck, and sets your PC free to do more useful work. Connect the PrintServer directly to your network by 10/100 Ethernet cable, or wirelessly over 54Mbps Wireless-G (802.11g). The wireless option lets you put your printer wherever you want to, without having to run cables. Whichever way the PrintServer is attached to your network, both your wireless and wired PCs will have access to it, and the printer it's connected to. And if you don't use wireless for general networking in your office, you can still use the Wireless-G connection in ad-hoc mode to print from visiting Wireless-G and Wireless-B PCs. The USB port is compatible with USB 1.1 printers, as well as printers that support the new high-speed USB 2.0 specification for even faster throughput. Your data is protected by up to 128-bit WEP encryption, or pre-shared-key WPA. A user-friendly Setup Wizard makes installation easy, the compact case fits anywhere, and the three megabyte print buffer size handles even large graphics-intensive print jobs. Let the Linksys Wireless-G PrintServer for USB 2.0 bring efficiency to your printing tasks. |
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| User Reviews (138 total): |
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Linksys WPS54G Wireless-G 802.11g Print Server Review, August 21, 2005
By Casper (Colorado)
I am a Network Engineer by profession and decided to test the Linksys WPS54G at home because there were so many conflicting reviews. The setup was fairly easy, but for the average home user I believe it could present some challenges. Follow some of these tips to make the setup easier. If your wireless network is setup with MAC filters or encryption, disable both of these prior to setup. You can reactivate them later after you have added it to your network. Configure the device from a machine that is hard wired to the network. Do not attempt to configure the device from a computer connected via wireless connection or it could cause problems. Make sure that whatever printer you want to use with the device is setup on your computer prior to installing the print server. Later in the setup, the printer configuration looks for the printer driver to be already installed on your computer. The printer configuration automatically installs a new TCP/IP printer port, so there is no need to manually configure one. There were also some questions in other reviews whether this device will work with multifunction machines. It will work fine if you only want to print. But the other functions will not work, i.e. scanning. It says right on the box that it is not recommended with multifunction devices. I have an Epson CX5400 and the scanning function would not work with it. Epson recommends using their wireless print server with their multifunction machines (part number: C12C824221 $179.99). Ouch! There were also some comments that the print server gets hot. The specifications say it will operate up to 104 degrees F under normal conditions. So I don't really see this as a concern. Overall this is a good wireless print server, but not for multifunction printers.
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Warning: this device doesnt work with all printers, August 21, 2005
By Computer User (New York USA)
I configured the print server with no difficulty and it communicated with my Linksys router perfectly. Unfortunately it did not detect my Konica Minolta 2400W laser color printer. The USB light on the print server did not light. Linksys tech support sent me back to the store to exchange the print server because they thought it was defective. I exchanged the print server but it still will not detect the printer. Now Linksys confirms that their print servers do not work with all printers ... they also do not provide a list of printers which are compatible. Linksys should not release a product without warning that it doesn't work with all USB printers...or at least provide a list of compatible printers. This isn't about multifunction printers...the 2400W is a vanilla printer. Very disappointing!!!
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easy to set up, works great, August 12, 2005
By Ileen (Maine)
I found the print server easy to install. It came with quick installation instructions, but you could just insert the cd-rom and follow the prompts. I did not try to install the print server wirelessly; first I did a wired connection to my router. (The instructions claim that you do not need to do this, but I did it anyway.) I use 64-bit WEP encryption and have a linksys wireless-b router. I configured three different PCs to work with the printer. Two are notebooks with integrated wireless-g and one is a desktop with a linksys wireless-b adapter. Each one printed the test page correctly on the first try. It couldn't have been easier!
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Worked Perfectly, August 10, 2005
By usadan (San Francisco, CA United States)
I bought this, THEN read all the reviews which might have made me hesitate or return it, but went ahead and installed it anyway to see how my experience compares with other reviews here.
The device worked great for me. Don't be afraid of it if it seems to be the product for your needs. It was easy to install and works great. It took about ten minutes to install. Just walked right through the documentation and installation CD. Configured a notebook and a desktop. I'm using an SMC router, and basic Samsung Laser Printer, no WEP, MAC secured. Now I can put my printer anywhere in range(just what I wanted).
Remember you will need another power outlet for the added device.
It looks cool, was easy to install, and works smoothly.
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Up and running in 5 minutes, August 10, 2005
By KB3FUT (New York)
As has been my experience with Linksys-works like a charm. Easy to install with simple to follow instructions. A great time saver for printing from your home network.
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Dont buy, August 6, 2005
By B. Johansen (ohio)
I bought, and returned yesterday, this product. Thech supports is horrible at linksys. Earlier today I bought a D-link print server, and will be a d-link customer from now on.
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Works as Expected! Even for mac users!, July 24, 2005
By opnmkt (KY)
Mac folks,
You too can enjoy this little print server. Just make sure you use a windows computer to install the cd that comes in the box. Follow the "quick installation" sheet just any normal windows would do. Then, add the printer with system preferences (this is rather complicated). The key to using this product with a mac network is to find some unsuspecting windows user with a notebook to give you a little kickstart.
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Works well, June 12, 2005
By youngprof (Oklahoma)
I had a bad experience with another Linksys Printserver, so I was reluctant to try another one. However, I have been pleasantly surprised. This PS installed quickly and easily. It works well and I have had no problems with it.
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Most of these reviews are bad, take the advice and avoid., June 8, 2005
By Y. Scanlan (Virginia, USA)
Anytime you read reviews about a product, there are always going to be people on both sides. This product for me was a waste of time. I ordered all linksys products for my home wireless network on purpose, hoping to get it up and running quickly and without much effort. I work with computers all day and coming home and working on them more doesn't excite me. After trying just about every possible scenerio, I finally tried the chat program offered on the linksys website, totally useless. They finally said, your printer is not one we tested, so no guarantee's it will work. (Epson Stylus C86). When asked for location on their site that shows printers they have tested, they said, they do not have one. Hooking up a silly little print server should be something my computer skills lacking mother should be able to do. So now I can either waste more time waiting for some firmware update or start over with another product. (waste more money on shipping). There are many other reviews with negative vibes. If you purchase anyway, just look in the mirror and say "you knew better," when you run into problems.
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Doesn't work out of the box., April 18, 2005
By DataMoose (Nebraska)
I have this little headache on an HP LaserJet 1012. The printer works fine in a mixed WinXP, Win98, and Mac OSX envorinment when connected directly to a Linksys Router. However, it but printed garbage when wireless for jobs sent from the Windows computers.
About an hour with Linksys tech support, we got print jobs to work when we ***change the driver to a generic "HP LaserJet" driver***.
Why there should be a difference when going wireless?? I dunno. I figure that if the computers send the right job when connected directly, and the printer receives and prints great, doesn't it sound like the problem is between the Linksys products when it messes up when I switch to wireless? Anyway, changing the driver worked. I'm going to keep it, but I could have been happier with the fix.
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Not Real Good, April 16, 2005
By John B. West (Los Angeles, CA USA)
I am a fan of Linksys products, but after this experience I am not so sure. I bought the Wireless Print Server, followed the instructions to a T and couldn't get it to work wireless. It worked fine with a ethernet cable, but what's the point of that? I consider myself a fairly Network savy person, but after an hour of tech support from some chap in India I had had enough. Returned for refund.
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It's Troublesome to Install, Great to Use, April 16, 2005
By Joe Hastings (N Virginia, USA)
This unit is not straight forward to install and undoubtedly Linksys Technical Support is deficient in its ability to support it. That said, once installed, the print server is a beauty. I print large documents several hundred pages long from time to time and whereas two other wireless units I tried fall over badly, this one just eats them up.
The key thing is to to get the most up to date firmware: 6047. This does not yet appear to be available from the Linksys site but can be obtained from www.linksysinfo.org. Once that is installed, everything becomes much easier.
Connect the unit up by cable to your router and install it, including setting the security. The new firmware supports WPA-PSK. Once everything is working, power it down and remove the cable connection. After a moment power it back up and the wireless connection will kick in. It is sensible to do all of the above in stages and check how you are doing but it is necessary to power the unit down and back up when changing from cable to wireless and vice versa.
I hope this helps.
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Works Great, March 14, 2005
By Alias Junkie (Chicago, Il)
Setup was a breeze, print server works like a charm. Hooked it up to an Epson R200 printer, using a Linksys WRT54G version 2 router. Works perfectly for both wired and wireless PC's and laptops. My advice to those considering buying one, read the instructions. After the print server is configured, power cycle by unplugging it then plugging it back in. Install the printer drivers on the PC you want to configure, then install the print server drivers. Worked perfectly for me this way on multiple computers. Nice range, prints quickly, no worries. Good luck.
Sgtnukem
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Works Great, March 13, 2005
By Young Adult Author (Junction City, KS)
As long as your printer is not a fax/copy/print or multifunction printer, this server works great. If you already have linksys wireless router, the setup is quick, easy and flawless. It is good to be aware of basic networking before working with any wireless technology. Support may not know what all individuals' system and user problems are, but they know what they are talking about. The fact is that this server works and it works well.
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WPA now works, read below, March 6, 2005
By jwesterman6 (Seattle, WA USA)
UPDATE: To get WPA support - call Linksys support and request the 6047 firmware. It is in beta. You have to ask for a level-three representative. They will send you an e-mail with it attached
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Out of the box, this product still does not support WPA, unless you have firmware version 6046. I would only recommend this product to people with a little networking savvy. Hopefully Linksys will release an updated firmware soon. Otherwise it's a very solid print server. Much better I believe than a one star rating. It boasts a buffer size far exceeding that of other models, notably SMC print server. This make it quite nice for larger print jobs.
If you have the patience, this setup has worked great for me. I'm confident Linksys will straighten out the WPA issues. I purchased a cheap wireless B/G router with WEP, and daisy chained it to the LAN port of the Wireless G WPA router. Then I placed the print server into the DMZ of the WEP network.
1) Connect one end of a CAT-5 networking cable into a WAN port of the WEP B/G router. Connect the other end into a LAN port on the WPA router.
2) On the WPA router, reserve an IP in the DHCP scope for the Wireless B/G WEP router.
3) Tie the 2 routers together by assigning that IP address to the WAN port of the WEP B/G router.
4) Connect one end of a CAT-5 networking cable into a LAN port on the WEP B/G router. Connect the other end into the Linksys Print Server.
5) Login to the WEP B/G router. Identify the newly assigned IP address of the Print Server.
6) Login into the Print Server's web interface using the IP address obtained from step 5.
7) Configure the Print Server to connect wirelessly to the the WEP B/G router network. (settings for the SSID, WEP, MAC etc) Save these settings and remove the Cat 5 cable from both ends.
8) On the WEP router, place the Print Server's IP into the DMZ. This is critical. Port forwarding to the Print Server IP didn't work for me.
9) Connect to the WPA network.
10) Setup a network printer using the IPP printer protocol. Specify that the address looks like http://192.168.2.100
That's it.
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Piece of C*@p, March 2, 2005
By John T. Shaffer (Seattle, WA USA)
Believe it all is true. Like many others I to was a sucker. Tech support confirms that the WPA does not work, also if you turn off the SSID it will not work. I even went to the trouble of complaining to customer service about there misleading advertising. They said that they would talk to tech support and modify there web site. Well a month later they still have not changed it. To make matters worse I decided to change my router from my current Netgear wireless router to one that uses NIMO multi link. First I tried the Belkin Pre-N router, did not work at all. Then I decided to try the Linksys WRT54GX that did not work either. Currently it is back to the Netgear. I am a technician for a telecom company and have worked with many Cisco products. Let me tell you Cisco should run away from the Linksys brand as fast as they can.
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Poor product, February 27, 2005
By Lagos777
This is the worst computer product I've ever bought. Save your time , you WILL return it. It is not wireless. It does not work.
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Perfect Under 5 mins setup!!!!!!!, works as promised, February 21, 2005
By Selwyn (HOUSTON, TX United States)
I was very very sceptical about the product after reading the user reviews and with prior experience with Linksys Print Servers.
But not this one. This WINS!!! HANDS DOWN!!!
I was afraid that it would conflict with my Wireless D-Link. My fears were erased when it saw the Wireless Network and automatically detected all settings.
Next, the printer was a Canon IP3000 USB printer. It detected that too.
Remember one tip. Install your printer driver on each computer with connected to some bogus port like LPT1. Then do the Print Server Driver install. It changes it accordingly.
I installed the driver on 4 other computers. It works flawlessy!. Not too mention that the Server prints with speed.
So disregard all the previous reviews. Read the Quick Guide Carefully, Setup & Enjoy. Finally Linksys got it RIGHT!!!
It took maximum 10 mins to install it. WOW
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Don't bother, February 18, 2005
By Andy (UK)
Just spent over 4 hours trying to get this sucker to work. Finally cracked it but unless you're seriously IT literate then forget it. The documentation is appaling forcing you to resort to Tech Support and they don't seem to have much a clue either.
As per previous posts here I can't get it to work with WPA but I have got 128-bit WEP running.
Problems encountered:
To set this thing up you must be ethernet connected to start with despite what the instructions suggest.
Make sure your printer is NOT configured to work Offline. The Print Server simply wont work if this is the case.
After every configuration change to the print server, turn it off and back on.
Don't bother trying to configure wireless security until you have got it to work in an unsecured wireless mode.
I couldn't get it to work under 128-bit encryption until I had successfully got it to work on 64-bit encryption.
I also had to change it to use a fixed IP rather than DHCP.
Finally if you have a network of PCs then there is some extremely strange behaviour from the Print Server Web interface. On one of my PCs (Win 2000) using both IE and Firefox I was getting various errors such as IP address validation errors that said the number had to be between 1 and 255. Great exception all my numbers where between 1 and 255. Also the Wireless security page just ignored all input. It said it had saved it but it was a complete lie. However when I swithced to the other PC (also Win 2000) everything suddently magically worked. Absolutely no idea why.
In short unless you have a degree in IT networking/wireless and 3+ hours to kill then forget it.
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Great printing experience..., February 14, 2005
By Otto (San Jose, Costa Rica)
I just bought this little print server and plug it into my network really quickly. I did not have any of the problems that other people have reported. I would only recommend that you install the printer driver and test that you could print before installing the print server.
Fisrt my setup:
* Desktop Intel P4 2.8, Windows XP SP2, Linksys WUSB54G Wireless-G USB Network Adapter 802.11g
* Laptop Intel Cetrino 2.4, Windows XP SP1, Internal wireless 802.11b
* Old Laptop Pentium 166, Windows ME, Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 LAN PC Card 802.11b
Router: Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router
Printer: Epson Photo stylus 820, latest drivers from Epson web site.
I have small Wireless network at home. It has WEP 128 bit security enabled and all PC's can connect to internet and talk to each other properly. The print server used to be my desktop PC.
To start the configuration I disconnected my printer from my desktop and I reconnected it to the WPS54G print server using the bundled USB cable. Then I connected the print server to my router using a regular Ethernet cable that I had. Next I turned on the printer and the print server.
After a few seconds the power, Ethernet and USB leds were on. At this point I inserted the WPS54G CD and the setup wizard started automatically. I clicked on setup wizard and after filling a few parameters the print server was configured. I this point I removed the power and the Ethernet connection. After turning it up it was recognized immediately as a client of my wireless network.
The next step was to install the driver. Form the setup wizard I just click on the driver install and I let the wizard find my print server, recognized my printer and configure the software. In a few seconds I was printing Windows Print Test page.
I repeated this process in my other two PC's.
I'm really happy that I both this little gadget. It simple fast and it works for me.
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