| Linksys WPS54GU2 Wireless-G Print Server for USB 2.0 |
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Model: WPS54GU2
Brand: Linksys
Manufacturer: Linksys
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 173
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Share up to two printers with everyone on your network -- works with most parallel and USB (1.1 or 2.0) printers
Connects your printers directly to the network by 10/100 wired Ethernet or 54Mbps Wireless-G (802.11g)
No need to dedicate a PC to print server chores
Remotely administered through your web browser, SNMP, or the included utility
Easy installation with Setup Wizard |
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| Description: |
| The LINKSYS WPS54GU2 lets you connect a USB or Parallel printer (or both!) directly to your network, eliminating the need to dedicate a PC to print sharing chores. Using a PrintServer frees your "print share PC" so you don't have to leave it on all the time. And it removes the printing bottleneck, setting your PC free to do more useful work! Remotely administered through your web browser, SNMP, or the included utility |
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| User Reviews (173 total): |
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Wonderful, Reliable Product and Very Easy to Set Up, March 22, 2004
By unknown
Backed by the technical know how of Linksys and Cisco this is one piece of kit you can rely upon.It took me less than half an hour to configure this with an Epson USB Photo Printer - not bad for *ANY* printserver, even the wired variety. To make it work, add these steps: 1. Turn off Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall, and then run the install wizard. 2. To fire up the WLAN : After installation completes, power down the unit & remove the LAN cable before repowering up. Linksys have the BEST technical support I have ever experienced. Friendly 24/7 Internet Chat / email help. Great Site with software/Hardware Updates. And its all free. Amazing. Great Price , features and performance! Highly Recommended as the final solution to any Home/SOHO wireless network. Don't hesitate!
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So far so good!, March 21, 2004
By unknown
After reading all the negative reviews, I was really hesitant on purchasing this device. I bought it locally at a premium just to assist with returning it if need be.It took about 30 minutes but it worked just as expected. I have a Canon i960 connected to the USB and HP LaserJet 6L on the Parallel port. The only problem I ran into was going from wired to "wireless". Keep an eye on the TX/RX from the print server (via the admin utility). If you don't see the values changing, there might be a configuration issue. Mine turned out to be the print server was not set to use "Shared Key" (I have WEP enabled). I believe it defaulted to "Auto". After making the change, all worked great! I'll keep you posted on any issues I come across.
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Watchout for power outages, March 20, 2004
By Jim Ekleberry (Cookeville, TN USA)
The WPS54GU2 Wireless-G Print Server for USB 2.0 by Linksys installed effortlessly. If you are running Windows XP you will need to disable Firewall protection for both the local area connection (wired) and the wireless connection in order to reach the print server.Plug the print server into your network, run the setup program, and then install the print server utility to each computer, and you are up and running. If you wish to use the wireless portion, assign the print server a static ip address outside of the DHCP range that your router assigns. Be warned that the unit only provides for WEP encryption; if you use the much better WPA encryption you are out of luck. If the unit should happen to lose power (e.g. the power switch is flipped, bad weather, whatever) the unit will need to be reset to the factory defaults, plugged into the network, and re-configured. ...
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Works great with PC and Apple iBook sharing a network, March 5, 2004
By unknown
I was very skeptical after reading a couple of reviews and peoples bad experience. However, the print server was up and running within 15 minutes without any problems. I connected it to the 10/100 Ethernet port and used a PC running Windows to do the initial setup. I followed the setup procedure as described in the quick installation guide and I could print immediately.
The Apple iBook (running OSX Panther) was a little trickier. There are no drivers to install. You need to setup IP printing. Because of my printer, a HP LaserJet 1100, is not officially supported for Mac, I used gimp print 4.2.6 (for OSX). http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3 It comes with very detailed step by step instructions and it worked. One thing to keep in mind - you have to select Laserjet4 as model b/c of the HP LaserJet 1100 is not officially supported and use lp as the print queue.
I also own a SMC router with build in print server. The Linksys appears to be much faster and has a lot more features. I am very happy with my purchase.
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Junk, March 1, 2004
By net
Nothing works properly on this gadget. The wireless function is a joke, the USB connection simply does not work and the printers that are incompatible is huge, Linksys will not even release a list. Read the rest of the reviews below this one and know exactly what all those one star reviewers went through, as I did. Stay away, not ready for prime time AT ALL!!!
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Great idea, terrible product, March 1, 2004
By msmith1954 (Severna Park, Maryland United States)
Linksys had the idea. A USB port, parallel port, AND wireless to boot. Just wish it would have worked. Their USB design is simply non-functional. Its broken and that fact was verified by their support staff through an email (after a wait of 2 days). I guess if you're lucky enough to have a printer that they support (there is no list, you just have to be lucky in the one you buy), then its a great product. Never even made it to checking out the wireless connection. I can't believe that Cisco/Linksys would let a product out that was this bad. I own several Linksys products and have purchased dozens of products at work but had to take this one back. I hope Linksys gets the word that their product stinks. Hope they get a version II out soon, and Linksys, if its not too much trouble, could you get it to work?
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Outstanding Performance, February 28, 2004
By doug-a (Chicago, IL United States)
I am running the wireless-G PrintServer with 128 bit WEP encryption. It is attached to an HP LaserJet 1100 printer via the parallel port. Setup was easy (I didn't have to disable my firewall as other reviewers have mentioned). The router (D-link DI624) is located on the first floor of my townhome. My office (as well as the PrintServer)is on the third floor. The connection between the PrintServer and the router is excellent and has not dropped since I purchased the PrintServer 3 months ago. I purchased the PrintServer because it supports 80211G Parallel and USB 2.0 (I plan to buy a photo printer soon). The other PrintServers I compared included a USB 1.1 port.
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There Are Not Many Choices to Have Both Parallel and USB, February 21, 2004
By unknown
I don't think this product deserves so many negative reviews posted here. It works!! I admit that the Quick Installation Guide is no good and the wait on the tech support phone line was extremely long. But at the end, I was able to make it work. There are two printers, HP Laserjet 5MP and Epson Stylus C60, connected to this printserver and I can successfully print from them whichever I choose from the computer screen. I bought this for parallel and USB port together in one printserver more than its wireless feature. There are not that many printservers in the market that are equipped with both of these ports. Most of them have similar difficulties during set-up. So, if I were to rate this product, I would compare this printserver among only the ones that come with both parallel and USB. If you are shopping for a printserver, buy this printserver for being able to connect both parallel and USB port printers together at the same time and consider the wireless capability as bonus. If your emphasis is on the wireless capability and single port, there are better cheaper alternatives in the market. Be patient during set-up and expect to spend some time with the tech support because you don't have many other choices out there in the market. In the end, you will end up saving money by avoiding to buy multiple print servers.
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Funny name for a product that doesn't work with USB, February 16, 2004
By msmith1954 (Severna Park, Maryland United States)
Just spent many hours working on my brand new WPS54GU2 print server install. Installs, re-installs, firmware updates, software updates, Linksys phone support hanging up on me after being on hold for a long time... Conclusion: It just plain doesn't work. The really funny part is that I can get the ethernet communication working. I can get the parallel port working but, of all things I CAN'T GET THE USB PORT TO TALK! Didn't bother with the wireless connection. I have a wireless-G system but the box is no good to me without my USB (and parallel) printer working. Print servers kinda need that capability. I guess it's back to CompUSA for a refund. I double checked the name on the box just to make sure I didn't buy the wrong product. Sure enough, the name on the box is " Wireless-G PrintServer for USB2.0" Funny name for a product that doesn't work with USB...
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Flaky, February 13, 2004
By richardbvs (Santa Monica, CA USA)
I was able to get it working fairly quickly while physically connected to my network. But when I tried to get it running wirelessly things went down hill. Spent too many hours to count including a couple of them with tech support who was - to be fair - patient and competent. At the end of that call, the device was working properly. The conclusion was that my 128 bit wep key had to be a valid hexadecimal number including some letters?! After I got off the phone, I unplugged it and moved it to another location and was unable to get it working again. Various operations (like setting the encryption key "incorrectly") routinely crashed the wlan connection on the device forcing me to reset it. Waste of time.
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reviews here helped me a lot, February 11, 2004
By unknown
I owe a lot to the people who wrote reviews here so I would like to contribute some.For me it worked flawlessly. Installation was easy for my HP LaserJet5/5M wirelessly. One of the biggiest advice here was that the explorer firewall should be deactivated. In my case, Norton Internet Firewall and Zone Alarm was giving me a little problem. So, I deactivated them, and later activated them again after the server was installed. Other than that, installation was done in no time. I believe it was the worthy investment on the server.
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Wireless print servers are like a box of chocolates..., February 6, 2004
By unknown
I bought two of these wireless print servers (Linksys WPS54GU2) so I could print wirelessly to two printers in different locations. One is a new Canon i960 photo printer and the other is a brand-new HP Photosmart 7960 (I liked the LCD screen and picture card capability). They are both USB-only printers. Once I configured both print servers for my wireless network (they MUST be connected first via Ethernet in order to do this), I was able to print wirelessly to the Canon printer with no problem. However, I cannot say the same for the HP printer. I was unable to get either of the print servers to recognize a USB connection to it! I highly suspect the problem lies with the new HP printer since I was able to print wirelessly to an older HP printer I have, which is also USB. Based on the number of complaints I've read on the Internet regarding HP's newer Photosmart printers not being compatible with these print servers, I am going to return the new HP printer and go back to using the older HP printer since it worked fine. I heard from someone that the newer HP printers may only work with HP's high-priced wireless print servers...this is totally UNACCEPTABLE to me! Before you buy this print server for printing wirelessly, be sure the printer you want to connect to it is NOT a Photosmart printer since it will most likely not work wirelessly.
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Almost ready for prime time, February 3, 2004
By Mitch (Hanover, MD United States)
I have a mixed environment of Mac and Windows systems and want to consolidate all on an HP all-in-one 7100 series printer.From my Windows environment, it was not clear that I had to first install my print drivers before I could make a logical connection between my defined printer and a port created for the print server. This was a problem because the only way to accomplish this was to physically attach my printer to all my Windows systems, install the drivers then reconnect my printer to the print server. From there is was easy to connect my printer to the print server port and it has worked quite well since. The real down side is that Linksys advertises that this printer supports appletalk but the company provides no assistance in getting a Mac to communicate with the print server. So far, I have been unable to get my Mac to talk with the print server. According to Linksys, it is not supported and that is all they will say or do to help.
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Works Great, January 31, 2004
By tridad (Westford, MA USA)
I installed the wireless print server and it was working within 45 minutes when connected to the router via an Ethernet cable. I couldn't get it to work in the wireless mode so I used the online chat support via the Linksys web-site. They told me to do a power cycle and bring it back up with the ethernet cable disconnected. It worked!! The support was good and the print server is now working great. I have a new Cannon i860 connected to the USB port. Great investment.
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Lacks compatibility, January 31, 2004
By RB in PTC (Peachtree City, Georgia United States)
After two weeks of trying to get this unit to work with my HP 7750 printer - without much useful help from Linksys Technical Support - it turns out that the Linksys unit is not compatible with the printer! Why doesn't Linksys make it clear on their packaging or literature that their unit does not support many higher-end printers??
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Works well, once you get it configured correctly, January 30, 2004
By Robert D. Carter (Chatham, NJ USA)
I've got this unit to finally print from both a WinXP and Mac OS X machine, to a parallel port HP-6L and a USB port Canon i850. It's fairly straightforward to follow the manual to print from Windows, but if you want to print from OS X, you need to specify "L2" for the USB port server, not "P2" as in Windows and the manual.
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Very unsatisfied, January 25, 2004
By unknown
After spending several hours trying to install a HP 4050 PS (parallel) and an HP G85 (USB), I could get the 4050 to work, but was finally told by Linksys tech support that the print server does not support the G85. I find it inconceivable that they did not design the print server to handle recent HP printer models. It would help if the website tech support simply listed printers that the server does not support, because then I would not wasted my time.
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The King of Problems! Save Your Money, January 25, 2004
By unknown
I did try over and over again to install. The product is a failure and just doesn't work well with HP laser printer. I have tried it with Dell printer and still doesn't work. Technical support is a joke: the kid on the other end of the line just don't understand basic installation procedures and can solve nothing. Don't waste your money and time. Look for another solution.
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It's cool., January 24, 2004
By Jorge (Seattle, WA United States)
Thanks to the review from Mark T. Erickson who mentioned to disable the firewall before install. I did that, and cruised through the install. After I had everything working I was able to enable the firewall again with no problems. I have an HP Laserjetp6 on the parallel and an HP7350 on the USB and three XP laptops on the wireless network able to print to both printers fine. I'm very happy with the product.
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Great Product to Date, January 23, 2004
By unknown
I was reluctant to purchase the product due to the negative reviews. However the print server was more economical (for wireless printing) than other alternatives offered by HP. Since I was trying to connect two printers (HP Laserjet 2300 and HP OfficeJet D145) via the USB port I encountered some problems. I called Linksys customer service (not technical support)and requested assistance from a US based technician. A technician called back within the hour and provided the best service I received from any technical support personnel in a long while. He assisted me through the process and was extremely helpful. I had problems configuring the multifunction (D145) but a call to HP resolved that issue - for the multifunction to work I had to select another compatible printer - the HP Deskjet 990C. Initially I was told by another linksys technician that multifunction printers would not work with the print server. However, that is generally not the case. The linksys technician who asssisted me advised me to perform a simple test even before configuring the print server - connect a USB port to the print server and the printer and press the reset button on the print server, if a test page prints, then the print server will work with the printer. The only down-side is that WPA does not work with the printserver so I had to resort back to WEP. I am currently using the linksys modem, wireless g router and wireless g print server and I am happy with the performance to date. The set up may take a few minutes but with the right personnel from linksys the problems will be resolved.
07/25/04 - I have been using this print server since January 04 and I have not encountered any problems to date. It allows me to place my printers out of sight (in a closet).
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