Sharing a printer to be accessible with other users in the network is one of the advantages of the network. You don’t need to wait in a queue to send a print job, just send the print jobs and the system will take care of the rest. Print server takes care of the jobs queues automatically, and even you can provide a prioritization of certain print jobs over the others.
Without a print server, traditionally you attach the printer to the local computer and configure the printer as a share printer to let others print from the network. With this traditional method, you cannot print via the network when the computer is off. But with the printer attached to the print server, you can access the printer anytime – independently from the computer for sharing.
In homes, a printer is the essential accessories of the computers. And with your home wireless network, sharing the printer is a must to let others access it via the network. You can share your printer via the computer, or you can share the printer using the print server, or you can share the printer via your wireless router – only if your wireless router includes a USB for print share.
There are many wireless routers with print server available in the marketplace, usually with USB port available. But not all wireless routers with USB port can be used to share the printer. Some routers with USB port can only be used as storage share, or can be used both for share the printer and the disk storage. Unless you require a wireless print server where you can place the printer in convenience location without a network cable, you should choose your wireless router with print server for your home wireless network.
The following are some types of wireless router with print server.
Trendnet TEW-634GRU Wireless -N Gigabit Router
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Trendnet TEW-634GRU wireless router is powered with the latest wireless N 802.11n technology. The router supports 4x Gigabit autosensing LAN ports and one 100Mbps WAN port. The router is embedded with one USB port you can use to share the USB disk storage or a USB printer. This router includes USB control center for storage and print utility, but it can only work with Windows 2000/XP/Vista.
With one USB port available, you cannot use it to share the printer and the storage at the same time. Should you require both printer and storage to be accessible at the same time, consider the other version TEW-673GRU wireless router with two USB ports. With two USB ports in this router, you can share printer and storage at the same time.
ASUS RT-N16 Wireless-N Gigabit Router
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ASUS RT-N16 wireless router is still powered by draft 802.11n technology. We know that 802.11n was ratified and approved by the IEEE last Sep 2009. Not much different with the draft version except some options. The router is embedded with Gigabit interfaces both for the LAN ports (4x) and one WAN port and the good thing is that the router includes two USB ports to allow you share both printer and the storage at the same time.
The good thing with ASUS RT-N16 is that it includes AiDisk to allow you share the storage everywhere with your friends using the DDNS address such as ftp:// YourName.asuscomm .com.
DIR-632 D-Link
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Unlike ASUS RT-N16, the D-Link DIR-632 is powered by the latest 802.11n technology. And the good news is that the router includes 8x 100Mbps LAN ports and one USB port. This router is ideal for your small offices or home office. 8 ports is enough to support your home offices – twice as much as other home wireless routers. One USB port can be used for printer sharing across the network.
For high-speed wired connection – for your high-intensive bandwidth application such as for video and multiplayer gaming, consider other gigabit routers with USB ports such as D-Link DIR-665 N450 – new D-Link router with selectable dual-band.
The good thing is that the router supports Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, Windows® XP SP3, or Mac OS® X (v10.4).
Belkin New Max Play
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Belkin introduces new Belkin wireless router series with dual-plane antenna and MIMO technology to cover the whole home – larger home.
The router includes Torrent Genie app to let you download from Torrent even if your computer is shutdown or asleep. The router includes one USB port to let you share printer or storage with Print Genie App.
Belkin also introduces new Belkin dual-band wireless N600 HD router which includes 2 USB ports to allow you share printer and storage at the same time. This router is ideal for high performance gaming and home theater video streaming.
By Ki Grinsing
See also:
- Computer networking basics – for newbie
- Small business computer network
- Internet security download – Bitdefender
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