Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)UPDATE:
I initially wrote a glowing review of this print server and gave it five stars, but now, I took everything back and rate it one star. The thing simply could not maintain a connection. There are six computers on our network sharing a printer through this print server. All of them run Windows 7, and all of them have the same problem. The printer would frequently go "off-line", or into some other disconnected status and became unaccessible. Sometimes running the PS-Link program to make a manual connection would solve the problem, and sometimes the only solution is to unplug the power and restart the print server.
Actually, I did notice the unreliability in the beginning when I used dynamic IP address for this print server, but I thought the problem was fixed by switching to manual IP address. It was not. It was just better, but still extremely unreliable.
No, you can't live with something like this. It would be insane.
I subsequently bought a TRENDnet TE100-P21. So far, it is maintaining a connection with every computer on the network. I shall observe it longer and see what happens. The setup was even simpler. Besides, the TRENDnet has two USB ports plus a parallel port, in contrast to a single USB port of the Airlink.
Anyway, the following is the original review I wrote. Everything I wrote is still true (because I wasn't aware of any unreliability at the time), and may still be useful information for someone who is interested in investing. I was glad to get rid of it.
THE ORIGINAL REVIEW:
BACKGROUND:
I hesitated to buy it due to lack of user reviews. But glad I bought it. This thing is so much better than my 5 years old D-Link printer server which was four times as expensive. The D-Link had terrible design, requiring extremely confusing user setup. I'm highly experienced in networking, but it took me many hours to figure out the D-Link Print Server. I later wrote an review to detail the procedure of setting up the D-Link Print Server, and guess what, every time when I needed to set up the print server again, I had to consult to my own writing because the thing was so complicated and illogical that there is no way that you can remember how to do it.
PROS:
With that background, you can imagine how delighted I was to set up this tiny Airlink101. It took less than 10 min. altogether. And I did not even read the instructions. All you need to do is The following steps:
(1) hook up the print server with your router (or access point or switch depending on where you at the network) and with a computer on the network;
(2) install the programs that come with the print server; And
(3) start PS Link (one of the two installed programs)and click the link button shown in the window, and you're done.
There is no confusing port setup, no confusing distinction between local printer and network printer, and even more confusing distinction between printer IP address and the printer name, all the terrible junk thrown at you by the D-Link. Compared to this little print server, the D-Link was outright incompetent engineering.
On my computers running Windows 7, it didn't even require me to go to the Windows control panel to add a printer. After I did the above 3 steps, I felt good and said to myself, now, all you need to do is go to the control panel to add a printer. I was a bit anxious of the distinction between adding a local printer and network printer (which was such a headache with the D-Link). But when I got to the control panel, I noticed that the printer was already there. And I tested it and it worked. This may be because the printer driver was already installed on my computer.
If you are installing a new printer, you might need to run PS Wizard (the other one of the two programs installed with the CD came with the print server). That is where you install the printer driver.
You may want to log onto the configuration to set up a few things such as password. But for just printing, if you do the above three simple steps, you are done.
CONS:
The only complaint I have about it is that it can network only one printer. I'm planning to buy another one because I have two printers that need to be networked.
TIPS:
(1) Based on my experience, I concluded that for this print server to work reliably, you must set it on manual IP and also manually preserve a static IP for it on your router. I used DHCP first. It connects easily, but it could not stay connected. It required frequent "re-linking" of the printer. Once I switch to static IP, everything seem to work well.
(2) If you are installing a new printer, you might need to run PS Wizard That comes with it.
(3) Remember, you need to install the print server software on every computer on the network that you want to use the network printer. The installation takes just a few minutes. Couldn't be simpler.
(4) Note also that they make a wireless version of this print server too. But I bought the non-wireless one because I connect the print server through the ethernet port of a bridge which has a wireless connection to the router.
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Airlink101 AMPS230 Multi-Functional Print Server
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