Zourous Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 Yes I know, they are not ideal, but there's not much choice when a department needs one to go on top of their mobile laptop trolley due to the current one breaking. the criteria is: Cheap, under £100 if possible Connects to most USB printers (so high chance of compatibility with ours) Small size, (well small enough to fit into the back of the trolley) Handles multiple jobs at the same time. Just brought one recently and had to send it back when it didn't accept the special characters in our wifi key!! Had a look for some other cheapish ones and just read bad things about them not working as expected so was hoping someone has one in place they can recommend?
w-clarke101 Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 Not use one myself Silex SX-DS-4000U2 - High Performance USB Device Server - Ebuyer
Zourous Posted February 23, 2015 Author Posted February 23, 2015 Not use one myself Silex SX-DS-4000U2 - High Performance USB Device Server - Ebuyer Thanks, but it kind of needs to be wireless. Also I would prefer someone to have experienced one they know works well.
w-clarke101 Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Sorry!! Only one I can see is the rubbish TP-link one... Edited February 25, 2015 by Little-Miss language
ConnorByrne Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Lantronix Costs around 100 plugs into main cab, and gives air print capabilities to all printers on the network. We use it and it is really simple. Just have to remote in and rename your printers as it displays the Mac I'd instead of printer name. But that's easy enough. 1
Zourous Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 Lantronix Costs around 100 plugs into main cab, and gives air print capabilities to all printers on the network. We use it and it is really simple. Just have to remote in and rename your printers as it displays the Mac I'd instead of printer name. But that's easy enough. Thanks but I don't think this will work. Their print server boxes are not wireless apart from the IOS one (we have W7 laptops).
w-clarke101 Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Have you not got an old laptop you could use as a print server? 1
Zourous Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 Have you not got an old laptop you could use as a print server? Yes I probably have but it won't fit in the back of the laptop trolley with the chargers.
Zourous Posted February 25, 2015 Author Posted February 25, 2015 bump, anyone? someone must have one somewhere.
w-clarke101 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 Only think I can think of if you try an Wi-Fi AP that has built in USB port and lets you put a printer and share it out wirelessly?
AJWhite1970 Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 If you can still find one, all my trollies use a buffalo Ethernet converter and I can then use cat5 as normal. Failing that off the top of my head I believe you can do the same trick with a cheap access point that can run DDWRT firmware. Andrew 1
MatthewL Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 What printer you looking at connecting? Another option maybe to use a AP as a bridge as such and plug the AP into the printer's network port if it has one. I've done that in the past. 1
furby Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 Only think I can think of if you try an Wi-Fi AP that has built in USB port and lets you put a printer and share it out wirelessly? This is they way I'd go as well. At home I use an Airport Express and it hasn't let me down (famous last words). 1
JackCPickup Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 Startech.com (1 Port) Usb Wireless N Network Print Server With 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Port - 802.11 B/g/n - Ebuyer Had one installed in a school last month and it's working sound. 1
Zourous Posted February 26, 2015 Author Posted February 26, 2015 Startech.com (1 Port) Usb Wireless N Network Print Server With 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Port - 802.11 B/g/n - Ebuyer Had one installed in a school last month and it's working sound. This just happens to be the one we sent back as it didn't accept the special characters in our wifi key
JackCPickup Posted February 26, 2015 Posted February 26, 2015 This just happens to be the one we sent back as it didn't accept the special characters in our wifi key Strange...the school's WiFi key has an ! in it. Is it other characters you use?
Zourous Posted February 26, 2015 Author Posted February 26, 2015 We have a !'s and as well ?'s. Maybe it is too long then at 31 characters. It was my colleague who was trying to get it to work.
Zourous Posted March 3, 2015 Author Posted March 3, 2015 Thanks for the input so far. This is tricky, I've come to the conclusion there are no decent wireless print server boxes out there! None of the big brands do one for around the £100 mark and all the cheaper brands get badly slated and seem like they might be better placed in home settings where demands aren't so high. My boss isn't too keen on the "use an old laptop and share it idea". The printer I was trying to connect to is an old usb only printer so I do have to provide a print server at some stage. I'm thinking of buying a complete new mono laser printer with wireless built-in. It sounds like the best solution as there are printers from many brands that come in at around £100. Does anyone know how these fare in the classroom?
gsk Posted March 9, 2015 Posted March 9, 2015 I've only had bad experiences with mobile printers full stop. Don't know if it's the constantly changing environment, vibration from being moved or what but they were a constant problem until we got rid and just used fixed printers. 1
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