wireless printer advice

[bishopsgarthstockton]

hello happy people,

 

just a guick question. we have a mobile classroom (which i hate with a passion) that we use around the school. i have been asked to buy a wireless printer to sit ontop of the trolley.

 

1. Do anyone have experience with this setup?

2. would it be better to install an extra Network point for the wireless classroom trolley, and have a Network printer sat on top and connect to a point in the wall therefore reducing wireless network traffic on the access points.

 

it would be nice to be able to just take the trolley to a classroom that already has a printer and some how have the laptops automatically pick up which area there in and print to that printer only.

 

a teacher did suggest that i allow the laptops to print to any printer and let the kids select printer in the are there in.. hahahaha i dont think so! 8)

 

any ideas or suggestions

 

just looking at wireless printers and my god are they costly!

 

cheers my fellow edugeek community

[Ric_]

You are going to be opening up a whole can of worms with a wireless printer. Printers are temporamental at the best of time and then you add wireless in!

 

If you must go down this route though, you could simply buy a wireless bridge (converts a standard ethernet device into a wireless one). This is probably the cheapest way.

 

HP do wireless versions of their 600-series JetDirect cards but, like you said, these are pricey. These do have special wifi functions though IIRC.

[plexer]

Do you have an access point on the trolley or are they fixed in the rooms?

 

We do this both ways here. Wireless access points on some of the trolleys but these are buffalo ones with built in 4 port switches so the access point plugs into the wall and the printer plugs into the access point.

 

For the ones that live in rooms that have fixed access points we just plug the network printer in itself and the laptops are allocated this printer by the login script.

 

Ben

[mullet_man]

We had an Epson wireless print server that attached the printer via USB, it was a total pain, wouldn't connect to the network most of the time.

 

My advice would be to stick to wired printer solution.

[plexer]

Also I think you'll find most of these wireless printers and addon dohickies won't support proper secure wireless encryption methods such as eap-ttls with certificates or any of the others except for wpa-psk and wep-psk.

 

Ben

[Midget]

avoid belkin wireless usb printer servers like the plague

[bishopsgarthstockton]

we have 3 rooms fitted out with wireless access points.

 

3 x 3com access points running on 802.11n per room

 

30 laptops so 10 laptops per access point in a room

 

i wonder if it would be possible to wright a script that detects wat access point the laptop is connected to and make a decision which printer to set as a default or make available.

 

the other problem is i dont think i have any spare ports in one of the cabinets

[Midget]

you could check the laptop's gateway and assign a printer that way.

[speckytecky]

Sort of related to this I have a wireless accessed Samsung Laser ethernet connected to a router and I access it via the HTTP setting. However, if I switch the printer off and later switch it on again it usually picks up a new but similar address (ending 189. 190, 191 or 192) currently IP_192.168.1.192 would I be right in thinking that on it's web address if I change the setting rom IP to Static the Samsung will retain it's web address and therefore avoid the need to reset it on the wireless kit that accesses it?

[number34]

Don't try an HP 1020 nw. We got one, configured it near an access point and it worked fine. Moved it across the room ( 3 metres max) and it lost it's IP and contact with WAP. Got a replacement from PCWorld and had exactly same problem. Contacted HP support and got sent a replacement directly from them. It did exactly the same thing, ie only worked when within 1 metre of the WAP!! We must have wasted a good 10 or so hours messing about with it.

If you have a WAP on the trolley with an inbuilt switch why not connect a printer directly to it?

[Ric_]

@speckytecky: There are two ways of solving your prob. My preferred way is to create a reservation on the DHCP server so that you can change the address easily and look it up if needed. You could also use the static IP method (as you mention). Obviously, make sure you exclude the IP address that you use from your range.

[speckytecky]

Thanks Ric, As usual your advice on this Forum is the business. Thanks to you and the rest of the experienced team on behalf of all who fall into my learner category for the continued help and advice.

[Ric_]

@specktecky: We've all been there... you pick these things up eventually as and when you need to.

[bishopsgarthstockton]

when setting up a wireless printer. do you configure the printer to talk to the desired access point and can you set it to connect to more than 1 access point?

 

if not then im going to stick to good old ethernet cat5 conx

[Oops_my_bad]

when setting up a wireless printer. do you configure the printer to talk to the desired access point and can you set it to connect to more than 1 access point?

 

if not then im going to stick to good old ethernet cat5 conx

On the HP's you can configure multiple SSID's in list and they will connect (presumably based on the strongest signal). If you're using the same SSID on multiple AP's then presumably it will connect to the strongest one also.

 

I am looking for a wireless printer at the moment - we always used to get HP1320NW's which believe it or not, are exceptionally reliable. However HP seem to have stopped making these and have replaced them with the awful 1022 (mentioned above).

 

Can anyone recommend a wireless printer? Ideally I don't want to be messing around with external print servers/wireless bridges.

[FN-GM]

There is no such thing as a wireless printer were will you get the power from

[Enzomatrx]

We're about to make a "Tablet Cart" (ugh) once I image the two dozen of those gimmicky laptops.

Part of the setup will be, of course, a printer on top of the cart. We have wireless bridges and I'm not looking forward to this at all. We already have enough problems with printer swaps and networking fun.

Initially, printers were hard-coded into the OS image per location, which was fine until you did a swap. So now I've been going through computers and deleting the printers and using KixScript to add the printers at user logon.

Of course there are still computers with residual old hard-coded printers in them I did not get around to because why should I be allowed to access everyone's computer during summer break?

 

So my shit aside, I concur with reservations... wireless printer on a cart will not be fun... and will flake out more often than not, I am damn sure.

Of course I'll explain this fact to everyone, and we'll still go ahead and put a printer on the cart with a wireless server, and then be called out to any room using the "Tablet Lab" most likely every time it's used because OMG IT NO PRINT.

 

Gah.... gimmicky technology can go to hell.

[Joedetic]

@ FN-Greatermanchester....

 

A UPS....it wouldn't be very portable or be powered for very long but it'd still be wireless

[FN-GM]

lol fair point there

[beeswax]

like teachers' wireless laptops, the printers would be plugged into the mains. they'd only receive the signal wirelessly.