If you have a home network and are still lamenting the loss of
Printer Sharing after your upgrade to OS X, it's time to cheer
up. The
Linksys WPS11 Instant Wireless Print Server
(
currently $114 at Amazon.com) offers an easy way to
share that printer again, although you will have to part with some
cash to make it so.
Ever since our household upgraded to OS X, printing to our
shared printer at my wife's PowerBook G4 has become a challenge. I
have to either email her the file to be printed or go down there,
retrieve the file from my iMac via the network, and then print it.
This was getting to be a pain, so when I saw this wireless print
server for $119 at the Atlanta MicroCenter, I decided to give it a
try.
The WPS11 is interoperable with IEEE 802.11b (DSSS) 2.4 GHz
networks. In the Macintosh world, this is better 
known as AirPort. It also has a 10/100 ethernet port for
connection to wired networks. In fact, the WPS11 can connect to
both wired and wireless networks simultaneously.
Setting up the WPS11 is relatively straightforward, though the
initial setup can only be done via the ethernet connection.
Configuration is accomplished through your Web browser. The print
server comes with a default IP address of 192.168.x.x, so you may
have to adjust the network settings on your Mac accordingly in
order to establish the initial communication.
A CD with a Windows installation program is also included. I
loaded the installation program on my Mac through Virtual PC and
gave it a try. However, I found the Web interface to be much
cleaner and simpler. This is a good thing, because if you have only
Macs, the Web interface is your only option for configuration.
Enter the print server's IP address in your browser to bring up
the configuration menu. You may need to change the WPS11's IP
address to match your network. The WPS11 is also able to get its
TCP/IP information from a DHCP server. The wireless settings may
also need adjustment to work with your existing AirPort setup. In
testing, I only had to enter the name of our AirPort network and
change the channel setting to make everything communicate. The unit
supports both 64- and 128-bit WEP encryption.
In Mac OS X, the printer appears in Print Center. In OS 9,
it is available through the Chooser.
The WPS11 has a nifty Internet Printing feature. Set it to
monitor a particular email account, and it will automatically
retrieve and print any email that arrives there, as long as the
message is in plain text format. I have not found a practical use
for this feature yet, but it is cool nonetheless.
...their Web site says they do not support
their products "in a Macintosh environment."
Linksys claims that the WPS11 works with virtually all major
operating systems, and at least as far as Mac OS X and
OS 9 are concerned, this proved to be true. The company offers
free 24/7 technical support, although their Web site says they do
not support their products "in a Macintosh environment." This is a
shame, because the installation CD also contains some Mac-only
Postscript utilities, so there is apparently some Macintosh
knowledge in the company.
It appears the problem is not that they can't support
Macs, it is that they don't want to. I wrote the company and
encouraged them to do more to support Macs. If you want to add you
voice to mine, send an email to mailroom@linksys.com.
The major drawback of the WPS11 (other than the vendor's
attitude toward Macintosh) is the fact that it only supports
parallel printers. In our test, I used an HP LaserJet 1200,
which has both parallel and USB connections. If you have a printer
with a parallel interface, you're in luck. If your printer is USB
only, the WPS11 won't be much help. I am hopeful that future models
of the WPS11 will add support for USB printers, though the Linksys
Web site is silent on this issue.
