Wireless Print Server Questions

Factual Questions
1

I debated whether to ask the questions here or in the IMHO forum. I’ll start it in GQ, but Mods, feel free to route it to IMHO.

I need wireless printing capability on my home network. Here are the major components:
[ul]
[li]Windows 10 laptop[/li][li]MacBook Pro laptop (temporary, while working from home during quarantine)[/li][li]Various Android devices (phone, tablet)[/li][li]HP LaserJet 1200 printer[/li][/ul]

The HP LaserJet 1200 is not wifi-enabled. It is currently plugged into the Windows laptop via USB.

I can print to it from the MacBook, but occasionally, I have to delete the printer from the MacBook and recreate it, logging into my Windows laptop to do so.

My wife uses her Android devices to print, and I want to be able to let her print on the laser printer. The printer was hooked up fine via Google Print, but, all of a sudden stopped working and I can’t get it to work again. Probably because she’s logged in to one Google account, and my Windows laptop is logged into another Google account.

What I want is to have a wireless print server connected to my network, and then connected to my printer via USB. There are such devices, but I am having trouble finding anything “modern” that works with Windows 10.

I recently bought a Linksys WPS54GU2 Wireless G print server on Amazon. However, once it arrived, I could not get it to serve up the correct default IP address. The device came without any software, and I did the factory reset route 8-10 times, but when it finally rebooted, the IP address was either 0.0.0.0 or 169.254.25.233, neither of which is accessible. Even if I had been able to get the IP address to be on my network, I probably wasn’t going to get very far due to not having the setup disc. I contacted the supplier and am hoping to get my money back. This device model has been discontinued by Linksys, and I am not willing to download software from any other site that purports to be the setup software.

Then I went to a local computer store (Microcenter, if you need to know) and bought the only wireless print server they had, which was a Hawking HMPS1A Wireless Multifunction USB Print Server.

I was a little hesitant to get this, because I have had experience with Hawking in the past, and find them to be utter crap. On my Windows 7 laptop in the past, the server kept falling off the network and had to be reinstalled nearly every time I used it. But, I thought, that was several years ago, and I’m sure they have improved.

But, no; still crap.

Went through the installation on my Windows laptop with the device wired into my router but the device never shows up in the Hawking Control Center. Found it on my network by going to my router’s configuration page and then went to the print server’s IP address in a browser. I was able to set the wifi credentials and, after it rebooted, I removed the ethernet cable and successfully see the device is on my network wirelessly. I can see it in my router, and the name is correct (HMPS1A), and it is pingable.

But, since it does not appear in the Hawking Control Center, I have no way of connecting the printer.

Any help would be appreciated. I’m open to suggestions on any of the following:

[ul]
[li]Is there a decent wireless print server with USB capabilities that works with Windows 10 for setup?[/li][li]Should I be using something else, like just a wireless router with USB capability, or something like that?[/li][li]Does anyone have any experience configuring a Hawking HMPS1A on Windows 10?[/li][/ul]

I am not willing to give up the HP LaserJet 1200. It is old and trustworthy, and I just don’t want to give it up, but I need to have it be able to print wirelessly and not be tethered to my Windows laptop.

I’d like to keep the cost under $100.00, if at all possible. Any more than that, and I am approaching the territory of just buying a new one. One reason I am reluctant to part with the HP LaserJet 1200 is that I just bought a new toner cartridge for it, and that alone was nearly $100.00. I have had this printer since 2004, and I believe it is only on its third toner cartridge.

Any thoughts?

2

Not the best answer, but since I was in your exact situation some months back, with a cobbled together wireless printer setup using a LaserJet 1320 that I really liked and I had no issues with, my answer was to buy a new printer.

Every time I added a new computer to my network over the past decade, I had to figure out how to get it to see a Unix LPR printer and how to get the right drivers set up and what queue to use and so forth, and it regularly stopped working, making me restart all of the devices in the chain.

A couple of years ago my wife wanted to print from her iPad, so I bought a neat app for my Mac called Printopia.

So, when she printed an email, it went like this:
iPad through iPrint via Wifi to Printopia on my iMac then over the network using Unix LPR to an aging Netgear print server that was plugged in via USB to the printer.

It was a nightmare to troubleshoot, and often required restarting everything.

Then I decided to buy a modern iPrint-enabled HP Laserjet printer and have never looked back–it’s an absolute dream, and everyone in the house can print without any hassles whatsoever.

They have very low cost ones that come in around your $100 mark, and those might be just what you need.

I went for a home office printer, the same quality as the old 1320 it replaced, and it was around 300…

3

That was my experience with wireless printers too.

Do you still have a ‘g’ network? If you are only using a or n etc I don’t think it’s going to work.

If you can get it to appear on your network, you can use the web interface to configure it – you don’t need the setup kit.

I don’t think you really need the original print drivers – I think you can substitute a simple laserwriter instead.

If it was mine, I’d continue to work on it until I got it to work, but I wouldn’t inflict it on my wife.

4

minor7flat5 and Melbourne, thank you for the answers.

Well, I was actually able to make a little bit of progress, and then a whole of progress towards minor7flat5’s suggestion. I was able to download the latest version of the Hawking Control Center and got my Windows laptop to print to the LaserJet, but, alas, now the MacBook can’t connect to the printer. I really need the printer for my job, so, I have come to the conclusion that I will be better off just buying a new wireless laser printer.

Shoot, the Hawking cost around $100 after tax, so I am already right at my price point, and I can get a laser printer for around $130.

So now I have to find a home for a decent laser printer, which, if plugged into the right network, will continue to do a good job. I just replaced the toner cartridge in early 2020, so the value of the printer is close to $75.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I guess I am going to have to be dragged into the 21st Century, whether I like it or not. The worst part of this is my wife’s gloating, “I told you that you can’t put old technology on a new network.” I can’t say she’s wrong.

5

The thing that made all the difference for me was that the new ones are usually wifi enabled, so no wires are needed, and they usually support the iPrint protocol, so it’s a snap to print something from our iPads or iPhones. Note: If these features are important to you, make sure the one you buy has them.

So much effort was invested in keeping the old good solid printer running, now I don’t have to worry one bit about the new one.

I gave the old LaserJet 1320 to my daughter and she took it to her classroom, where she plugs her laptop directly into it with USB to print stuff out for her students. She gets full use of its awesomeness, and I don’t feel like it was a loss.