Wireless Printing: Bluetooth or Wi-Fi?

I've finally made the jump to get a laptop at home. I just setup a wireless network at work and they came to me asking about wireless printing. I went with a Bluetooth Class 1 Network to avoid conflict the the Wireless-G network. It works fine. Good distance, just no two-way communication (cannot see the ink monitors on the remote PC).

My worry at home is conflicts.

I have a Linksys Wireless SRX400 router at home. I also use Bluetooth for syncing my Treo 650 AND for dial-up networking when I am not in Wi-Fi range.

Does anyone have any experience with hooking up a wireless printer either via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth where you have other services running on the same platform? Just want to know what I am in for if I go with one or the other. Thanks!

 

Not sure what you mean.

I have a 802.11g printer set up at home without any issues.

I also use BTH to sync my pda and phone as well.

 

I use 802.11g for my wireless internet, so my question there is can I stay connected wirelessly to the router AND go to a 802.11g printer without losing connection? I know I cannot be connected to my Bluetooth modem and connect to my printer via BT on my laptop......or can I?

 

Yes.

The printer will be hooked to your router wirelessly, not your PC.

 

Gotcha. So the printer would communicate through the router (wirelessly) and my laptop will stay Internet connected AND send print jobs out, right? Just want to make sure before purchasing. Thanks for your time with this!

 

Correct

Keep in mind, a lot of these wifi printers don't have onboard printer queues, meaning it will be processing from your machine until its done, unlike a true network printer.

 

Well, it's working, I guess I should be happy with that, but it's not working the way I think it should be working.

I picked up the WPS54G Wireless Print Server. Followed all directions, got the step 17 where it has me disconnect the CAT5 cable from the router and power back on. There is no communication. Retried, over and over and nothing. I did a firmware and driver update before doing the install, but this should have no effect I would think. Spent almost an hour with Linksys (India) tech support. While on hold for a "senior" tech, I plugged the CAT5 cable back in and reset everything. It all works that way. Wired printing from my PC, wireless printing from my laptop, it's all good.

So what am I missing here? Perfectly happy to let it be, but why can't I go wireless from the print server directly, as intended instead of wired to the router, then out wirelessly???

 

Ok, thats a little different than what I was thinking of.

See, I have this printer:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...rderflow=1&product_code=C9029A#B1H&catLevel=1

It doesn't require a wireless print server.

I'll do some research myself. It should work fine, having the wireless router, hook to the wireless print server---wirelessly.

 

Can i get the exact model number of your router?

 

Also--are you using WEP, or WPA?

 

Using the WPS54G Wireless Print Server. Using WPA2 w/AES. Doesn't show anything with the original paperwork, but the new driver/firmware as WPA2.

 

Yes, but what is the model of the router

SRX400 isn't pulling up anything for me on their site.

 

Ah, sorry. WRT54GX4

 

Ok, thanks. I'll do some homework on it.

 

Could part of your problem be that the print server only supports WPA and WEP, and not WPA2 (going off the data sheet)? All devices on your network need to be able to use what the router itself is set to, afaik.

 

Hello,

This is my first post here. I am having bluetooth issues also.

I have a Toshiba Satellite A25-S207 laptop running XP SP2. I bought a new Canon MP500 that supposedly will print via bluetooth.

Canon sells a bluetooth adapter BU-20, but it only has the receiver, so I set out to find a bluetooth print server that has both. I bought the Ambicon WP-KIT. It seems to be working correctly. The devices blink when they are supposed to and stay lit just like the manual says.

When I send the print job, I get a message, "Printer offline. Check to see if the printer is turned on and that the USB cable is attached."

So I started "Goggling" about bluetooth and fell into a morass of deadends. I also have visited Microsoft and did all the updates. I read a half dozen or so bulletins on how to install and configure bluetooth devices in Windows XP Service Pack 2.

I discovered that I don't even have Bluetooth Devices in my control panels. I also have no Bluetooth icon in the tray when the device is plugged in. No wonder it is not working.

At the Toshiba site I found out that I can download their drivers. No luck there; they simply don't exist at the site. I did a search but just found more service bulletins.

The problem with Microsoft is that you can't find the prescribed download called Bluetooth Stack for Windows by Toshiba 3.00.32 either.

Everybody at Microsoft and Toshiba seem to agree that this stack download is what is needed. You just can't locate it!

I am ready to give up and just move the printer next to laptop!

Thanks,

Daniel