Cisco-Linksys WPSM54G Wireless-G Print Server with Multifunction Printer Support

This is a superb product for printers, specially for multifunction printers. It supports printing, scanning, and faxing on my HP OfficeJet J5710. Compatibility list of printers is also avaiable on internet, so confirm before buying. It requires to install the printer first on the system and then its software configures it for network printing either wired or wirelessly. Very easy installation. I bought it refurbished for 1/3rd the price of a new one and it is just as good as new. It came with a 110V AC power supply, which does not work on 220V outlet (trust me I tried). But any power supply with 5V 2A DC output and correct polarity would do.

I would strongly suggest that the description of this product on Amazon should state prominently that "according to the manufacturer, Linksys, the WPSM54G is not compatible with Windows7," because that is exactly what Linksys tech support will tell you if you contact them for assistance. Two Questions: 1. Are you planning to install this device on a machine running Windows7? 2. Is your time worth more than five dollars per hour? If the answer to both those questions is yes, then I advise you not to purchase this product. Yes, there is plenty of chatter out there that says you can get this print server to run under Windows7, and maybe you can, if you are an experienced IT professional. But even if you are an experienced IT professional, the dollar value of the time you will waste tweaking everything to make the thing work with Windows7 would buy you about three wireless print servers that will run as Plug and Play under Windows7. And, yes, if you are only an average reasonably tech-savvy consumer, you might get lucky and stumble upon the magic order of things within the first three hours after you open the box. But the more likely scenario is that, like me, after four hours, you will be starting back at square one for the umpteenth time, surrounded by the piles of the clumps of hair you will have pulled from your own head, hoping against hope that this time, maybe this time, please lord, maybe this time, you will get it to work. I do think that eventually my stubborn persistence will "pay off," and I will get this thing to run under Windows7. But before that magic moment arrives--if it ever does arrive--the value of my lost time will have been sufficient to have paid for several wireless print servers that will run under Windows7. Really, if I weren't so stubborn, I would be money ahead just to buy a different device and toss this one in the trash right now with the other Linksys devices I've foolishly purchased in the past. (Oh, by the way, even if you do get the printer to print off this device running under Windows7, the fax and scanner functions will not work under Windows7, so your "multifunction" device will be, at best, only a "unifunction" device.) Did I mention that Linksys support on this device is pretty much worthless, which is quite consistent with my experience with Linksys in the past. Bottom line. Do not purchase the WPSM54G if you are planning to run it under Windows7! The money you "save" will not be enough to cover the cost of your hair-replacement surgery. UPDATE: Okay folks, after many, many tries, and retries, after about 6 hours of struggle, I was finally able to get this device to work running under Windows7. Unfortunately, because all my attempts were totally based on repetitive trial and error, I simply cannot say exactly what I did that made it work. Here's what I think worked: First, make sure you have the print driver for your printer installed on your computer. If you have made any previous attempts to install the print server software, make sure to disinstall the print server software from your machine. Reset the print server, by holding in the reset button with an unbent paperclip, while powering on the print server device. Continue to hold down the reset button for 10 seconds after power up, which will reset the print server. Unplug the print server. Unplug your printer. Download the firmware update and setup update from the Linksys website. With the print server still tunred off, connect the CAT5 network cable to the print server on one end and your router on the other end. With your printer off and with the print server still off, connect the USB cable from your printer to the print server. Power on the print server. Power on your printer. Open a browser window on your networked computer. Type in the IP address 192.168.1.70, which will bring up a login box for web based admin page for managing the print server. A popup asks for a login name and password. Leave the login name blank and enter "admin" without quotes, in the password. Hit enter, and the web based application for managing the print server should open. Click the "wireless" then the "security" tab and enter your network name and security details. Save. Next click the "status tab." And click the button to upgrade the firmware to the new version you downloaded. Exit the web based print server application, close your browser window. Next install the setup software that you downloaded, and when doing so, be sure to run the verions of setup.exe that is located in the "utility" folder of the download setup files. Follow the prompts. I believe this is the process that worked for me. If you get hung up and need to restart, be sure to reset the print server and uninstall the software with each new attempt. After a few attempts, you might get lucky like I did. But if you haven't already bought this device, save yourself some trouble and just buy something else. ADDITIONALL INFO: In case you require confirmation that Linksys position is that is not compatible with Windows7, here's the transcript from my Live Chat session with Linksys online support, wherein the Linksys techrep confirms that the WPSM54G "is not compatible with win 7 and will not work with it as no drivers are available for win 7": [2010-06-10 09:56:24] Please wait... Your number in the queue: 1 [2010-06-10 09:56:24] A representative will be joining you shortly. [2010-06-10 09:56:36] Jasvinder (41927) has joined this session. [2010-06-10 09:57:31] Jasvinder (41927): Hello!! Welcome to Live Chat Cisco Support for Linksys Products. [2010-06-10 09:57:46] Jasvinder (41927): How may I help you? [2010-06-10 09:59:10] Herman Jacobs: Have new WPSM54G, trying to install on Dell laptop running Windows7. Have downloaded Setup Update and new firmware 1019, and have attempted to install these, but can't seem to figure out the magic order to get things up and running. [2010-06-10 10:00:02] Jasvinder (41927): I will surely assist you with this. [2010-06-10 10:00:05] Jasvinder (41927): Please confirm the serial number of your Linksys Device. [2010-06-10 10:01:07] Herman Jacobs: SP8********* [2010-06-10 10:02:20] Jasvinder (41927): This product is not compatible with win 7 and will not work with it as no drivers are available for win 7 .

In my home, I had a very old PC that we used as a print server. It also had a large disk drive that we used for backups. This old computer was never used as a PC. It was big, ugly, and in the way. I bought a new Linksys router (WRT-600) with a USB disk connection, and connected the backup disk to the router. If I could find a wireless print server, I could ditch the old computer. After reading all the reviews, I was skeptical that a good unit was even available. But after several months of successful use, I must say this unit works flawlessly with my HP Laserjet 1022 and the 3 laptop PCs in my house. Unlike many home wireless products, the Wireless-G Print Server runs very cool. As several reviewers have pointed out, you must make the printer work on your PC before installing the Print Server. Since all the PCs in the house are laptops, bringing the PCs to the printer to install the driver was quite easy. I have worked with several Linksys and Netgear wireless products. This was the first product for which the "Easy Install" program actually worked. The program found my router and connected the Print Server. Then it installed a server program to my PCs. The server program sits in my task bar. I really don't know very much about it, because it's always green. Installation was flawless for one Vista PC and two XP PCs. Linksys includes every cable you need, even the Ethernet cable that you use just once for a few minutes while configuring the Print Server to the router. That's a nice touch. Here's my caveats. * I don't have a scanner or fax, so I don't use those features. I can't say how they work. * The USB driver for the LaserJet 1022 is very simple. It doesn't, for example, try to tell me how much ink I have left. * I didn't have any problems with the Easy Install. I have no idea how well the manual installation would work or how good tech support would be. I can say, though, that I had a good experience with tech support for my Linksys WRT-600 when the auto-install progam didn't work. * Finally, I am in a semi-rural location. I don't use WEP, or WPA, or MAC filtering; and I do broadcast my SSID. So I can't say from personal experience how using these security features would affect operation or installation. I did change the router's IP address from the default value. That did not create any problems at all. I can't address all the issues others have raised in these reviews. But I can say that the unit works well for me. The printer is always available from all my PCs.

It is working great and does exactly what I wanted it to. So now for the bad news. It took many hours for me to get this working. This was designed to be used for Windows XP. Getting this to work on windows 7 took a lot of internet searching. 1. I bought this "used like new" so when I got it, it had someone else's password set up on it. So it was completely unusable. After searching the internet I found that I just needed to hold down the reset button for 30 seconds. Got it working. Check 2. You have to run the set up while it is connected to your router via ethernet cable. So I spent a lot of time unhooking the server and printer and going back and forth between the room it was to be put in and where my router is. Wouldn't be much of a problem, but I ran the set up many times until I finally figured out how to get it working with windows 7. 3. Wireless conectivity is awful with the original firmware that the unit comes with. Updating the firmware requires the printer server and your set-up computer to both be plugged into your router via ethernet cable. This was the scariest part of the whole ordeal. It would lose connection even while connected with a ethernet cable. Lol. So I was very worried I would ruin the unit updating the firmware if something went wrong. Linksys does still have the firmware and instructions on their website, so that is a plus. After the firmware update, it works great. 4. Now the worst part. When you run set up on your computer that has windows 7 it gives a message that it is not supported and will not let you install. So download the newest driver on linksys site and save it to a usb flash drive to use on all your computers to save time. It will need to be unzipped. Unzip to your desktop, do not just click open, because you will need to change the set up.exe and it will not work if you just click open. So once unzipped, right click on the setup.exe and hit properties. Click on the compatibility tab. Check the box to change your compatibility to vista service pack 2. Now it will install correctly on your Windows 7 machine. That is the easiest way to make this work. Thank you internet. 5. Before you run the set up on each computer, make sure that computer has the printer drivers on it that you will be using. Other than that, it really goes quickly if you didn't have to figure out how to clear out someone else's personal password and update firmware and find a workaround for windows 7. I love not having to boot up a computer just to print wirelessly anymore.

I have a wired/wireless network with four laptops (my wife has two work laptops, I have one, and we have a personal laptop) and a desktop. The laptops are wired when in the docking station, but wireless when not docked. I received the print server last week, and it only took me about an hour to get all the computers up and running with my HP3050 (print/fax/scan/copy) - most of this time was loading the print drivers (you MUST do this before you load the print server drivers). We bought the HP3050 for printing and faxing, so I never used/didn't care about the scanning piece. Well I'm glad I bought this print server, as the scanning has come in handy - we scan all our paper records, store them on a mirrored drive (backed up to DVD), and shred all them. It works great. I have all Linksys networking equipment, so I'm used to their setup interface. I have found the Linksys products to be easy to setup/use, and they have all worked very well for my needs (I am using/have used cable modem, 8-port switch - parallel print server w/4 port switch, wireless access point, wired router, wireless router, and now the multi-function print server). I would definitely recommend this print server to anyone who wants to network an all-in-one machine. Pros: Easy to setup, worked as advertised, I can fax straight from my laptop (no matter where I am), the print server works wired or wirelessly, and it was only $100 (a bargain compared to having to walk to the printer and swap the USB cable every time I wanted to print, in addition to the fact that we used to print our documents, then fax them out). This unit saves time and money. Cons: Scanning can take some time before the images show up on my PC - I have found that I can decrease the resolution and get much better performance without noticeable degradation in the image. In my book it was well worth the money.

Some of the gripes have to do with installation. I have found that there is a BUG in the installation process if you use the setup wizard (which you HAVE to use, by the way - to install print drivers on your PC). To install, you do have to hook up temporarily to a wired network to communicate with the print server and tell it what your security scheme is. Someone complained about that, but with WIFI security, there really is no way around this. It detected my network with ease. Halfway through this detection process, you are prompted for the WEP or WPA keys if you use them, and then promted to remove the hardwire cable and 'reboot' the print server. Supposedly when it comes back up, it is on your network...... That's where I ran into trouble. The WEP key was NOT transferred to the print server. I had to manually log into the server ([...] or whatever your subnet is). To find the server's ip address, log onto your network router and look at the DHCP clients table. There it is. If you assigned an IP address to it already, use the one you assigned. NOW, USING THE Print Server's config pages, go manually type in the WEP key and it will be saved. For some reason the install wizard doesn't transfer it - it got garbled in the process - at least on my setup. After that, all is well! I'm thrilled at printing "bi-directional" via USB for my Fax/Scan/Print multifunction printer. Now on to try scanning across the network. Not something I do frequently, but will be interesting to see if that works....

Whew! 5 hours and it's finally working. Mine is a mixed household of PC and Mac. Running OSX and Windows 7 made this install a bit complicated. Linksys created install software for this device that is not kept current. I had to install it from Windows XP running on Bootcamp on my Mac because it is not supported on Windows 7. No updated downloadable installs that I could find. If you are thinking about purchasing this, be careful that the printer that you intend to use is on the short list of supported devices. I have a Brother Print/Copy/Scan that will only Print/Copy with this device. The install instructions are only useful if you are running outdated OS on a PC. I wouldn't discourage you from purchasing this item if you don't mind a bit of setup and you only want to print wirelessly from multiple devices, but don't pay more than $60 for it. Once the Printserver was part of my home network, I may as well have thrown the disk it came with away. I connected to the printer through IP on OSX and Control Panel Settings on Win7.

Installation was much more difficult than expected. Spent over 4 hours trying to make it work. Didn't work with Windows Vista. Did work with Windows XP, but not with the instructions provided; had to search the internet for alternate installation instructions. Worked with HP 960C printer. But, did not work with Canon IP6700 printer. Even after I got it set up with Windows XP and HP 960C printer, it didn't consistently work. So, I disconnected it and bought an alternate product. The alternate product worked with Vista or XP, and with both HP 960C and Canon IP6700 printers, and installed in <15 minutes with the instructions provided, and consistently works. I would not recommend buying the Linksys print server.