I've recently published 2 reviews in quick succession which is unusual for me. I'd appreciate reads...
I've recently published 2 reviews in quick succession which is unusual for me. I'd appreciate reads on both of them if possible.
Member since:15.02.2007
Reviews:66
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Where I work, we have always purchased the HP Jetdirectprint serverdevices. However, when we bought a whole load of Magicard badge printers we found out after several painful days that these only worked with the D-link DP300u print servers due to some strange setting within the printer. With this information, we were forced into buying the D-link blind with no time to do any background research or fact finding.
The D-link is a 3 port print server, 2 ports are serial with the other being USB. This means that upto 3 printers can be attached to the print server at any one time. At the time we bought them,
they were around £80 each.
--Whats in the box--
The D-link print server comes in a very compact box with just enough room for the components. There is the print server itself which is nicely designed to comply with the standard d-link colours of blue and silver with a black trim on one of the edges. Then there is the power supply which is pretty standard with the adaptor on one end which plugs into the print server. Finally there is the utility disk and manual. The manual is very informative which , in my opinion is rare for hardware. The utility disk also needs to be installed as this will be used for flashing the print server (storing all of your settings on the print server).
--Installation--
The first thing you need to do is to install the utility software from the CD. This is a simple installation and will take no more than 2 minutes to complete.
The print server comes with its own factory set IP address. This will not be on a range that your PC is already connected to so you will need to get the PC and print server to talk to each other. The way to do this is to connect the print server and PC via an ethernet cable and to change the IP address of the PC to one on the same range as the print server (this is only a temporary change until we have the print server configured). Now the 2 devices can see each other, we can load up the software and start the configuration. There are loads of configuration settings you can change but the most common ones are likely to be the name of the print server and the communication method. This communication method will depend on the type of network you are running. All standard protocols are included (TCP/IP, Netware, Appletalk and Netbeui) Home users will go for the TCP/IP protocol as this is the one that the internet uses. You can then specify if you want the print server to automatically assign itself an IP address or you can manually specify one. I'd recommend manually assigning an address here so that it is always fixed which means you can manage your IP addresses more easily.
Once changes have been made you can save them back to the print server and reconnect yourself to your main network connection. The dlink is now ready to be placed onto your network too and connected up to a printer.
You are now ready to connect to the print server via the standard Windows Add new printer wizard. Going through the wizard, firstly select local printer and then create new port as the print server is not attached to any port that is currently known by the PC. We now need to select 'Standard TCP/IP port' from the dropdown list. At this stage enter the IP address that you gave the print server when it was attached to the PC via the ethernet cable at the start of installation, this is why I recommended using a static address as it is so much easier to manage. Windows will now require more information to complete the setup. From the next stage of the wizard, select Custom and then click on settings. As the d-link comes with 3 ports, we need to tell Windows which port we are referring to for this installation. To find the port name, open internet explorer and type in the ip address that you assigned to the print server. This will give you each of the port names and identify if a printer is online or not. Copy and paste the port name you require from this web page into the setup wizard and make sure the LPR protocol is checked. Once this has been completed the printer will be available to use on your network.
These instructions may look daunting but they are in fact simple to follow as most of the work is carried out via a wizard.
--Useage--
Once the setup has been completed, printing is seemless and operates just like printing to any other windows printer. As you have identified which printer is on which port in the installation, the D-link is able to route your job to the correct printer. We have 2 badge printers running off the print server and at certain times of the year the print server can process upto 500 requests a day with no bother at all.
--Verdict--
Since using this device, we have bought plenty more throughout the organisation as they are very reliable and easy to set up. There is very little maintenance involved once the initial setup has taken place. I would recommend this print server to the business and home user alike. It is a very nice bit of kit
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: low cost for printer sharing/ 2 parallel + 1 USB printer support Disadvantages: no bi-directional support cause not fully function of new printers
mmcp626 23.12.2003 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of D-Link DP 300U
Advantages: low cost for printer sharing/ 2 parallel + 1 USB printer support Disadvantages: no bi-directional support cause not fully function of new printers
mmcp626 23.12.2003 ·
Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of D-Link DP 300U
very helpful by (95%):
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