NETGEAR WGPS606 54 Mbps Wireless Print Server with 4-Port Switch - bridge

...as well as the proprietry Netgear RangeMax standard. It also copes fine with both WEP and WPA-PSK encryption, the latter being more secure and should be used if at all possible.

The device's main selling point though is its ability to let PCs communicate with a printer wirelessly. The device has 2 USB ports allowing you to connect and use two different printers either from the wired network or via the wireless connection. A small office ...
...could share a single decent printer between all the machines saving on hardware costs. Another option would be to connect a laser printer for letters and a photo printer for, well, photos and have these available to all. If you have an older parallel port printer then you're out of luck.

Set up is handled via a pair of wizards, one for adding PCs to the network ports and a second for setting up the printers. These work well and will ... more

The WGPS606 is an unusual combination of a bridge with a four port switch plus a wireless print server. What does that do for you? Good question!

Most people would want this for its wireless print function, more on that later. The WGPS606's other feature is that it can act as a bridge allowing you to add wireless connections to an existing wired network. It also sports 4 network ports for adding more wired devices to it.

On the wireless side it supports both 802.11b and 802.11g as well as the proprietry Netgear RangeMax standard. It also copes fine with both WEP and WPA-PSK encryption, the latter being more secure and should be used if at all possible.

The device's main selling point though is its ability to let PCs communicate with a printer wirelessly. The device has 2 USB ports allowing you to connect and use two different printers either from the wired network or via the wireless connection. A small office or home network would benefit greatly from this as you could share a single decent printer between all the machines saving on hardware costs. Another option would be to connect a laser printer for letters and a photo printer for, well, photos and have these available to all. If you have an older parallel port printer then you're out of luck.

Set up is handled via a pair of wizards, one for adding PCs to the network ports and a second for setting up the printers. These work well and will get you up and running nicely. Make sure you check out the PDF manual on the setup CD first though as the paper based leaflets that are in the box are frankly confusing and miss out far too much information.

One big problem is that while you can print fine in most cases, things like the printer's status don't seem to get sent back so you'll have no idea on ink levels etc. Some printers insist on a bi-directional connection to even be set up but in Netgear's favour, their web site (US only site only, when I checked) does contain a list of tested and known to work printers so check that first. I used an Epson 890 and that worked fine.

I'd recommend checking out Netgear's web site to see examples of how it can be integrated in to existing networks as I would say it could only work well with certain combinations of hardware.

On balance this is a useful device but I'd say treat it as a wireless print server primarily with the bridge/router being an added bonus.  

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