My name is Jenn, and I'm a 27 year old married and babied chick. In addition to a husband, a seven year old daughter, and a five year old autistic son, I also have four cats, three hermit crabs, two frogs, a few fish, and one snorty little Pug. I work from home doing a variety of writing and even some web design. I love blogging, digital photography and web design.
My printer is here. She is sexy. She is also a beast. The box was marked 32 lbs., and even after the bubble wrap was removed the printer was still quite heavy! It is also rather large… I’m not sure of the exact dimensions, and I’m too lazy to look them up on HP’s website, so I’ll guesstimate: say, two and a half feet in length and a foot or so in width (excluding the paper tray), and probably nine or ten inches in height. Which brings me to my dilemma: where the fuck am I supposed to park this monstrosity?! Right now I have a small bookshelf out here in the living room, but it’s making things a bit cluttered (and I hate clutter)… so. Grr. I hope I don’t have to re-arrange the entire living room just to fit it somewhere.
Oh, next problem! We have a network, obviously. Our router has wireless capabilities, though currently the only things connecting through the wireless aspect are Dan’s PS3 and my laptop (I <3 wireless). The router has four ports, all of which are taken — my computer, Dan’s computer, Vonage (VoIP service) and my multi-function (print/scan/copy/fax) printer.
I have a compact photo printer — the HP 475. It does not have networking capabilities, so it is connected to my desktop computer via USB. This is a pain, obviously, if I want to print to it from another computer. I have to make sure that my desktop is on so I can print to the compact photo printer through it.
Then there’s the multi-function printer — the HP 2600. As I said earlier, it is hooked up to the router. While it has networking capabilities (obviously), it does not have wireless capabilities.
Finally, the sexy beast, the HP 8750. It has networking capabilities, but wireless is optional (meaning I need some special doo-hickey).
My ultimate goal is to have my photo printer (remember: no networking capabilities) and my sexy beast (networking capabilities, optional wireless) and my multi-function connected to our network, WIRELESSLY. I thought this would be as simple as buying two wireless network adapters that connect via ethernet/USB and hooking them up to all three printers. Much like you would do if you have two desktop and notebook computers that you would like to connect to a wireless network.
So. I’ve done some searching. And I’m still a loss. I thought — and hoped! — that something like the Linksys wireless USB adapter would work like a charm. Simply plug it into the printer (printers, in my case), and the printer would connect to the network wirelessly. But I’m not finding any documentation that says this is so. On the other hand, I’m not finding any documentation that says this doesn’t work. Ugh. So I don’t know.
Next – a print server? From what I’ve read, the print server connects to the router via a wired connection (that’s fine). I would then hook up the printers to the print server via their USB cables. This sounds peachy. Except… I need a print server that can handle my three printers! Most print servers seem to do just ONE printer. And the two multi-port print servers I found are compatible with two of my printers, but not the third (some do work with the HP 2600, some don’t; some do work with the HP 8750, some don’t).
To sum up this entry: HELP ME NETWORKING/PRINTER NETWORKING GURUS!
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