Complete Home Wireless Networking. Windows XP Edition

One of the coolest new wireless devices to hit the market is the wireless print server (Figure A.13). These devices are inexpensive (often less than $80) and provide a nice way to save time and space. Most home or small-office LANs connect one or more printers to a PC, then share that PC. It might be a PC that someone uses for work everyday, or a computer that is set aside for printing jobs only. Either of those situations can benefit from a wireless printer server. Here's why:

  • You can place your printer server (and your printers) anywhere in your wireless LAN's range.

  • You can free up a computer that you were using as a printer server.

  • You can send multiple print jobs to the printer server, and it can handle the printing simultaneously .

Figure A.13. This wireless printer server from Linksys costs about $75. Netgear makes one for about the same price.

Figure A.14. You can also purchase a wireless access point (and router) with a built-in printer server. These bundled features are more and more common.

Adding a printer server can be a great way to share a printer, without having to leave one of your computers on to do it.

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