Wireless Printer

surely a USB printer is all that's needed or am I missing sumut.

or does your comp not have a USB port.

or are you saying you stay in hotels that have wireless printers.

a deeper explanation might be in order.

Yes, the laptop has USB ports.

I am in a hotel room, using the hotel's wireless. I need access to a printer in my room.

Off hand, you'd be tter with a USB printer.

Sure, you could use a wireless sprint server connecting to a USB printre, but then you have the problem of setting up IP addys.

Be honest now. You just want one of these because it's cool, don't you?

Frankly, I don't think you'll use its esoteric (and ridiculously expensive) capabilities enough to justify buying one, but it's your money, friend.

My guess is that a mobile printer-it doesn't make sense to buy one small enough to pack if you're absolutely going to have to plug it in everywhere you use it, in my view-that's either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capable will set you back maybe $350-400 these days. That's about what I spent eight years ago for my Canon BJC-50, thinking its mobility and battery capability would come in handy. I believe I've used it away from home twice in all that time-and that doesn't count the single out-of-town trip I took it on. Oh well, at least I *am* using it wirelessly now; it's hooked to my ancient desktop and shared so I can print to it from my laptop.

But to answer your question, yes, a wireless printer will fulfill your needs, but then again, so will using a web-based fax service to send faxes to yourself at the hotel, or checking ahead to see if the hotel you're staying it has a printer you can borrow. Once again, though, it's your money, your shoulder that'll have to schlepp the extra weight around, and your choice as to whether it's all worth it.

If you don't want to lug a printer you could upload your documents to Kinko's.

I think that sums it up quite effectively.

There have been plenty of portable printers over the years. The trouble with them is they tend to be slow and still have all the same hassles as a regular printer. You're still stuck with carrying paper and spare ink along with you. Granted, it's a lot less hassle to get ink cartridges these days, but the portable units still tend to have oddball cartridges. Same deal with getting blank paper, you CAN, but you still HAVE to expend the effort/money to get some.

There's also the argument that printers are cheap... so low cost as to be nearly disposable. If you're in a place for more than a day or so, and printing more than, say, a hundred pages, it might be cheaper to just buy something low end and leave it behind. Sort of like it being a LOT less expensive to BUY a cheap bicycle for a week when you're on vacation instead of renting one. Then just give it a local kid before you leave.

Personally, I have a disposable printer ($29) in my truck and a wireless print server on it, so when I'm inside somewhere I can print to it.

I have 2 boxes of computer books, a George Forman grill, 3 suite cases and several other bags I am on the road with in staying in extended stay hotels -- nothing less than a month stay. So, what's one more box with something in it? :)