Wireless print server

I am trying to locate a wireless printserver to allow my IPAD2's to wirelessly print output using my HP Laserjet 5P printer. The addition of this wireless printserver must allow the desktop computer to still be able to print. Two cables are needed, one from desktop PC to printserver and one cable from printserver to HP Laserjet 5P printer. I have not be able to locate the printer server which has the needed parallel ports. OS is XP SP2.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Dave_S

Reply to
Dave_s
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I'll assume that you have a DSL or cable modem, as well as some manner of router with wireless. If this is the case, kindly disclose the makers and models of your hardware. If my guess is wrong, kindly enlighten us as to what you have to work with.

Also, please note that the LaserJet 5P printer is really an awful printer. It's old, slow, clunky, big, ugly, a desk hog, and not very reliable. I recycled a bunch of those years ago as not worth the effort fixing. This exercise might be easier if you would consider purchasing a laser printer with a built in ethernet port.

Assuming you already have wi-fi, what you need is a parallel port wireless print server that supports the HP LJ 5P. After some googling, I found:

They've been discontinued, but maybe you can find something used on eBay or elsewhere. There are others. Google for "parallel port wireless print server" you should find other devices.

You will NOT need any additional cabling. The print server is actually a print "client" (which sounds awkward, so the marketing people call it a server). It connects the printer to your wireless router exactly as if were a laptop or iPad. It's literally a wireless equivalent of a bi-directional ethernet cable. Anything you can do with ethernet, you can do with wireless. You desktop PC is presumably connected to your router via either wireless or wired. That's all you need. The router takes care of ummm... routing that packets to the correct destination.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Jeff - the additionl req, beyond normal print server + wireless connection, is for the iPads to print - which means the print server needs to handle the Apple AirPrint protocol.. and broadcast those advertisements.

Reply to
ps56k

Check out software for the iPad called PrintCentral. Assuming the LJ is already setup to take print jobs from the desktop, PrintCentral will let the iPad print without introducing a print server, AFAIK.

Reply to
John Jones

Nope. AirPrint or HP ePrint are *NOT* required to print from an iPad or iPhone. When I was using my iPhone 3G, I purchased Print Magic from:

which works with all my HP LaserJet 2300DTN printers and whatever else I drag into the office (including wireless printers). If the print server talks one of several standard protocols, the software should work.

This looks interested (but I haven't tried it):

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Yep. That uses the computah as a print server by sharing the attached printer to the network. Not a problem, except that you have to leave the computer turn on in order to print. With network printing, I like my printers running stand alone, and not attached to any computer.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

ok... but there needs to be a common denominator for the printing... either ADD some software APP to the iPad to speak some standard printing protocol, or ADD some hardware box to the network to speak the standard Apple protocol.

Reply to
ps56k

My older wireless printer did not work, but my new printer does print iPad.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

Can't you just set up the printer on the XP machine as a shared printer and route your iPad print jobs to a windows network printer? Assuming you have a wireless connection to your XP machine...

-sw

Reply to
Sqwertz

At what layer? The problem is that Apple wanted to avoid installing printer drivers or definition tables for every known printer on the planet into the iPhone or iPad.

Airprint is IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) with a number of Apple specific tweaks necessary to make it proprietary and strange. Some of the techy details:

The common method of creating a stand alone Airprint server uses Linux.

Lantronix has a stand alone Airprint server:

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Apple devices only speak to Apple protocol enabled printers...

Reply to
ps56k

Figures. And no third party can make it speak simple LPR/LPD or somesuch? Makes me glad I never joined the iMoron crowd.

-sw

Reply to
Sqwertz

completely wrong.

macs can print to just about any printer out there. the print architecture of os x is based on cups and a mac will automatically download any additional drivers, if needed.

iphones and ipads print to printers with airprint. if the printer doesn't have airprint (i.e., an older printer), you can run an airprint server on a mac or windows machine (not sure about linux but there probably is something) and print to an attached printer.

Reply to
nospam

macs already support lpr but don't let facts get in the way of bashing.

Reply to
nospam

OS/X based Mac desktops, laptops, and servers (Xserve) support LPR/LPD. iOS based devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, do not support LPR/LPD.

For Android devices and Chromebooks, there are apps that support printing to JetDirect (port 9100), LPR, IPP protocols, and the Airprint mutation of IPP. Some install a printer driver on the tablet, while others send the PDF or image to a server somewhere on the internet, where it is converted to the printers favorite format, and then sent to your printer via the LAN. For example:

How does it work? Are you really installing 2500+ printer drivers on my phone?

No, we aren't. Your document is sent to our render server farm, together with information about your printer. Our server processes the document and sends back a version in the language of your printer. Your Android device (phone or tablet) sends this processed version to your printer via your local network.

Welcome to cloud printing. It works, but if you're not connected to the internet, you can't print. Also, outgoing internet bandwidth is usually slower than incoming, so printing large files is painful. Such apps also don't add printing to every application on the tablet. Usually a work around is employed, such as local printing to a PDF, and then the PDF is printed. Yech.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

Very true for OS/X. Not true for Apple iOS devices, such as the iPhone and iPad.

Yep. However, Airprint is not included in the iOS versions used on the older iPhone 2G, 3G and iPod Touch 2G. In order to enable Airprint on these devices, it is necessary to jailbreak the device, apply a patch, and install a 3rd party print client such as:

This omission is understandable since the 3G has about half the memory and speed of the later models.

Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

You forgot the best one, you're sending your print jobs to some random server somewhere on the internet where they're vulnerable to being subpoenaed, lost, stolen, etc.

Reply to
alexd

yes, that's what i said.

the omission is understandable because they are 5 year old devices.

Reply to
nospam

there are ios apps that support lpr and ipp.

Reply to
nospam

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