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(More customer reviews)When I upgraded my wireless security to WPA I needed to upgrade my old D-Link wireless printserver (802.11b) to something that had WPA compatibility. I shopped around a lot for this and ended up going with the refurbished model because of the large price difference.
Over all I am very happy with this unit however I ran into a few set up problems which may be a real pain for the average user.
Like all Linksys wireless products (or all that I have had experience with) the package came with a driver/set up CD that says "run me first". The CD guides you through the set up process - telling you which cables to plug in first. To configure the printserver it needs to be plugged into the printer as well as the wireless router. The problem? Well, if my printer was near the router I wouldn't need a wireless printserver. So if you don't have a long ethernet cable (luckily I did) then you might have to move your printer temporarily - not a big deal but annoying.
Once the printserver was plugged in correctly the setup program "searches" for the printserver. This is where I had my first big problem. Although it was plugged in correctly, the computer couldn't find the printserver. I verified all the cables were correct and tried about 100 more times. Nothing. Eventually enraged, I called linksys tech support. The woman I spoke with was pleasant, though she didn't speak the best English. As I was talking to her I unplugged the printserver's ethernet cable from the router (so I could read the serial number of the router) then plugged it back in (I don't know if it was the same port or not) and when I went back to my computer it had found the printserver. I really don't think I there was anything wrong with the plug the first time, and I probably should give linksys the benefit of the doubt, but according to my search on the internet this is not an uncommon problem.
With that problem resolved I got off the phone with linksys and continued with the set up. I set up a network name for the printserver, a password, etc. Then I got to a page for security settings. Here was the biggest problem - the only choices were WEP 64 and WEP 128 - there was no WPA option!!! I was incensed because this was the main reason I bought this. I did some googling and verified that it was WPA compatible and then found that a firmware upgrade was needed to enable it.
I went to the linksys website found the latest firmware and downloaded it to my computer, however I had no way to flash it to the printserver (the download doesn't unzip with an executable file, nor does the printserver set up program have an option). So now I had to search for that - after more googling, I found that I needed to do it through the web based interface on the printserver. So I needed to plug the printserver into the router again (or I probably could have turned off the wireless security on the router). I then needed to go into the router's web interface (the old 192.168.1.1 thing). I then eventually found the DHCP client list and found the IP address for the printserver. I typed that into my browser (remember the password you set up for the prinserver. I believe the default is "admin") and I was in. Once I was on the printserver's interface I looked for a way to update the firmware only to find that it already had the latest version (probably an advantage of buying the refurbished model). I was confused and pissed. I was just about to give up, but I decided to navigate to the "wireless" tab where I found a security setting that...wait on it: allowed me to choose WPA! The printserver allowed WPA but the setup program just didn't give the option! I quickly enabled it and logged out. I then ran the set up disk on all my computers and I was done (do yourself a favor and install the printer drivers on each computer before you set it up for wireless).
Now that its set up I'm pleased to report its working great. If you are looking for a 802.11g/WPA wireless printserver and have some time and a moderate threshold for frustration this really is a great buy.
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Linksys Certified Refurbished Product Wireless-G 802.11g 54Mbps Print Server USB 2.0 .
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