This isn't an advertisement; I promise. It's information that I hope will save someone else a bunch of hassle.

I wanted to add a standalone, wireless USB printserver to my three-computer LAN. My Lan consists of two WinXP machines and one Linux/FreeBSD machine (dual boot). In addition, I sometimes run Windows 2000 as a guest OS under Linux, using VMWare.

I've been printing via one of the Windows XP machines with a printer hooked up to it. But it got to the point where the only reason I was leaving that big old desktop on was to print. So, after getting my last electricity bill, I decided to try using a standalone printserver.

Since most of my network hardware is Linksys, I bought a Linksys WPSM54G wifi USB printserver. It worked beautifully with my two WinXP machines and was easy to set up. Then I proceeded to try to get it to work with my Linux machine. Now, I realize that the Linksys is marketed for Windows and doesn't explicitly support Linux. But, as I've had generally good results getting their networking hardware to cooperate with Linux, I was hopeful. In this instance, my hope was misplaced.

For five days I read every message ever archived by Google relevant to this topic, to no avail. I had a running discussion with a nice guy on the Linksys "Community Forum" -- just another enduser, but fairly knowledgeable. No success. I also couldn't print under VMWare-Windows, which surprised me, since the dedicated Windows machine worked so well with the Linksys.

Frustrated, I ordered a similarly priced Lexmark N4050e. Now, I should say at the outset that it _does_ explicitly support Unix and related OSes. And, sure enough, with 22 minutes I was printing beautiful output using my two Windows XP machines, my Gentoo Linux system, my FreeBSD system, as well as VMWare-Windows 2000 running under Linux.

I was especially impressed when, as soon as I clicked "OK" at the end of the very straightforward Lexmark configuration routine, my printer started churning out a document. I figured it was an initial test page that the Lexmark device was spitting out. Instead, it was an OpenOffice document prepared under Linux that I had been struggling to print for about 12 hours. My CUPS configuration must have been pretty good (though the Linksys never liked it), since the Lexmark immediately saw that document sitting in the queue and sent it out to me as a welcome gift.

Also, I should add that installing the Lexmark printserver does *not* require you to use an ethernet cable to connect the printserver directly to a host computer that you're using to configure it. Instead, the Lexmark found my existing wireless network right away and suggested the best settings.

The Linksys does require initial installation with an ethernet cable. Only after you've used a cable to configure the printserver can you then start the process over so that it can recognize your wireless network. This was a big hassle for me, since I keep my wifi router in a separate room from my printer and desktop. I had to take down the wireless network, physically disconnet the wifi router, then set it all up again next to my printer.

Moral (which really should be obvious, I suppose): if you can find hardware that explicitly supports your variety of *nix, buy it instead of something that you just think you can manage to get working.

That's weird. I've got an old Linksys WPS11 that was nowhere near this level of hassle to set up. In fact, I just plugged directly from my laptop into the print server to configure it. There should be no need to mess with any other hardware, and you really shouldn't have to take down your existing network.

If you're interested, I've got some detail about getting the WPS11 working with CUPS here. I wouldn't think that the WPSM54G would be all that different, but I may be wrong.

Can someone help me with what is required to install my Lexmark x4270 printer with wireless connections? Can this be hooked up through my westell 327w? Do I need to buy a USB print server as mentioned in the posting.

These questions will probably sound like I know nothing about hardward and you will be absolutely right!!!

Welcome to LQ! If wireless is built into this printer (I'm completely unfamiliar with it) then you shouldn't need an additional print server. If it doesn't have wireless built in then yes, you will need to get a wireless print server.

Either way, the wireless should be able to connect through your existing wireless router. The only real "trick" will be to assign a static IP address to your printer.

Any details you can give us about the printer and your network will likely be very helpful.