Networking Problem

frestuffwooo

OK heres the situation:

2 laptops

No desktop

1 printer

1 external HD Drive

Is ther a way to share the printer and HDD wirelessly ? or through a router?

Chippy_Minton

You need a wireless router, a wireless print server (check compatibility with your printer) and something like this Linksys NSLU2 Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives to network the external drive.

albertross_2

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=wireless+print+server&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

or you could get a nas enclosure, and stick the usb hd in that.

phill79

Chippy_Minton wrote: »

You need a wireless router, a wireless print server (check compatibility with your printer) and something like this Linksys NSLU2 Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives to network the external drive.

Wireless router - yes
Wireless print server - not really required if the printer has a network card, even if not, you would get a usb to ethernet box to connect straight to the router. Much better than messing on with a wireless print server.

Little_John

3 ways to do this
cheapest way
wired all the way 1 router with a 4 port switch built in, 2 laptops cabled. the external drive is connected via USB to one of the laptops and shared using windows file shareing. The printer is also conencted to one of the laptops and again shared using windows printer shareing.
all you need to buy is the router and the cable. The downside is that the laptop connected to which ever device needs to be on for the other user to use it. This can be a problem with laptops as sometimes they are not there as they are portable.

better option
wireless router again with a 4 port switch, 2 laptops, 1 print server for the printer not wireless. both laptops can talk direct to the printer no problems. The print server connects to one of the ports on the router the hard drive as it is external and usb kind of limits the options without buying extra hardware.

best way unless your planning to transfer large amounts of data but is more expensive.
wireless router with 4 port switch, wired print server (wireless ones can be a a pain) buy a NAS enclosure for the hard drive and take the thing apart for the drive itself and put it in a NAS enclosure.

the best bit is everything will work independantly of the laptops but a nas enclosure can cost a bit and you end up skipping a perfectly good USB caddy I would proberbly buy another drive to put in the NAS box.

OK a 4th solution
Buy the Linksys WRTSL54GS wireless router. It has a USB port that will make any USB hard drive accessable on the network and buy a print server for the printer. It sounds like a decent peice of kit but I have never seen one in action.

ohh yeah going back to the hthing about the large data transfers, it takes a while to transfer a DVD of data via wireless so if you plan on shareing that sort of stuff I would go wired the Linksys thing can still be used wired so is an excelent option for your setup

scheming_gypsy

phill79 wrote: »

Wireless print server - not really required if the printer has a network card, even if not, you would get a usb to ethernet box to connect straight to the router. Much better than messing on with a wireless print server.

read the thread! they want to connect the printer wirelessly.

Chippy_Minton

phill79 wrote: »

Wireless router - yes
Wireless print server - not really required if the printer has a network card, even if not, you would get a usb to ethernet box to connect straight to the router. Much better than messing on with a wireless print server.

Most people don't have network (Ethernet) printers. In any case the OP said wireless.