WPSM54G Wireless Print Server

I helped a neighbor install a WPSM54G Wireless Print Server this morning. The product page says it's Vista compatible, but nothing on the box said that so Best Buy (or wherever he went) must have sold him an older model and of course the software said it couldn't work.

It doesn't matter because you can configure this with a browser. Plug it in to the wired network, let it get an ip, find it by pinging up or down from ip's you know and then browse to that - everything you need to set up the wireless side is right there.

Fortunately I was the one who had set up his wireless originally so I had left myself a "Wireless.txt" document on his desktop with the WEP key I needed. Not having this and not having passwords to the router are what I commonly run into at neighbors, but this time I had everything I needed.

That did leave the computer side. Fortunately this print server is just an LPR server which is very easy to configure in Vista. Add a Local printer, with a new Port. Give the port the IP of the server and for convenience name the port something easy like "WirelessPS". In the Additional Port Info that comes up next, clicl Settings and select LPR. Put the Port Name you set in as the Queue name and go on to pick your driver. It's that simple.

It's annoying that this old stuff is out there. My neighbor might have had a chance of doing this himself if the supplied software had worked with Vista, but without it of course he was helpless. Not fair..