Can you do a wifi print server via software?

[yoda313]

Ok here's my situation - I have my dsl router and wifi router in one room and a computer with a printer in another. However I am not getting stable internet signals over wifi into the next room. I do get at least a low signal strength in the next room. It seems to be at least 18mbps (of course I only have 384kpbs dsl speed so I should be fine but it just isn't stable).

What I'd like to be able to do at least is print from the computer that has the physical router to the computer with the printer via wifi. Note the printer is an older model that doesn't have built in wifi support. Can I do this? Do I need a wifi print server in order to do this?

Also - dumb question here - assuming this is possible wihtout a print server I would need to have the computer with the printer left on during printing right? Would it be possible to do this with the pc in standby mode?

Also are print servers realitvely expensive? I don't think I'd be interested if they were more than say 40.00 or so. I'd love to do it via software over my exisiting wifi if possible.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT - I Forgot to mention I have the Network Magic software on both computers DUH! I'm gonna boot up the other pc and see if I can get this going.... (FYI I am using a dlink di524 router using WEP)

[gadgetguy]

You should be able to make it happen with your current hardware by just sharing the printer on your network. The computer connected to the printer will have to be active to share the printer, however you may be able to "wake on LAN" when you send a print job to it. Unfortunately, I've never configured one like that myself, so I can't give you specifics. I am concerned about your "not getting stable internet signals", though. This could seriously affect a print job as printers tend to be finicky if the data isn't there when they're ready for it. Are these rooms side by side or is there a greater distance and more walls between them. Have you tried repositioning the router to improve the signal? What type of wireless adapter do you have on the PC in the other room?

[redwudz]

You will also need to install printer drivers on the PCs you are printing from. I used a similar setup a few years ago and it worked well. But the PC with the printer will need to be on. I then went to a router with a print server built in and that worked fairly well over the LAN and I didn't need the PC on.

Now I use a networked printer and that will work from any PC on the LAN, still need the drivers, though. I print wirelessly from my laptop.

Stand alone print servers still seem expensive, but you may find one used on Ebay for a decent price. Some from NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Descr...=print+servers There are a couple for about $40US, but ones with parallel ports are usually more, if you need that capability.

[yoda313]

Thanks everyone.

The computers are between floors. I recently bought a 7db gain antenna booster from dlink and it has not made significant improvements either.....

THe driver deal could be an issue. I am running vista on the pc that doesn't have the printer and I don't know if there are vista drivers for it - it's a few years old. Also its used so I'll have to dig online through hp's website - that'll be fun

EDIT - I was able to find 23bit vista drivers for the hp 4180. So that is solved. However I am having intermittent boot problems on my networked emachine. So it will take a little while to test this with network magic.

[yoda313]

Just wanted everyone to know I got it working with Network Magic. I installed the vista drivers on the pc in the room that doesn't have the printer. I then was able to set sharing on the printer on the xp pc with the printer in network magic. On the vista pc without the printer I was able to set the printer as default and it worked!

That is pretty cool to print wirelessly without a new printer and without a print server.

Thanks everyone. (fyi my wireless signal now seems more stable on the pc with the printer in the other room that isn't directly connected to the dsl router).