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Some of you will be familiar with the grinding halts, crashed windows and other joys of having your computer act as a print server for an entire office of print-crazy co-workers.
79% Rating: 
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Home >
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Linksys EFSP42 |
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Specs and Conclusion
Print Server Specs:
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Features
- Bi-Directional 2-Port Print Server for Both 10BaseT and 100BaseTX Networks
- Four Full-Duplex, Dedicated Bandwidth 10/100 Switched Ports
- Simultaneously Supports Multiple, Concurrent Print Jobs
- Runs with Most Laser, Ink Jet, Bubble Jet, Color, and Dot Matrix Parallel
Printers
- Stand-Alone Unit-No Dedicated Print Server PC Required
- Compatible with Both Half and Full Duplex Networks
- On-Board DMA Controller Chip Supports Turbo Printing Speeds
- 256KB RAM Buffer for Faster Graphics
- 512KB Flash Memory for Future Upgrades
- Data Collision Control & Polarity Correction
- Free Technical Support & Software Upgrades
- 3 Year Limited Warranty
Specs
- Standards: Ethernet II, IEEE 802.2, IEEE 802.3
- Protocols: TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, EtherTalk
- Ports:
- Four auto-sensing 10/100BaseTX with Shared Uplink
- 2 DB-25, Bi-directional parallel printer ports
- Speed: 10/100Mbps Switched Ethernet
- Cabling Type: UTP Category 5 or STP
- Topology: Star
- LEDs: Power, Link/ACT, FD/Col, Speed for LAN.
- Status, Error, Link for PrintServer
| Taking a closer look:
| Front of the print server. |
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| Rear of the print server. The two parallel ports enable to printers to
be hooked up to the unit. The four Ethernet jacks allow the print server to
also function as hub for a small office or home environment. |
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| As with all Linksys networking gear they are meant to be stacked with
one another. Sort of like giant Lego blocks. |
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| Conclusions:
While we found the installation procedure a bit too
vague
for our liking, once we were
able to properly configure all the setting under a Windows 98SE network environment
we found the server to operate as expected. Print
jobs were immediately sent to printer, where previously
they had taken a few minutes, or just stalled. All in all we're very
pleased with the server's performance in
the SOHO application. The added bonus
of a built-in hub is nice.
Update:
Since we have been using this print server for a few months now several
faults have popped up which were not immediately obvious. First of all, the
Printserver has a tendency to sometimes steal IP's in a networked office
environment (ie. 192.168.1.1), and secondly it will 'stall' out every so often -
usually when large print jobs go through it. While the latter undoubtedly has
more to do with the amount of memory in the printer the effect on the IP
structure of an internal network can be annoying.
To update our opinion on the Linksys Printserver I would have to say the
following. It is good for a small network of no more than about 10 computers
with an average print load, and print jobs which are not too heavy in
size.
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