Connect the print server

Today we will test D-Link print servers connected to an OKI printer.

Users often face the problem of connecting multiple printers to one local network. It is simply necessary for the organization of normal work in offices. In addition, print servers are extremely useful for home use. When the printer is connected to one computer, there is a risk that its performance will decrease. In addition, if the computer fails, the printing will stop. The print server will allow you to connect to the printer from other devices.





Of course, the best solution in this case is to use the original OKI print server, which is a network card that is embedded in the printer and works directly with the system bus. This solution allows you to get a completely transparent connection between the computer and the printer via the network, as it provides control of the printer through the web interface of the network card without limitations of functionality, and the network settings are made through the printer control panel. In addition, when using a network connection, it is possible to use software products such as PrintSuperVision and, more interestingly, PrintControl.

And all would be nothing if not a crisis. It is well known that the original network cards with which printers are additionally equipped are quite expensive devices. So I think about a more affordable, and besides, a slightly more flexible version - an external print server from another manufacturer.







And so we decided to test several inexpensive and very popular D-Link print servers with OKI B400 series printers.

The B410d printer was chosen as the test by OKI. This model is equipped with IEEE-1284 parallel port and HiSpeed ​​USB2.0 port. We connected a compact DP-G310 print server to the printer via a USB cable, combining the functions of wired and wireless communications. A tiny box, slightly larger than a smartphone, is equipped with 3 connectors: Ethernet (up to 100Mbit / s), USB2.0 and a power connector. In addition, a unscrewing wireless antenna sat between the network and USB connectors.



The first test - work through a wired network with OKI

By connecting the box to a wired Ethernet network, we launched a management utility that found a print server on the network and allowed us to configure its IP address.



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Further configuration was most conveniently done through the web interface of the print server, which we did.





Here, as you can see, the basic network connection settings are provided (the address was obtained from the DHCP automatic addressing server) and you can see the status of the printer connected via USB (in this case, it is in the ready mode).

Next, configure the wireless settings: specify the type (infrastructure) and run the review.





And voila - we can print on the printer through the radio channel already! Another tab gives quite substantial information about the nature of the printer, which is supported by this print server:





Only printers that can print directly from DOS can be connected here, that is, if we are talking about laser printers, then these should be printers with support for PCL5 / PCL6 system commands. As is well known from the TTX printers of the B400 series, these devices are just that. In addition, other low-cost printers support these features, for example:

B411d

B431d



Test 2 with server for multiple printers



Now try something more powerful. We were offered to test the model DPR-1061 - a universal print server through which you can connect even 3 printers at the same time!





D-Link DPR-1061 print server capable of servicing up to 3 printers simultaneously





D-Link DPR-1061 print server: one parallel port and 2 USB2.0 ports are used to connect printers



By connecting the device to the local network and accessing it at the IP address specified in the instruction by default by the browser, we can see the internal website. The first thing to do is install network printers. And here the installation process is resolved quite interesting:





The network printer setup wizard offers to start a small program: it is stored directly in the memory of the print server and, when loaded from there, it can be immediately started (do not forget about the necessary rights to install the printer and to allow the launch of the program downloaded from the website ). It makes it very easy to detect printers connected to a device and install their drivers:





After installing the printer driver in its properties in the Ports tab, you can see that the work goes through the standard TCP / IP port, which is called usb1, usb2 or lpt, depending on which port the printer is connected to.





However, the names for the ports can be changed in the same place in the Setup section of the internal web site:





From the Maintenance section of the internal website after installing the printer, you can make sure that it works by sending a print demo page (using the standard Windows test page):





Everything can be printed! Again, the miracle with the GDI-printer did not happen, but the PCL-printers of the B400 series successfully worked via USB and through the parallel port.



Test results

In general, quite a positive, although quite expected result: honest print servers work transparently and reliably with honest printers. So for those who are looking for a reliable solution to connect the printer to the network, you can strongly advise to pay attention to OKI printers in combination with D-Link print servers.



Sergey Lebedev, OKI Dealer Training and Technical Support Manager