Sharing Printers and Other Wi-Fi Gadgetry

Internet connection sharing is probably the biggest single part of Wi-Fi's attraction for small office and home office users, but sharing printers can also be extremely useful. (Not everyone in the house needs his or her own laser printer!) You can buy a small device called a wireless print server, which connects to a printer via a parallel port (usually) and has a built-in Wi-Fi client adapter, complete with antenna. The popular Linksys WPS-11 is shown in Figure 1.1. It supports only one printer, but other similar devices like D-Link's DP-313 have additional parallel ports for supporting more than one printer on the same wireless link.

click to expand
Figure 1.1: The Linksys WPS-11: Wireless Print Server. (Photo courtesy of Linksys.)

With its data cable connected to a wireless print server, your printer can be anywhere in your home or office where it's within range of a wireless access point. You don't need a computer nearby at all-whatever computing power is needed for the print server function is built into the wireless print server itself. Linksys has recently released a new print server, the PPS1UW, with support for USB-interface printers. Interestingly, the PPS1UW has both a wired and wireless interface, making it compatible with almost any type of home office network.

Game consoles that allow Ethernet connections for multiplayer gaming can be connected to your Wi-Fi network through an Ethernet wireless bridge like the Linksys WET-11 or the D-Link DWL-810. An Ethernet wireless bridge allows any Ethernet device to connect wirelessly to a Wi-Fi access point or gateway. Game consoles are the #1 use of such bridges, but they can also be used with Ethernet-equipped printers, scanners, and anything else that communicates through a standard Ethernet port.

Other Wi-Fi gadgetry continues to show up on a regular basis, and some of it is very cool. One of my favorite recent entries is the D-Link DCS-1000W wireless network camera, shown in Figure 1.2. It can take both snapshot images and streaming video and send them over your Wi-Fi network. When used as a security camera, it has a motion detector feature that triggers transmission of images when something moves in its field of view. (It can actually email you when it 'sees' something-with a snapshot attached!) It can stream video to hard disk, or act as a Webcam with its integrated Web server. Unlike a lot of inexpensive wireless video baby monitors, it incorporates data encryption using Wired Equivalent Privacy (see Chapter 13) so that people outside your home can't use your own cameras to spy on you.

click to expand
Figure 1.2: The D-Link DCS-100W Wireless Network Camera. (Photo courtesy of D-Link.)



Jeff Duntemann's Drive-By Wi-Fi Guide
Jeff Duntemanns Drive-By Wi-Fi Guide
ISBN: 1932111743
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 181

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net