Netgear PS101 Mini Pocket Print Server

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Summary: Mac fans - this works
Review: After a herky jerky start, my rating of this product jumped from 2 stars to 4. Don't fret Mac owners. If you are trying to integrate your Mac OS X system to print to the Netgear PS101, there is a solution: configure your Mac for IP printing, set the printer type to LPD/LPR, enter the print server IP address, input the queue name, example HPLASER4L_P1 (netgear device name_printer port), and make sure you select the right printer model. If you select Generic or any other model than your printer you will waste paper. I hope this is helpful...

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Summary: Netgear PS101 not fully compatible with XP
Review: At a first glance, the PS101 is a useful device and good purchase. However, up to and including the current version of the firmware (Version 6026) the device has a flawed implemention of TCP sockets. Which means, you cannot talk to the device if you are using any kind or brand of port firewall with Stateful Packet Inspection, such as the built-in firewall in XP (or XP SP1 or XP SP2 RC). This means, do not purchase the PS101 if you plan to use it on a machine with a port firewall; or check Netgears web site if they have a fix. I will return my device and my view is that it's simply incompatible with XP.

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Summary: Bargain
Review: Even though I really did need a standalone print server (4 computers running a smorgasbord of O/S's with removeable drives for different operationg systems)what prompted me to
buy this ($65/free shipping/no sales tax)was the mixture of reviews. I thought, this can't be that hard to setup. I believe
most people who have a problem with this is that they don't understand basic networking 101. I found using ME/2000/XP a breeze. I did not install any of configuration tools that come with it. I prefer to do everything manually. Just admin it through your browser, I think it was defaulted to 192.168.0.115,
then do the normal "add a printer" use network printer option and point to the correct IP address. I'm using XP with SP2 and firewall turned on with no problems.
Now Linux was a little more diffcult, I'm using Mandrake 9.3 and Redhat 9.3 It took a couple of tries to get a good test page to print, it's just a matter of using the right combination of lpr/CUPS but when it works it's a beautiful thing. I'm using an HP deskjet 932C printer.
Now, I've only had this for a couple of days so I will update sometime in the future.


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Summary: Netgear PS101 Pocket Print Server
Review: Great product. Fit perfectly onto my printer and was easy to install. The only problem came when seting up the computers to access the server. First you have to turn off the firewall in XP or it won't find the server. I turned it off then got a free copy of Zone Alarm firewall and it works great. The other thing is to rename the computers workgroup to the same as the print servers workgroup. After figuring these things out, it works great. The problems were minor, and considering the price I would recommend this product.

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Summary: Wow! Easy to use even for the techno challenged.
Review: Great product. Up and running in 15 minutes. Absolute breeze to get working.

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Summary: Mini Pathetic Print Server
Review: Having read the reviews of this product (and seeing little competition) I decided to give the PS101 a try. I have a machine running XP & a Mac with OS X 10.3 so I figured that once the device was setup by the windows machine the Mac would just need the right settings--wrong. The setup on XP was tricky & confusing, but did indeed work. I have a Brother HL-1250 (great printer) that isn't a native OS X printer. I couldn't get the IP Printing settings to take the brother as default. As per another review on this product, Mac printing is possible (theoretically) with the right printer. Be careful with this product...

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Summary: Works fine but is not bi-directional
Review: I am disapointed in the Netgear PS101 in that it is not bi-directional. It will not report low ink cartridges, paper out, or other printer status functions. My printer is a Canon i550. Otherwise it works great and was very easy to set up.
My Canon i550 has a USB port as well. I set up the computer beside the printer to use that port and it is bi-directional, providing feedback on printer status. Printer seems to work well using both the parallel and USB.

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Summary: Problematic w/ Minolta 1250W; poor customer support
Review: I bought this print server for a Minolta PagePro 1250W, and couldn't get it to work. I called their tech support, and their "level 1" support in India wasted about an hour of my time before saying it wasn't compatible. Their website never mentioned this incompatibility, just that it was compatible w/ "most popular printers." When I complained, I waited anther 1/2 hr for their "level 2" support in the US. They got it to work, but it's extremely slow (I tried 3 different PC's, on both wired and wireless), and sometimes has to re-installed for no reason. This is the first and last Netgear product I'll buy...

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Summary: Problematic w/ Minolta 1250W; poor customer support
Review: I bought this print server for a Minolta PagePro 1250W, and couldn't get it to work. I called their tech support, and their "level 1" support in India wasted about an hour of my time before saying it wasn't compatible. Their website never mentioned this incompatibility, just that it was compatible w/ "most popular printers." When I complained, I waited anther 1/2 hr for their "level 2" support in the US. They got it to work, but it's extremely slow (I tried 3 different PC's, on both wired and wireless), and sometimes has to re-installed for no reason. This is the first and last Netgear product I'll buy...

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Summary: Great for the price if you know LAN basics
Review: I bought three of these little dongles to let me put my existing HP laser and deskjet printers on my Linksys router LAN for all to use. This lets everyone who connects to my wireless LAN use any of the printers, with no dedicated print server computer. I did not use any of the Netgear setup utilities provided on the CD, I set it up manually using the web browser interface. Read the Amazon review from "Ones and Zeros" for this product. His (or her) updated section offers some good advice for Windows XP users.