JETDIRECT 280M INT PSVR

Rating:
Summary: Wireless print server; cool and bi-directional for scan
Review: I bought the HP Jetdirect 280M print server for my HP 7130 printer/scanner/fax machine. I found little documentation online so had some doubts that it was worth a few times what some other print servers would cost.

I'm glad I got it. Besides printing, the main use, I can scan from any of the computers on my network. I haven't used the fax from a computer, but the scanning works well. You can either do a scan from the "Director" program (or from other applications) where you control the bpi etc., or you can connect using a web browser and scan to a file or scan to e-mail. When I did scan a multipage document to PDF via e-mail, the result wasn't usable, unfortunately, which (along with some install issues) took away one star.

I'd suggest having the printer have a static IP address (you pick one rather than let it be assigned from your wireless router). You must also have your Windows XP firewall turned off when using it (except when using it through a web browser.)
You should also know your existing wireless configuration well so you can configure the printer similarly.

Configuration is interesting: You use a wireless laptop and connect to it point-to-point (not using your router). You could also probably configure it from the buttons on front, as it looks like most things are available/settable there, but browser is easier. After you get it configured, the printer stops advertising its SSID so your friendly hacker next door can't reconfigure your printer quite as easily.

It took me a while to install the software on each of my machines but it worked even on the Windows 98 system. It was 5 hours from when I opened the box until I could print from each of 4 computers. I wasn't rushing, and ate dinner in there. (I also had a few unrelated problems with the wireless laptop I was using for configuration not working on my router, which I wanted to fix first!)

Another little glitch: When I first ran the config program on the CD, which tries to connect (wireless) to the printer, my wireless network saw the printer as an available network, but the HP program said no network was found! I retried twice and then it worked.

One of my systems already had the HP 7130 printer software installed, and so when I tried to re-install I got the "already installed" error. The workaround to this is to run setup.msi (from the CD) directly, which lets you de-install the old version. On one system I got an error about the Java virtual machine not being there (which it was, I believe) but just clicking OK seemed to work as all is well.

I'd have liked something simpler to install, but I'm glad I got this rather than a one-way print-only solution. I didn't want to have to hook up the USB every time I wanted to scan. The unit fits *inside* the back of the printer, so there's no extra desk space or wires or anything. Very cool. The installation instructions seemed pretty accurate and clear, but I'm not sure someone who doesn't know what they're doing would figure it out without help or telephone support. Once it's set up, you can forget it except for occasional update of the wireless security (you don't want the same password forever!) My family loves it.