cheap Chinese print servers on ebay

[JimS]

I have a need for a dirt-cheap print server. I tried a Netgear PS121 and it doesn't get along well with my printer, an old Brother laser. More often than not, it'll print a blank page or a page with a line of garbage prior to the actual document. It does print the document fine, just wastes paper. So I went to see what alternatives I had, and there are a LOT of people selling things like this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-LPR...ultDomain_0&hash=item256883a9a8#ht_4059wt_995

A search for the model name reveals nothing helpful in terms of any reliable sites selling them or any user reviews. So, has anyone here taken a chance on one?

To head off the inevitable question of why I don't go with any of the other name-brand cheap old servers on ebay: reviews of them inevitably say that they're bug-ridden. I could deal with them, for example, needing to be reset every so often, if I was the only person in the house and just didn't want to fire up my main system to print. But I'm not the only person in the house, thus the need for a reliable stand-alone print server.

As for the reason I want a cheap one: it's a cheap old printer, and when someday I get a new one, I'll get one with a builtin print server.

 

[JackMDS]

Printers technology (the guts inside) is wide spread standard.

Most printers are "loaded" with propriety "tricks".

As a result most of the 3rd party Printer Servers are Not compatible with many printers. The one that are compatible many time only support simple printing.

These devices came out years ago when Network capable printers where costing more than $250.

These days the price of decent Network capable printers is bellow $100 and there is No real need for the 3rd party "gizmos". Most of the one that are still on the market are "cheap" old "Junk".

 

[cmetz]

JimS, been there done that. They are pretty much all just dumb TCP port 9100 to USB CDC printer adapters, and they do an okay but not great job of that. As far as I've seen they all do NO queuing and NO queue management of any sort, and so print server I consider a bit of a stretch in description - they're more of a print adapter.

I've never been happy with any of them and I've never seen anyone completely happy with any of them. Maybe somebody out there has a better experience, because they keep making them.

If you insist on going this route, Monoprice has one that's a hair cheaper, and Monoprice is more reputable than random ebay sellers:

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10521&cs_id=1052103&p_id=5342&seq=1&format=2

 

[Pheran]

It may be easier to just ditch the old laser and pick up a Brother HL-2270DW (or similar) for under $100. I have one of these and it works quite nicely.

 

[Ovven]

You might also want to pick up its bigger brethren hl-5340D (USB $150), or hl-5370DW (wireless $200). It comes with bigger starter cartridge (2500 pages vs 700), and costs about the same for non-brand refill (8000page refill for $20 last i checked). The parts like drum should last longer too, seeing how it's a small business printer.