Networking questions

[--Pete]

Hi,

The router thus has at least 2 more free ports for wire connection and I suppose for all practical purposes unlimited wireless connections.

And you can always add an inexpensive hub to increase the number of wired connections. Although a hub means that all devices connected to it share the available bandwidth, that is usually not a problem in a home or small office environment unless you rely a lot on file servers to process large files like video. Of course, now that switches are almost as cheap as hubs, you might want to go that way.

The questions is now. Will the printer above function correctly and be accessible from all computers on the net? Or do one need to set up some print server for it? The idea is for it to be accessible from the laptop even if the stationary computer is not turned on. That should work, right?

Should work fine. All you should need to do is use the add printer wizard and follow the prompts. If your system is up to date, odds are good you can just use the drivers that are already bundled with Windows.

We have two more printers that me might want to add to the network, preferably being able to access without having to go through a specific computer turned on, that is, not connect them directly to a computer. They both have only USB connections. What would be the way to do this? I have seen some wireless print servers with USB connectors but they seem to cost quite a bit. On top of that, they don't need to connect wireless although it would of course open up possibilities.

To connect a printer directly to the local net, you will need some type of adapter (i.e., 'print server'). As you seem to have already figured out, this will either be a dedicated adapter or a computer to which the printers are connected and shared. We used to have two printers attached to an old computer which we just left on. That worked fairly well. After moving, with space at a premium, we got rid of the computer and replaced it with individual print servers from NetGear. This has also worked out fine. As you've pointed out, these dedicated print servers are a bit expensive, with the wireless vesion being more expensive.

What about "print servers", when are they needed? Always? What purpose do they have. Seems one need one for printers to connect to a network, but what about the printer I have that can be connected through an Ethernet connection, does it still require some print server on the net to function meaning I need to have a computer running anyway for it to work?

Every printer needs a print server to do things like keep print jobs qued. However, the print server can be integrated with the printer (as they are in printers that connect directly to the net), can be on the network adapter, or can run on the computer the printer is attached to. So, if you are using either network ready printers or a print adapter to connect a printer to the network, no additional print serve is needed for those printers.

Any suggestions on how to set it up and what could be needed?

You've pretty much figured out what you need in general. My latest experience is about two and a half years old, which means that a lot of my info is out of date. I've had good luck with LinkSys and with NetGear, so unless someone with more recent experience chimes in, I'd be tempted to go with that. Just how you want to set up your LAN depends to some extent to what you have in hand (an old computer can make a cheap print server and, if you stick a couple of big hard drives in it, it can also double for storage of backups.) Considering the cost of print adapters, you might be better off buying new printers that are LAN ready. Of course, if you have a high quality printer, then the adapters might be the cheaper way to go. These are decisions only you can make.

As a side question, can a wireless network function were different units uses different encryption methods? The routers supports WPA2, what if one unit, say a printer in some way, doesn't support it, can it handle both WPA2 and WPA (for example) at the same time?

Not in the gear available a couple of years ago, which caused me some headaches until I figured out what configuration was permissible to all the devices on the LAN. But that might have changed since. Also, firmware updates occasionally add capabilities, so that the restrictions on a device out of the box might be eventually eliminated. Other than spending some time on manufacturer's web sites, asking questions on the forums at Tom's Hardware is the best way I know of to get good info.

Good luck,

--Pete