Fun with print servers...

[alexpgp]

My old Hawking HWPS1UG wireless print server was a pretty useful piece of hardware once it was properly configured, and there lay the rub. I recall working through the various steps in the configuration process a dozen times or more before somehow, something "clicked" and the unit started working.

For those unfamiliar with what a wireless print server does, it's basically a box that links wirelessly to your home network, from one "end," and to a printer, from the other "end," and thus allows you to print stuff without there being an actual wire connection between your computer and the printer. Even better, multiple computers on the same network can use the same server, allowing print "jobs" to originate from more than just one computer.

The problem with the Hawking, besides it finicky nature, is that its idea of network security extends to WEP, which is no longer a secure way of running a home network. So I went out and got a Trendnet server and had a go at installing it today. I learned a lot, too.

For example, if one's router supports something called WPS, then you don't have to worry about how a new WPS-compliant device (like the Trendnet) gets connected to the network (which normally requires a password for a successful connection).

But you do have to have WPS enabled on the router, which I didn't, and I needed the router's password to enable WPS. As it turns out—in a sort of good news, bad news sort of way—I actually had the password close at hand, but it was actually accessible to anyone who could gain physical access to my house. (By default, but not any longer. :^)

I was not terribly thrilled when the Trendnet software was reported as wanting to run every time my system booted. This had not been the case with the Hawking (when I used the Hawking server, I was directing print jobs to a special version of my printer's driver). With the Trendnet, when the software runs, it automatically "connects" to my printer in such a way that when a print job is sent to my printer, the output from the standard printer driver is apparently intercepted by the Trendnet software behind the scenes and quietly relayed to the printer.

In any event, the thing works, so as long as the additional process doesn't eat up too many cycles, I guess I can live with it.

Cheers...

Comments

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't see the purpose of a print server. At least with an all-windows system, where you can set the printer to be shared over the network without extra hardware or drivers. Of course, making a network work in windows is another matter entirely, especially if none of the windows machines are running the same version of windows ;p

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

That's true, but then you have to keep the computer to which the printer is connected on all the time (unless the printer itself has a wireless capability, which is effectively what the print server provides for not-so-new printers).

Cheers...

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

In my case, that's the computer I have on while I'm working anyway. But I take your point.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

What's the invoicing software you're currently using? A friend is using vintage 95 software and would ditch if if he could find something better.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Well, I had been using Quicken Invoice Manager, despite the fact that it locks the data into a proprietary file format, and I even was running Windows 2000 in VMWare to be able to do so, but after setting up a home web server on a Raspberry Pi a few months ago, I not only set up an in-house wiki but also something called Bamboo Invoice (bambooinvoice.org/), which pretty much does everything I need it to do (create about 100 invoices per year and keep track of late payments). After running both Invoice Manager and BambooInvoice in parallel during December, I've moved over to the latter since January 1.

BambooInvoice runs via a Web interface on a machine with PHP and MySQL installed. I've taken precautions to make sure my installation stays private, but that's a lot easier to do when the server is on my side of the router. :^)

Cheers...

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Much appreciated. I passed the info on to him.

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

Ha! He said he puts out about 100/month, but will check it out when he gets home ;)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

It should be kept in mind that BambooInvoice is open source, and if my experience modifying the appearance of the PDF output is any indication, it should not be all that difficult to modify in other ways.

My invoices, while not numerous, tend to have a lot of line items on them, so if your friend needs to issue 3-4 invoices per day with only a few line items each, BambooInvoice might just do the trick. :)

[bandicoot.livejournal.com]

He puts out a weekly paper for a tribe in SD. I think he has around 23k subscribers if I understand him correctly. I'm not sure if the invoices are for ads or what, but one of his problems with his old software is that it's no longer possible for him to remove dead accounts for some reason. He's moving to Quicken, so the Quicken software may be adequate for him. His (Russian) daughter-in-law is an accountant and giving him Quicken lessons. Which is basically all I know about it ;)