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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 found the following review helpful:
Works great after a lot of fuss Oct 18, 2009
By Big Wush
"One Happy Customer"
The TE100-P21 Printer Server works great only if you can get passed the installation. The Quick Installation Guide is not helpful especifically when the printers don't print after following the installation steps via the PS-Wizard. Here are a few things to watch out for:
My router recognized the TE100-P21 right after the plug-in which was a good sign. The PS-Wizard also seems to make it easy to add printers because it detected the printers I had previously installed on the computer, so you can actually pick from the known printer list. After I completely the steps and hit the "print test page" button, nothing happened. This is when the trouble started. After fussing with installing and deleting printers, I could not get the printers to print. In the end, I followed some reviewer's suggestion to follow the detail instructions from the User Guide (come with the CD), then it made sense to me that I had an IP address conflict. The default IP address 191.168.0.1 doesn't work but there was no error messages. After I manually changed the IP address to 191.168.1.121 (it can be any IP address within the acceptable range), I got the printers to work. Once I got it working on one PC (Win/XP), repeating the steps on my other two PCs were easy. Now, all three PCs (2000, XP, and Vista) can print to the printers (Samsung MS-2250 and HP 1200) with no problem.
Another lesson learned is that during all the fussing by adding and deleting printers to the TCP/IP port, there is no effect on these changes unless you reboot your PC. So, if you messed up with the initial installation, you should delete everything and start over again with a "factory reset", then reboot your computer. It should work after that.
25 of 26 found the following review helpful:
 Good print server, easy to install. Oct 28, 2005
By James M. Kronrod
"jk"
After unpacking the print server I was up and printing within 15 minutes on both printers from both computers in my network. It took me a couple of minutes to get the utility "PS-Utility" to see the print server by disabling the Windows firewall and then discovering that I could add the utility to the exceptions list in order to enable to firewall again. I am able to access all printer specific functions through the drivers as if the printers were connected directly to the computer.
It has been a couple of days and I have had no problems.
Configuration:
-Operating System: Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home.
-Router: Linksys WRT55AG
-Print server: TRENDnet TE100-P21
-Dell XPS Gen 3 Desktop connected to router via enet cable.
-Dell Lattitude laptop connected to router via wireless link.
-Printers: Cannon IP5000 to USB1 and HP Laserjet 5L to LPT3 of the print server.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
The best print server I could find Jan 30, 2011
By zemes
If you are using Windows 7 and you're looking for a print server, just buy this one. Trust me. It will save you a lot of trouble. And if you are using an earlier operating system, it should also work as well but I have no personal experience. Because this print server is actually several years old and was designed before Windows 7 came out, so I would be surprised that it doesn't work with earlier operating systems just as well.
My experience with print servers has been a painful one. It started with a D-Link print server five or six years ago. It was one of the most painful computer related devices I've ever had. It required a genius willing to twist his mind, violet his natural intuition and abandon his trained logic to set it up. It had instructions that were essentially wrong and misleading. Even following a corrected procedure, it was painstaking to set up on each computer on the network. And being a wireless print server, it requires re-setup when the wireless system (router) has been changed.
So I bought an AirLink AMPS230 after doing a lot of research. I thought I was lucky because the thing was almost effortless to set up. It was a day and night difference compared to the D-Link. But soon, I discovered that it was completely unreliable. It frequently went off-line or disconnected itself from the network and required either relinking or reboot. It was insanity.
So I bought the TRENDnet. I hesitated a lot both because of the relatively unimpressive reviews, and also because of my painful history with print servers. I was at a point to give up on the existing printers (which are very high quality printers by the way, but just without built-in network function), and go out to spend $1000 to buy network printers for replacements. But I'm glad that I decided to try the TRENDnet first.
When I bought it with hesitance, I had this cynical thought that it would be as difficult as the D-Link and as uneliable as the AirLink. Well no. It turned out to be more reliable than the D-Link and even easier than the AirLink. This thing took around 10 min. to set up on the network. And the setup for each computer on the network to use the print server took less than 5 min and had absolutely no confusion. And it is reliable, not a single drop from any computer on the network over the whole week (still observing and would report with a broken heart if it turns out to be false).
If I knew it was this good, I would be willing to pay more than $200 for it. So for $55, I am not complaining.
AN UPDATE: now the print server has worked reliably for longer than two months without a single drop. I have no reason to doubt its reliability now.
AN IMPORTANT TIP: I've discovered that to maintain a stable connection using a print server, the best setup is to do the following:
(1) Make sure that your printer is connected through a standard TCP/IP port with both Port Name (given by the print server itself) and the IP address (determined by your router) correctly set. (For those who may not be familiar with this, I'm talking about printer software ports set in the operating system (Windows for example), not a physical port on the back of your computer.) This is where different print servers behave differently. The TRENDnet shines in this critical part because it automatically sets the port correctly. All the pain I had with the print servers previously were actually rooted in this issue. The D-Link I had some years ago could not do any automatic port setting at all, and thus required painful manual setting, while the AirLink Print Server I had recently did do automatic port setting but failed to do it right. Instead of setting it to a standard TCP/IP port, the AirLink assigns a virtual USB port which turns out to be completely unreliable.
(2) Reserve a static IP address for print server on your router. This doesn't mean you will have to change from the automatic DHCP mode to a manual mode. These are two different things. You CAN reserve a static IP address for a print server when both the print server and the router are in DHCP mode (yes, the auto DHCP mode), and you don't have to switch to the manual IP address mode in order to do so. The fact that you can have your router and the devices operating in the DHCP mode while at the same time manually reserve static IP addresses for each individual device is something that I didn't realize until recently. I thought it was either manual or auto.
The truth is that in order for a print server to work reliably, the TCP/IP port must have a static IP address, at least this is the case given the current status of the technology. But at the same time, because most people use a router in the DHCP mode, the port cannot maintain a static IP address by itself, unless one has been manually reserved for the print server in the router setup. This may sound strange, but I have painfully learned this to be true. All this explains why print servers remain one of the most painful and unpredictable computer devices. This simple knowledge has suddenly made the setup of a print server crystal clear for me. Unfortunately, none of these manufacturers makes this matter clear.
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Works with some printers Nov 20, 2006
By R. F. Brooks
This version works with my Canon PIXMA iP6000D printer, but will not wake it up if it is in powersave mode. The setup went much better than my old NetGear print server, so I bought another one (the TE100-P1U - newer model) for my HP LaserJet 1020. Alas, these print servers do not support the HP LJ 1020. And you cannot find that out on TrendNet's website; you have to call their Tech Support to see if your printer is supported. The server itself is 4 stars; the support is 2 stars.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
 BE CAREFUL! Mar 08, 2009
By Larry C. Kleinschmidt
Be very careful with this server. There are many printers that will not work with it; I happen to have two. It is very difficult to set up and to trouble shoot. I've spent 2 hours on the phone with Tech support only to have them tell me that my new HP Laser P1006 will not work with this device. I also tried to install it with a Lexmark Z645; it will not support that printer either! Trendnet does not seem to have an "approved printers" list either, so who knows!
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