Netgear NETGEAR WGPS606NA 54 Mbps Wireless Print Server with 4-port Switch - WGPS606NA

It works great...after a lot of work with setup

Posted Oct 12, 2005 - so i went out and got this print server mainly b/c it used 802.11g and wpa-psk, the same as my home network. i got it from circuit city for $100 but have $50 in rebates coming to me in the mail. i was a bit hesitant at first b/c my router and network cards are SMC but i figured i'd give this netgear number a go since the company has a good reputation and at half off, it was quite a deal. i use a winXP pc and my wife uses a mac. initially, i tried to setup my pc using the internet method. but i found that did not work b/c SMC uses a different default gateway than what is expected of netgear products. so to my dismay, i had to use the setup wizard on the included CD. the setup wizard worked surprisingly well. however, when i got done with the setup, i noticed that i had plugged the printer into port 2 on the print server. so, i thought, why not just plug it into port 1 seeing as i only have 1 printer at this point in time. when i switched the plugs, everything stopped working. i figured, ok, i just need run the setup wizard for port 1. well, i did just that and long story short, nothing worked, not even when i plugged the printer back into port 2!!! eventually, i figured out through much trial and error that i cannot install the same printer for both ports. in general, i don't know why one would ever do such a thing, but hey maybe there's someone else out there like me? so first revelation- don't install the same printer for both ports. onto my wife's computer. first of all, netgear does not guarentee compatability with macs, even though there are many people out there, even reviewers on this website, that have gotten it to work with their macs. so i figured i should be one of them as well. yeah, well it took even longer than my pc experience. the first problem was that since netgear does not claim compatability with macs, they have no instruction in their included manual nor the CD nor their website on how to get it to work with a mac. i had to web search and fortunately for me, i was able to find the solution (see www.cups.org/articles....). but the solution was much more tricky than i could have imagined. the tricky part is that you have to set up a connection using the "lpd" protocol. eventually, i came up with this port name- lpd://192.168.2.199/L1 where L1 is for port 1 and the IP address is the static address assigned to the print server in the initial setup. for those of you curious, this is presumably the same way you would setup a linux box to communicate with the print server as well... personally, i think this is a little too technical for any unsuspecting person with what i would consider a pretty typical setup. but, i'm happy i got it to all work. and since getting it to work, the print server has worked flawlessly. i even have it tucked away in the corner near the printer in a room that does not have line-of-sight to the router and i still get 60+% signal. not one single dropped print job. and my wife is a teacher so she's constantly printing stuff off for her classes. i'm very happy with this purchase. but only 4 stars b/c of the extended trouble with setup. admittedly, i never called customer support, which is rumored to be very good. call me stubborn.

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OS X and GNU/Linux Clients Printing Wirelessly Too!

Posted Apr 2, 2007 - I got this print server to allow both an Intel and a PowerPc Mac to print wirelessly, as well as a GNU/Linux client using CUPS. (In fact, I don't even have a working Windows PC to test with it.) There are instructions available on Netgear's website to get it working with Tiger and that's enough to tell you that it uses lpd and the two queues are called L1 and L2 and from there GNU/Linux setup is a breeze. Initial setup can be frustrating because it expects your wireless network to be called NETGEAR and to operate in the 192.168.0.x range. I have a nearby neighbor whose router is called NETGEAR and my network is 192.168.1.x, so I had to connect the device directly to my router with an ethernet cable (after switching my router to temporarily use 192.168.0.x) and connect a laptop directly to the WGPS606 to change the expected network name and default IP address on the WGPS606. I'm currently sharing a Samsung ML-1740 laser printer and having trouble sharing an HP PSC-1350, even though it is listed as a supported printer. If I can get the second printer working, it's a 5-star product. Until then, it's 4-stars.

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Buy this! Netgear WGPS606NA 4 Port Wireless Bridge and USB (2) Print Server

Posted Nov 27, 2005 - Wireless bridges seem to be expensive for some reason, but this one is priced really cheap for one that supports 4 ethernet connections and 2 USB printer connections. There is only one other brand that connects 4 computers, but I was not familiar with the name and it only supports 1 printer, not 2. The biggest problem I had, was everybody seemed to be out of stock when I was trying buy this a couple months ago. The setup went fairly easy. For some strange reason my computer did not automatically get an IP from the Netgear before I ran the setup CD, but it didn't matter as the setup software located the Netgear, and my computer had no trouble communicating with it. The first step is to configure the print server with the wireless and printer. This went flawlessly. The next step was to setup the print server and computer. I got confused on the last part. You are supposed to select a printer and click finish. The printer was already selected, but "Finish" was grayed out. I had to click on "Add" which then brought up a Windows dialog box asking for me to select a manufacturer/printer and location of drivers. I thought this odd, as I already had the drivers installed. I chose "Windows Update" as location of drivers and after a while I was able to click on finish and print a test page. But, I don't think the driver install did anything, as the next Windows dialog box did not list my printer. The Netgear setup software bringing up the Windows install drivers dialog box might be a bug that happens with Windows 2000, or might only be appropriate if you don't already have the printer drivers installed. Other than that, my computer plugged into it was able to access the internet no problem, and after I disconnected the ethernet cable, I was able to print to the server wirelessly without trouble. It was one of the easier wireless setups I've done. This device is definately worth getting, as it does a whole lot at a fantastic price.

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Great Product!

Posted Nov 22, 2005 - Overall another great product from Netgear. Not only a 2 port print server, but also a 4 port switch. A great bundle at a great price. I would recommend this product to anyone needing a wireless print server.

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I installed this on my home network (5 Macs, 1 Win ...

Posted May 17, 2005 - I installed this on my home network (5 Macs, 1 Windows, 2 network printers) and had it running within 10 minutes. I used the web-based setup (I DON'T trust wizards - they have a tendency to make life harder) and the WGPS606 located and logged into my existing wireless network. Signal strength is 65% (length of house on separate floors) and WAN/LAN speeds are very satisfactory. I was able to hook up our Epson R200 without any problems. IMHO, the integration of a USB-based print server makes this a great buy.

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Netgear WGPS606

Posted Jul 11, 2005 - The best Wireless device available on the market for residential use. Was simple to setup. I have the WGPS606 at the opposite end of the house; going through two walls and a floor, and the signal is still strong (80%-85%) to reach my wireless router.

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Great Idea, Spotty Performance

Posted Jan 6, 2006 - I thought this device was just what I was looking for. It supports two printers and also has a built in switch. Installation seemed straightforward enough, but was a lengthy process. You have to run a wizard for each printer, and then run a wizard for each PC that will be using the printer via the print server. During installation you have to disable any firewalls on your PC, as well as disable any MAC address filtering you have enabled on your router. This was understandable, but after successfully setting up all of the PCs and the two printers, then restoring the firewalls and router MAC filtering, the print server quit responding. A quick search on the Netgear website revealed that the print server actually has two MAC addresses, one for the device and one for the wireless component. However, you had to connect to the web interface on the device to determine the second MAC address (a step during the installation process would have saved me some frustration). Once all of that was straightened out, the device worked great for about three days. Then one Saturday morning the device would not respond, and when I checked the router's list of IP addresses, the print server was not there. The device totally disappeared from the network! A call to Netgear corrected the problem, but not because they could identify the problem, but because they simply had me reset the device and re-install! A review of the user forums on the Netgear site revealed that I was not the only person experiencing this behavior. Again, a couple of days later the device vanished from the network and quit responding. I could periodically ping it and it seemed to "wake up", then start working again. I finally unplugged this device and am currently back to sharing the two printers through the printer-sharing feature in Windows XP. I would not recommend this product unless Netgear can identify and fix these issues through a firmware upgrade. I have another Netgear (wired) print server that has been working great since the first day I installed it without a problem. I just wish the WGPS606 performed as well!

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NETGEAR WGPS606NA 54 Mbps Wireless Print Server with 4-port Switch - WGPS606NA

Posted 5 months ago - The antenna isn't detachable so it's not suitable for attaching a higher gain antenna. The antenna isn't detachable so it's not suitable for attaching a higher gain antenna.

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It is ok untill you have trouble out of 6 mnonth! Then they try and stick you with a $69 chg

Posted 1 year ago - Had several now , that once 6 months into the warranty you get no FREE support they chg $69. And if it is failing and you think it is bad and they don't there is no "we'll try this.. If it is not working correctly and does come on at all, just forget it you might as well tell them it is dead... becasuse you are as far as they are concerned unless you pay the outragious fee!

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Works with Brother MFC 8440

Posted May 18, 2008 - I bought this refurb and had it working in about 20 min for 3 laptops using a Brother MFC 8440 which doesn't have network ability. Now it does! Great addition to our wireless network. Will update this after next printer is added

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No AES encryption - Won\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t work with Wireless-N routers

Posted Dec 22, 2007 - Does not work for me, so I had to return the device. Back to connecting my printer with ... (ugh) a wire :-(((((((((I could use WEP, but why should I lower security

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Review of Netgear WGPS606NA Wireless Print Server

Posted Dec 23, 2005 - Overall, and very stable product. Absolutely no problems experienced. I am using the Print server as both an extended Access Point and Wireless Print Server. Since running most of needs through DSL (less than 54 Mbps), I am not expereincing any bottlenecks or printing issues. Strongly recommend this product to others, especially when Netgear runs various rebates through retailers. An awesome product, an awesome value!!

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Not Happy with the WGPS606NA

Posted Nov 1, 2005 - Having owned various netgear routers and other products over the years I've been very satisfied with the brand. Being in the market for a wireless print server, I decided to give this one a try. I own an HP Laserjet 1012 and confirmed on the Netgear site that the printer was compatible with this print server (I suggest you do so prior to buying). Installation was a snap using their Installation Wizard. However, when I tried to rpint out a test page, the printer printed out 20 pages of various characters. I also got a page saying their was a PCL compatability problem. Off to the internet, I discovered that my printer is host based and lacks a PCL driver. Supposedly there is a work around using another HP dirver which I didn't try. The waste of a night didn't bother me so much. Instead, I was quite upset that Netgear advertised that my printer was compatible when in fact it wasn't. Thanks Netgear.

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Great Wireless Ethernet Bridge: Nice Looking, Paperback Size, Easy Install

Posted Oct 30, 2005 - I used the wizard to set this up and it was pretty easy, but I bought it for its ability to function as a Wireless Ethernet Bridge and the wizard was directing me to set it up as a print server. I did the print server setup and then I setup the device on my 11 MBPS B wireless network with WEP 128-bit encryption without any problems. After the wizard I realized that by going to the devices default web page (IP address, user name, and password printed underneath the device) I could have set it up easily and more quicly as just a Wireless Ethernet Bridge much more quickly. This little guy is one of the cheapest brand name wireless ethernet bridges that you can buy, and it come with a built in 4 port-switch. So this would be great for bridging a non-wireless enabled home office to a wireless network, or for hooking up a bunch of gaming consoles, Tivo, or other such devices. It may or may not work with your printer, but regardless it is still great for what I need.

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Very Satisfied Product

Posted Oct 6, 2005 - When i recieved it in the mail, right away i started to install it. they said it will take about 20 minutes a computer to setup but it didn't take that long (depends on the speed of you computer). Easy to follow directions and was done within 15 minutes.Overall, very satisfied and will surely buy other NetGear Products.

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