Tp Link Print Server

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Bowie Maur

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Aug 3, 2024, 10:53:45 AM8/3/24

to singreebihit

Hey everyone, I am looking for an ethernet to USB print server to use with a Zebra 420d label printer. I need to be able to print to a label printer in a lab in a remote desktop environment, so this needs to be able to work with a Windows 2008 server. Yes, I know that I should have specified the model with built in ethernet when we got the printer. Any suggestions?

The TP-LINK TL-PS110U print server allows you to take the computer out of the loop while setting up a printing network. All that is needed is to connect the TL-PS110U to a printer via the USB port, connect the print server to your LAN, and you will be able to access your printer from any computer on the LAN.

TP-LINK print servers support a majority of operating systems including Windows, Netware, Unix/Linux, and Mac. Also TP-LINK print servers support a number of network protocols including TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, Apple Talk, LPR, IPP/SMB, RAW TCP, increasing the width of application.

Actual network speed may be limited by the rate of the product's Ethernet WAN or LAN port, the rate supported by the network cable, Internet service provider factors and other environmental conditions.

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just bought the AX55 router and I can't get the print server function to work. Are the new routers even compatible with this function? This is so frustrating as the filesharing options are still there, so it's just the software that is incomplete.

To the best of my knowledge most vendors (TP Link included) stopped support USB print servers in their routers a few years ago now, cant think of any router I have purchased recently that has a print server still.

The specs for the AX55 doesnt indicate a print server.. (screenie below) so I dont think this does. You may be required to get a standalone print server for this device, again those are few and far between now also.

TP-Link still list this feature quite prominently on their website, so I didn't even think to check that it is no longer a thing... I guess they think that now every printer has Wi-Fi on it but then again how often do people buy a new printer if the old one prints just fine lol.

Recent updates may have expanded access to feature(s) discussed in this FAQ. Visit your product's support page, select the correct hardware version for your device and check either the Datasheet or the firmware section for the latest improvements added to your product.

Select LPR for Protocol. Enter lp1 in the Queue Name field. Click on the LPR Byte Counting Enabled checkbox (Due to a flaw in Windows LPR, some print servers will not accept jobs unless Byte Counting is enabled).

You never use the printer on your computer before but also want to share printing; you just need to add a printer, follow the steps to create a Standard TCP/IP port, and then install the printer driver.

Step 7 It will ask you to install the driver of the printer. You can select one in the list or click Have Disk to install other drivers. Please follow the steps to finish the installation.

You ever connected directly a printer to your computer by a USB cable or a parallel cable, and installed the printer driver. Now you want to use a print server to share the printer through your network. You need to change the printer port to Standard TCP/IP port.

Windows 8 is a new operating system of Microsoft, it changed greatly compared with the former versions. Since it also supports TCP/IP printing, it is compatible with our Print Servers, like TL-PS110U/TL-PS110P/TL-PS310U/TL-WPS510U. Here is the configuration guide.

Step 10 You will be asked to select your printer driver. Select based on your printer model and type from Windows standard drivers. Or you can use from your printer CD/DVD setup kit. After that, click Next.

Step 11 Then you will be asked whether you would like to use current driver or replace it. This is only happen when you already have printer driver before. I assume that you have installed previously. So, select to replace.

I recently upgraded my firmware on my Archer A7 v5.0 to 1.0.11 Build 20190810 rel.50990(5553) and I seem to have lost my print server settings. All I see under USB devices is the file share settings. What happened to the printer control? Now my wireless usb printer will not print and will not show in the desktop print controller utility anymore.

This is actually not a bug but by design. TP-Link is acutally removing the Print Server feature from our product lines. Its only true purpose was for printers without network connectivity. If your printer has Etherent or wireless functionality then just connect it to your router via one of those methods and then search for a network printer to find and use the printer. If your printer is older and only connects via USB then you would need to downgrade the software to the previous version to regain this funictionality.

@Carl Well that's unfortunate. I bought this device because of this capability. I use a label printer which does not offer networked printing and want to keep it centalized in my home. If TP-Link is no longer going to be supporting this type of feature then I'll unfortunately probably change to a different manufacturer that does. Thanks anyways. This router was a waste of money apparently.

I solved my problem by just abandoning the router option and set up a cheap Raspberry Pi as a print server with CUPS. To make it easier instead of going through all the technical CUPS installation you can just use Chrome Cloud Print feature to link your printer to your google account; then just leave that pc running at home and no matter where you are, as long as you are logged into Chrome you can cloud print back to that printer.

Yes in most cases you should be able to downgrade the firmware to a previous version to restore the feature. There are some cases such as with the patch that fixed the crack vunlrebilty that you would not be able to downgrade but those are few and fa between.

Honestly, the likely answer is comptaiblity. A majority of printers on the market these days have some sort of network fuctionality, wether that be wireless or ethernet. I personally just picked up a wireless HP printer over the holiday for $25 bucks. With these printers the print server feature is not needed. It was typically only used to connect older USB or serial based printers that had no network function and make them network printers. There were always compatiblity issues with printers too, so as these printers become used less and less in favor of more efficent and cost effective models the need for such a feature is less.

@Patrick0789 Oh you've got to be kidding. I JUST bought this thing because our old router was having issues and this router has a USB port so I could plug my printer in. I just set it up yesterday, got everything working right and saw there was a firmware update. So I updated it and now nobody can print to our printer. Anyone need a $50 brick? Now I have to put the old crappy router back in and huddle for wifi bandwidth like cowboys around a campfire. What firmware update REMOVES functions? By design, my butt. Somebody broke something and doesn't want to admit they screwed it up so now it's a "feature".

@Patrick0789, I just bought an Archer A7 (May, 2020). It was not advertised as having print server capabilities. I was surprised to find that the software interface for the router indicated that it did have print server capabilities. I did not have to revert to any legacy firmware for the router.

However, I did have to download (from the TP-Link center, on the page for the Archer A7) the USB_Printer_Controller_Utility_Windows onto my Windows 10 computer and install it. The web page shows a published date of 2017-12-25 for that utility. However once the utility is installed and running, the utility itself shows a date of 2012. So the utility is definitely a legacy program.

I have another, new, Windows 10 computer that had never printed to that old HP printer before. THis computer was on WiFi. It was not able to see the HP printer that is attached to the Archer A7 router. So I tried plugging the printer directly into this new computer by USB, and the computer installed drivers for it (PCL 5 drivers). Then I unplugged the printer from the computer and plugged it back into the Archer A7 router. The computer is now able to see the printer and print to it.