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General discussion

Manufacturer compatibility vs. Standard Compliance?

Nov 2, 2004 5:30AM PST

As a newbie, I feel a little lost in the sauce.

I would like to configure a wireless network consisting of two desktops, a parallel port laser printer, and a USB printer. I presently am presently using Comcast Cable as my ISP on one system.

The problem is as follows:

I think I need the following:

A wireless cable router, 2 pci wireless adapters, and a print server( w/ USB and lpt support )

Can I mix and match components that observe the same IEEE protocols? I can use all Linksys, paying a premium price and sacrificing speed. Or, I can go with D-Link, the cable router seems faster with the drawback that I can't get a print server that with both parallel and USB support.

HELP, thanks in advance.

Discussion is locked

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Re: Manufacturer compatibility vs. Standard Compliance?
Nov 2, 2004 6:57AM PST

Mixing manufacturers only becomes an issue when support from the manufacturer is needed. They likely will blame the other device (not theirs) when it doesn't work.
As long as the standards are observed use whatever you like, but pay attention to the manuals and the default settings as they can sometimes conflict.

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Re: Manufacturer compatibility vs. Standard Compliance?
Nov 3, 2004 4:20AM PST

As mike points out, it is frequently an easy (but cheap) shot for a manufacturer support rep to blame whatever else is not theirs. Also, I have found with some equipment that despite the assertion of compliance with some nominal standard, WiFi equipment from different manufacturers don't always play well together. Sometimes it even goes beyond apparent technical compliance with the hardware standards to buggy software drivers that perform inconsistently in one or another of the Microsoft operating system environments. Add to that the consumer-driven extensions to the standards such as the Extreme and AfterBurner higher speeds, and you will quickly find yourself believing that buying only one manufacturer's line of equipment is a prudent course of action.

On the print server, I haven't seen a reasonably priced LPT print server in a long time - perhaps because I haven't seen an LPT printer for sale for a long time either, everything is USB now. Because there is no market for LPT printers anymore, there isn't any market to which to sell LPT print servers. Finding one will be tough, doubly tough if you insist on a combo with USB. If you find an LPT one, you might consider adding a plain switch for additional wired ports, and then install two separate print servers rather than demanding a single combo device.

dw