Отзывы о Принт-сервер TP-LINK TL-PS310U

I love this thing! With Microsoft discontinuing the support for XP, I thought I had to decide if I wanted to get a new desktop (mine was bought refurbished in 2005), buy a wireless printer/scanner, or just take my laptop into the office anytime I wanted to do something more than surf the web. So my options were "expensive", "less expensive", and "bothersome." I bought this device after going to my local computer hardware store and explaining my problem. The guy told me I would need four on these because I have two printers, an external hard drive, and a scanner. They only had one in stock. I got bought it thinking I would test it out before getting three more. I got home and connected my external hard drive. It was very quick and easy and the quick start guide was dead on. I tested it and it worked wonderfully. The speed was the same and when I used my desktop to make the drive wireless to my laptop. I quickly went on Amazon and bought another, planning on buying two more at a later date. After I made my purchase, I was reading the box and saw one tiny sentence about sharing 4 devices through a USB hub. ??? Well I broke out an old hub I had in storage and within minutes, all four of my devices were connected wirelessly (is that even a word?) to my laptop. I connected to all four devices at the same time and tested them all. Worked wonderfully!!! There is some lag time, but nothing that will annoy me. Especially for the price! I decide not to cancel the one I had just ordered because it's always good to have a back-up for a few years down the road when it goes dead but all of my devices are still charging on. :-D
My devices: HP deskjet 990cse, Canon Pixima iP100, DP Scanjet G4010, Seagate freeagent drive.
My laptop is a three year old Gateway with Windows 7.

I shared a Canon printer / scanner between two Windows 7 computers for about seven months with no problem. A couple weeks ago both computers started to experience a problem. After booting up, it was impossible to maintain focus on any window which basically rendered the computers useless. It did not matter what program was opened, it would immediately lose focus and nothing could be typed in. After much troubleshooting, I found that if I either disabled the TP-Link software (using MSconfig) or unplugged the TL-PS310U, the computers were fine. As soon as both were enabled, the computers would fail again. Needless to say, I have removed the device from my equipment. I filled out an online support request at the TP-Link WEB site. There was no reply. I left an email for them, no reply. I have called multiple times only to get a message that nobody is available to assist. TP-Link has some neat products, but now that I know I cannot count on them for any form of support, I will not purchase anything else from them.

This device works perfectly for my Epson GT-S50 scanner. I'm using windows 7 SP1 64bit. I didn't bother with the installation CD for the TP-LINK TL-PS310U device, I went to their website and downloaded 2 files, the "TL-PS310U_V1_100322" firmware, and "MFP_and_Storage_Server_110221" utility software. I installed this all on a virtual machine, on a server in the other room, which I access by remote desktop. I'm very happy with the set up so far.

As others have said, the USB device you want to use can only be connected to one machine at a time. By default, it will time out an idle connection, but you can set it to automatically connect if you want to. If you choose automatic mode, it integrates seamlessly into windows. I don't notice any reduced speed in the connection.

The only thing I would like to see improved is the network connection. I haven't tested it yet but I assume it would be a bottleneck for a USB hard drive. Typical usb hard drives can transfer at about 20MB/s, and 100mbit/s networks can only transfer at about 12MB/s. It would be nice if this device had a 1000mb/s network interface. However, this device meets my needs perfectly. 5 stars.

I am extremely impressed with this little device. It works perfectly after installing the easy to use driver CD and has quick-start instructions for the lazy user. I bought this unit to give my ScanSnap S1300i the ability to be used as a workgroup scanner and the TP-Link AC TL-PS310U did not disappoint. Once connected, I was able to install the drivers for my scanner, select "connect" and my computer was none the wiser about how it was connecting to this device.

If you are using this unit to connect to just one computer, you can set the options to connect to your usb device every time you start your machine. However, it is important to note that if you are using this for multiple users, you will not want to set that setting as it will block the other users from accessing your USB device. Instead, you will want to manually select "Connect" in the TP-Link software each time you use it and disconnect after using it to free the device up for others (it can also disconnect if your device becomes idle if you choose to).

All in all, a great little device that did exactly the job I was looking for at a decent price. I would definitely buy this unit again if needed.

Am experiencing the same malady that others have commented on with the device repeatedly falling offline which then requires a hard reboot to reconnect. We have all enterprise grade gear which would preclude a network issue on our end. Would not recommend this for anyone serious about reliablity in a product that has to work as advertised but doesn't. And it is pretty obvious how seriously TP-LINK takes the negative comments on their product as the same complaints keep cropping up more than a few years running and still nothing has been done about. Yes I did check to make sure the firmware is up to date and it didn't help.

This simple device is saving me at least $50/mo in cartridge inks because I hooked up my old reliable i860 Cannon to the TP-PS310U printer server...turning the Cannon into a wireless network printer! My Lexmark Pro-705 was eating me alive in ink costs because Lexmark monitors each individual printer ink cartridge RFID tag through the web and shuts down all print functions when Lexmark determins the ink is out (not when ink is out, just when lexmark says by remote)...cannot even print black when any color is out. Wow! Glad to see Lexmark leave the printer space!! Anyway, I can now return to buying third party refills for the i860 which slashed my printing costs to about $10/mo.
Pros: easy setup, small, can also be used as a server for additional storage, inexpensive
Cons: must always connect to the wireless printer each time one boots up the printer, only one computer allowed to connect to the printer at a time...meaning you have to manually disconnect one computer to allow another devise to use it such as an ipad.

Doesn't work with Macs, despite TP-Link's claim. Instructions don't always comport with actual installation. Direct RJ-45 connection between a Mac (MBA) and the TP-link needed for installation process, often fail. Online support unfortunately poor. Recommend you don't waste time on this unless you have a PC Windows environment, where perhaps you might have more luck. No instruction or information on advertised 4-hub connection capability. Fortunately can return with Amazon Prime.

Installation was simple--just install the driver from the CD on each PC you want to connect, connect the USB, ethernet, and power cables to the little box, and you're done. I'm using this to connect a Windows 7 laptop, a Windows XP desktop, and a Windows Vista laptop to my multi-function printer. I can print and scan just like it is connected directly via USB.

The only drawback is that the time-out function does not work for me. When enabled, it is supposed to automatically disconnect after 30 seconds of inactivity. If it worked, this would avoid the need to disconnect from one computer in order for a second computer to be able to connect. However, I think it's my printer driver's fault--it continually uses the connection to monitor the printer.

This is ridiculously easy to use.

It's about 2 inches square, and .7 inch depth so it can fit wherever you need it. It does need a block power outlet, and does not have any mounting holes.

Install from the CD.
The software installs on your computer. It will be set to start on boot. As long as it's running all you have to do is tell something to print like normal. It handles the rest, allowing any multi-function USB printer to be used by any computer connected to the network. It is set up by default to connect to the printer when needed, then disconnect after 30 seconds of inactivity. That is easily changed through 2 mouse clicks (Options > Disconnect Printer When Idle). If one computer does not disconnect, the software handles it.

Tips for use:
1) Leave default options except for troubleshooting: "Run this application when PC starts up; Disconnect printer when idle".
2) If you are in the software window where it shows you the printer's connection status, click minimize to send it back to the tray. If you hit close, it actually exits the program.
3) Put the shortcut on your desktop or someplace you'll find it, in case you mess up and close it. (Otherwise you can restart your computer as last resort to start it.)

I made it hiccup by ejecting it before restarting on one computer, but it just asked for the disc back and finished fine.

I have installed it on 4 computers at my house, all do fine.

I read other reviewers have good results connecting it to a USB hub, but I have not tried that.

My only complaint is when it loads on boot-up a splash screen is visible for a split second before it goes to the tray. I have not found any way to actually make that matter, even on a $350 computer that's five years old. That, and I think they could have got away without a power adapter that blocks a slot.

Some people complain only one computer can use the USB device at a time (like a hard drive). That limitation applies for any USB print server, so that's nothing bad about this product.

Update:
The newest drivers don't work with Windows 8 (although they can be installed under compatibility mode for 7). However, it doesn't connect to the print server. Their tech support said they don't know when it will work with Windows 8.
The new drivers work a little different from the ones on the CD: Hitting the close button moves it to the system tray.

It does what it says it would.
It was easy to install on Win 7, 32-bit and 64-bit as well. It found my printer w/o a glitch once the utility was installed, and I had to do nothing on the router.
The only thing is that often I have to call the utility, at least on the 64-bit, so that it connects to the printer, otherwise the print goes to the queue forever. This happened to me at least once, maybe twice so I've been calling the utility to connect a priori now on that laptop. The other one with 32-bit seems to have no trouble connecting/waking it up as soon as I hit print on it from anywhere.

I do not recommend this product at all because it will drive you crazy!
I connected my printer to this gadget and followed the set-up properly, it recognized my printer and I clicked on "connect".

When I print, my printer starts receiving data then suddenly hangs on that forever and never really prints the page.
Every time I restart my computer I have to re-connect even though I set it into options to automatically connect when starting printing jobs and automatically launching the application at start-up.

Also, I thought I could use this from my Ipad, phone etc but apparently you must have their driver installed on any device for it to work. Returned it immediately!

This is supposed to bridge the gap between old printers and new computers. It misses the boat completely. it is not compatible with the new computers. it may work fine with the printer but if you can't connect it to the new computers what good is it.

I bought this to replace my Hawking print server that stopped working. I installed the driver on my desktop Windows 10 system and it worked fine when printing from Chrome but would not print from Firefox. Then I installed the driver on my Dell laptop (also Windows 10) and got a BSOD (crash) every time the software started up at boot. I am returning this and buying the more expensive Hawking print server.

Follow these steps and you are in business. I didn't use the cd that was provided, I manually configured my port.

1) Get into your control panel, go to printers
2) Add new printer
3) Add a local printer (DO NOT CHOOSE NETWORK PRINTER)Also, do not check the "Automatically detect plug and play" or whatever it says here
4) Select the bottom option, Create New Port, Make it "Standard TCP/IP"
5) Enter the IP address of the printer (you'll have to find this out from your router software) make sure the printer is powered up or the IP won't show.
6) Locate the make and model and driver for your printer
7) Once done, it still won't work (at least mine didn't) until you do this next step: Choose Properties (I think in W7 it's "Printer Properties") and choose the "Ports" tab. Find the port you created (should be something like IP_192.168...) and choose "Configure Port"
8) Choose LPR instead of Raw, must add a Queue name ( I simply put 'laser' )
9) Configure your router to use the same IP address every time, or you'll have to change the IP address manually every time you restart your router.

Needs to be rebooted daily. If not, PC cannot connect to it. You cannot ping it. It's does not respond to a web browser on its IP. It has a static internal IP, so it's not the PC losing track of it. The fact that it just hangs is pretty useless since you have to reboot it before printing.

I have V2, and appear to have the most current firmware. Could be a bad unit but I stuck it out 30 days with tech support so it's mine now, Amazon won't touch it (my bad).

I tried to install this server to share two printers (one color, one B&W) between two computers through a router and a USB hub.

I followed all the instructions that came with the product and connected one of the printers through the router and USB hub. It shows on the network through all the connections but none of the computers can access it to print.

I have uninstalled it and am in the process of returning it as it is not useful to me without the above configuration working...

Note you must have the printer installed direct connected to the pc(s) first. I had to update my printer software to work, I have an HP F4280 All-in-one. Then I did the install from the mini cd. I re-assigned the ip address of this device to be a static IP as 192.168.1.50.
I am able to print and scan from my printer as if it was still connected to the USB port. Great low cost solution to sharing a printer and other devices.

I didn't want to be running wires around my home office.

Able to install product but it doesn't work as advertised. TP-Link notes that all my hardware and operating system are supposed to be compatible. However, the TP-Link software does not properly connect my PCs to the print server in an automated fashion. Works fine if you manually connect and disconnect but that is a pain and fraught with potential problems if someone forgets to disconnect. TP_Link tech support was worthless
Glad it worked for others

We were right up against replacing a perfectly good HP 8600 due to being forced to reboot the internet modem/router nearly every time we wanted to print something. We found no other way to wake it up after the sleep timer finished. A script that pinged the printer every 10 min helped some, but didn't resolve the problem.

This print server has solved the problem wonderfully! I downloaded the newest driver from TP-Link's website and also loaded the newest firmware update. The MFP and Storage Server application starts with the computer and needs to be running to be able to use the printer. I pinned the icon to the task bar in order to make it easy to pop open to hit the button to connect to the printer if my print job didn't start right away.

We haven't had to reboot the modem/router even once since getting all 5 of our computers printing through this MFP & Storage server. This has been a much better solution to the HP 8600 connectivity problem than replacing an otherwise perfectly good printer.

Sorry for the bad rating. But it never worked for me.
I had​ to return it.

The unit set up OK with the utility, but then would shut down after a minute. Also, couldn't find it on the network when it was set up. Called Tech Support, they said it does not work with the Zebra Printer. Said none of their servers do. Did not explain why I couldn't find the server on the network. I wish I had kept the box so I could return it.

I bought this to hook up 2 external hard drives to my network so that everyone had access at home. Does exactly that. It takes a few minutes to see the drives once you tell it to connect. Do not know if that is it or the drives or the network. Does not bother me though. If I know I need to connect I fire it up and then do something else and when I am ready it is there. On occasion it has shown no drives attached, so I just reset it via it's webpage and it works just fine.

My home network has Ethernet connected to a Linksys E3000 router which provides plenty of download speed via my Arris cable modem. Within my Ethernet netowork, communications were certified at 1000 mbps which works when the attached device is capable of that speed. I'd been using my older Cannon MP600 multifunction printer via USB since I got it. A recent upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium seems to have messed up my ability to share this printer with my wife whose computer still runs Windows Vista Business, and I needed a printer occasionally for the Windows XP systems in my basement dungeon where old computers never die. I used to be "up to speed" on networking because I was a corporate outside consultant helping systems folks with Lotus Notes/Domino software from IBM before I retired. This is by way of background on my skill set and environment.

This little unit seemed to be just what I needed on the spare Ethernet port in my home office. I bought the one capable of sharing storage devices because occasionally I like to be able to take things with me on USB storage, or hang my 1TB WD drive somewhere other than attached to my Linksys E3000 for maintenance of the permission structure that gets created when Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP all try to write to it and clutter up NTFS files with locks which get in my way as the administrator of my little network. I had read reviews of the cheaper Ethernet dongles offered on Amazon and decided having an upgradable BIOS on the device seemed like a good idea. It WAS! The TL-PS310U ships with obsolete software and BIOS configurations, so it turns out that the first thing you must do is upgrade both. Do not waste your time installing software from the mini-CD that comes with it. If you don't have a good reliable connection to the internet, you will need one before you can fully use the device.

The first thing to do is find the main TP-Link website via your search engine. Watch out for promoted sites! Their download page for this device holds newer Zipped software for upgrading the BIOS on the device and a newer version of the software. You will need to first upgrade the bios, then install the software. What I did was to hang the device on my network, power it up, execute the zipped upgrade utility over the internet using Windows 7 Home Premium (X64) e latest Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 which runs on my main workstation. The software found the device and flashed the bios for me. This may have occurred because I'd installed the obsolete software for it from the CD, but my system puked on the install because the software came up in Japaneese and that triggered an intervention by my virus protection. Then I ran the install from the web for the support software on all the computers on my network, one at a time. each install was a little different, Win 7, Win Vista, and Win XP, but the same support software on each computer. When that was done I was able to "see" the TP-LInk and the Cannon MP600 installed on it from each of my systems. I was not happy with the 30 second default time out in the software support for the device because I typically do not compete with anyone for access to the print server, so I set it up so that when I start a given system and the printer is powered on, I can find it using the support software and enable a virtual USB port that persists for that printer on the system I'm using. If this gets to be a bother, a New printer with sharing support built in might be a better option, but It saved my old but still quite functional Cannon MP600. The appearance of inexpensive yet reliable "clone" ink cartridges for this printer had a lot to do with my decision not to scrap it instead. One thing which made life easy for me is that the Cannon MP600 had been hung at one time or another on all of my computers, so the drivers needed for the printer itself were already in place and only needed to be re-enabled to use it on the virtual USB port that the support software creates and manages for you.

If you don't fully understand my discussion of this item, you might want to read other commentaries and/or find something else to solve your problem.

I am an experienced network technician. Short version is that the hardware/firmware decides when it wants to work. I was trying to save money with this shady tree device, but now I will just surrender and buy a new network printer. I consider this loss of ~40 dollars a good lesson.