Re: USB to ethernet cable

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Gordon wrote:
"J Lunis" <jay.lunis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ZgX4i.6$Qm3.3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Gordon wrote:
"J Lunis" <jay.lunis@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:YeW4i.2818$Xw4.2774@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Win XP SP2
Hope this is the proper ng for this question.
Have a home network consisting of a PC connected by cable to my router, and a laptop that connects wirelessly.
I have four devices I would like to try to connect to my router. All are USB devices. I have read about an adapter cable (USB on one end, ethernet on the other) that may allow me to connect these devices to my router so they can be visible across the network.
Epson printer
Tivo DVR
Western Digital USB external drive
Dell photo printer.
Will the adapter cable do what I want it to do?

You can't just connect any old device to a router/switch and expect it to work. You need a Print Server for each printer, like HP Jetdirect, and some sort of box with an OS for the external HDD. I don't know what a Tivo DVR is, but I suspect you can't connect THAT directly to a router/switch either.
Interesting. I wrote to Epson about using just such a cable and received the following response . . .
"You may be able to place your unit on a network, however the adapter you speak of is not made by Epson and may or may not work."
Maybe I am focusing to much on "may or may not" but Epson did not flatly reject it.
WD also qualifies use of such a cable with 'possibly, try and see.'
I admit, Dell said ~ 18 months ago I had to use a print server.

As a technical neaderthal, I was hoping someone made a network cable specifically for these needs.


Not as such - unless your router has a print server cabability (and some do) or your printer has an inbuilt network card (some do) you will definitely need a print server of some sort. DLink do a "pocket" print server that sits directly on the parallel port on the printer (doesn't work if the printer doesn't have one!). In the tow former cases yes, you just connect your printer to the router/switch via a CAT5 patch cable. Has your router got FIVE ports on it?


Five ports. Don't know. One the front I can see numbers -1,2,3,4.
But on the back I have one port? for the electric cord and five ports that accept ethernet plugs.
Netgear WGR614
.

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