Well Now I Know Why It Was a Refurb

[crokett]

Got a wireless print server for my in-laws, 20 bucks as a refurb. There were no instructions in the box other than a sticker on the router that said before plugging anything in to run the setup CD.

Setup has you cable it to your router, then run the setup util to configure wireless. I went through the wireless setup then as per directions powered it off, pulled the cable and powered it back on. I could see it attach to the router wirelessly but it wasn't getting an IP address. Plugged the cable back in, it got an IP addess. Tried resetting it and going through the whole routine again a few times. Even tries specifying an address. For some reason tried getting to it in a web browser. That worked. From the web browser I could see the problem was the wireless encryption was set wrong, despite my specifying everything during repeated setup attempts.

[phi1l]

are you sure that the router isn't filtering wireless connections by MAC address?

[dkerfoot]

Wireless print servers are a tremendous PITA to setup and install. I had bad experiences 2-3 years ago with three different brands, back when they were charging $100+. I finally got to the point where I would tell customers to avoid them at all costs.

[sparkeyjames]

Now I feel bad for having pointed it out to you. If it does not work send it back. Being a refurb I suspect though that they will only give you another of the same brand.

[crokett]

are you sure that the router isn't filtering wireless connections by MAC address?

I know the router is doing exactly that. I set the router up to do that and I added the MAC of the print server to the router before I even powered the thing on. It is working just fine now. The problem was the setup util Linksys provided with it did not set the encryption correctly. Actually it didn't set it at all, despite my repeatedly telling it to do so. I had to access the print server via its web interface to discover that. What slowed me down in the beginning was adding a DCHP reservation to the router for the print server MAC address. Since it got the address when it was cabled, I assumed it did when it went wireless since I could see it connect to the router in wireless mode. After I removed that reservation then I could see it wasn't getting an IP address via wireless.

Sparkey, it is working ok now and it was what we needed at the right price. Thanks for the tip.

[phi1l]

I think sometimes those routers don't notice when a device is disconnected, so if you are connected by wire,& then disconnect the wire to go wireless, it doesn't realize the the wire has been disconnected. So you have to reboot the router... I went around & around with that problem for a couple of days before figuring out what was no going on..