Ricoh wireless and Ad-hoc networks

[mrwho]

Picture the following scenario:

A customer of ours usually has meetings with his own customers. His customers bring along their own laptops and they need to print at those meetings. Our customer doesn't want them to connect their laptops to his network.

Could a Ricoh machine - for example, an MPC2050 or an MPC2800 - with the wireless option be able to create its own Ad-hoc network, so our customer's customers could connect directly to it and print, without the need to create a separate network?

I don't know if I've made myself clear, so if it's confusing, tell me and I'll try to make it even worse.

[Megato]

Yes you can, simply, make sure that both the computer and the machine have the same subnet mask.

[mrwho]

Yes you can, simply, make sure that both the computer and the machine have the same subnet mask.

I have no experience with ad-hoc networks, but wouldn't the network configuration (IP, subnet, etc) be automatically done?

[KenB]

I'm assuming that the machine would also be hard wired to the main network for normal printing and scanning. These MFPs can't support wired and wireless; it's one or the other.

A less expensive (and more reliable) solution would be to get a wireless router with a built in print server. It would be about half the cost of the Ricoh wireless card.

You would connect the router to the MFP using a USB cable, and set the IP structure to be different than the customers, say 192.x.x.x versus 10.x.x.x. The visitors would connect to the wireless IP network it broadcasts.

That way, the visitors can print without issue, and there would be no chance of them seeing the main network.

[OMD-227]

We have a client doing the same thing.

They have 2 Sharp MX color machines, both hard-wired to their network for main staff printing/scanning etc etc, but both have a wireless USB print server plugged into the machines USB port as well, which is then stuck to the back of the machine with some double-sided tape (dont look at me... not my idea). One day I asked why they setup their network like this, and was told that visiting staff can print via wireless network.

Without knowing your Ricoh machines, I would assume that it is possible if the machine has a USB port for the wireless server, as well as the standard NIC that should already be in use.

[mrwho]

Top notch, guys. That was exactly what I was talking about - and I half-assumed the Wireless card would disable the wired card - I just wanted to be sure.

That printserver-idea is not bad at all: cheaper and gets the service done.

Thanks a lot. Reps to both of you!

[mrwho]

I've been talking to a printserver reseller, and he told me the printservers they sell can work in ad-hoc mode. He said that, in that case, only one person at a time can be printing to the machine.

Like I said before, I don't have much experience with wireless networks (besides the basic stuff). So, do I forcibly need a separate access point in order to allow more than one person to be printing to the MFP using a wireless printserver? Or is there a priintserver that can act as an AP instead of working in ad-hoc mode?

Besides, for those of you that already use this solution, what brand/model do you use?

The models I've been pointed to are this one and this one. In the examples given, I get the idea that the ad-hoc mode allows for more than one person - so either the examples are wrong or the guy that spoke to me is wrong.

Help please!

[KenB]

The examples you cited are wireless print servers; this is NOT what you want.

What you want is a wireless router that has a USB print server function on it.

The Netgear model I've used in the past has been discontinued, but here's an example of one: Netgear Wireless Cable/DSL Router 4-Port Switch +USB Print Server - WLAN-FWG114P I'm not sure that model is current, either, but you'll get the idea.

You would set up the router in infrastructure mode, not ad-hoc. You would leave the "modem" port disconnected; that's the port that you would normally connect to a DSL or cable modem - that's because you won't be connecting to the "main" network or Internet.

You would give it an IP address of say, 192.168.1.1, and tell it to start assigning addresses using DHCP at maybe 192.168.1.100.

Connect the MFP to the USB port; it will print from multiple PCs simultaneously all day long. The USB port on the MFP is used for printing only.

The MFP should happily print from the USB port and network port without a hitch.

[OMD-227]

I cant remember the exact model of the wireless print servers that our client uses, but I know they are HP. They are a small grey box with a small aerial. I have been in front of the machine with both networks printing at the same time. As the machine can print from both USB and NIC at the same time anyway (first into the queue will print first obviously), using these wireless servers works fine. I have no idea how they setup this network, as they have their own IT people, but I know it works, and it works well.