Posts: 3 Joined: 07/05/2004 I was wondering, if I have both laser and inkjet USB 2.0 compatible printers that I want to network, which print server protocol should I use? USB 1.1 servers are cheaper and more readily available but is the speed advantage of 2.0 significant for printing? Also, is USB 2.0 speed wasted on the 10mbps speed of a 802.11b wireless server? 802.11g/USB 2.0 servers are rare/expensive enough to make a hardwired server much more attractive. Any thoughts along these lines? I don't recall seeing this topic mentioned elsewhere. Thanks! Ron K.

I guess if you are sending very large files the USB speed may become an issue. However, I have an older 800MHz machine that only has USB 1.1 onboard. I use that networked machine as a file and printer server with a Parallel port wide carraige inkjet, a USB inkjet and a USB color laser. All seem to perform just as fast as if they were connected to the host machine. As far as seeing this topic here, I would guess that it would normally be posted in the Networking forum.

USB 2.0 (480Mbps) is probably overkill on a 802.11g (54Mbps) network. By the time you strip down packet overheads and other network traffic, the 12Mbps of USB 1.1 is probably adequate. If you have a 802.11g access point, using 802.11b doesn't make too much sense. Wired is of course the cheapest and fastest option. Also usually the most difficult to install.