Setting up a print server TP-Link TL-WPS510U

[RonA]

The wife's just started working from home & we now have several computer on our wireless network.
Thought it might be useful to allow all of them to access our printer an Epson R285 via a wireless print server, so I bought a TL-WPS510U which plugs directly into the printers USB connection. I have a desktop Windows XP machine which is connected via Ethernet cable to our Virgin media superhub, all the others Windows 10 laptop & ipads are connected wirelessly.
In theory according to the instructions it should be as easy as using the installation disk to identify the print server, change its Static address & passcode, then your away. However using the disk on desktop & laptop it can't find the server.
The server is clearly visible on the wireless network but when selected doesn't offer a chance to log into it with the supplied username & password.
Anybody had any experience of setting these gadgets up.
Thanks in anticipation
RonA

 

[Fazerruss]

It may have its own web based RUI. Have you tried typing it's ip address into your web browser?

 

[RonA]

It may have its own web based RUI. Have you tried typing it's ip address into your web browser?

Yes already tried that & it says it can't connect with the device. Even tried connecting via cable using the usb connection but the computer isn't showing it as a connected device.
Thanks for the suggestion though.
RonA

 

[Seadog]

It could be a firewall issue - https://www.epson.co.uk/viewcon/corporatesite/products/mainunits/faq/1758/2517

Not sure why it's not recognised as a USB device though. How old is your PC?

 

[rikrobson]

Are you sure the print server is on the network? It should pick up an address automatically from the super hub. You should see it on the network and sould be able to ping the address from one of the pcs. the address should be listed on the super hub or use a network sniffer (fing) there are phone apps for this.
This should have a web page to access it. Basically all its doing is presenting the printer as a network device. the PC you want to access it should be given the ip address and the type of printer.
you could just setup the printer on the XP pc and share that on the network.

 

[wookie]

It could be because it's a TP-Link product, I grabbed one of their ADSL Routers from PC World when my router died after a lighting strike and it was an absolute pig to configure, plus a couple of devices (wife's Ipad & Android phone) just would not connect to it via WiFi no matter what I tried.

Bought another Netgear router off the internet and suddenly everything started working again, the TP-Link is slung in a corner until I can be bothered to flog it on eBay.

 

[carbon]

Have you looked at tplinks faqs on how to connect it. http://uk.tp-link.com/download/TL-WPS510U.html#FAQs

 

[RonA]

Are you sure the print server is on the network? It should pick up an address automatically from the super hub. You should see it on the network and sould be able to ping the address from one of the pcs. the address should be listed on the super hub or use a network sniffer (fing) there are phone apps for this.
This should have a web page to access it. Basically all its doing is presenting the printer as a network device. the PC you want to access it should be given the ip address and the type of printer.
you could just setup the printer on the XP pc and share that on the network.

Thanks for all the comments so far. I can clearly see it on my Laptop & Ipads as a wifi device. When I go into my super hub, I can see it listed on the mobile devices activity & there is an IP address (which differs from that in the instruction leaflet). I have tried to access the print server via that address from a browser, again to no good effect. I have tried pinging the print server from my laptop & it only came back as successful once in 5 attempts.
RonA

 

[awemawson]

Is it on the same sub-net as everything else? 192.168.???.XXX

 

[Seadog]

Have you printed out the test page?

3.3 Self-test Page
To know the current settings of print server, please follow these instructions to print the self-test page of
print server.
1) Turn off the printer’s power.
2) Connect the print server to your printer with the supplied printer cable.
3) Turn the printer’s power on.
4) Plug the AC power adapter into the power connector on the print server.
5) Wait 40 seconds as part of the print server’s Power On Self Test (POST).
6) Press the reset button for 8 seconds, and then release it.
7) Then, the test page includes the current settings of print server will be printed out.

 

[eSCHEn]

I have tried pinging the print server from my laptop & it only came back as successful once in 5 attempts.

This sounds like your issue Ron. On a LAN I'd expect 100% pongs back and very low latency.

Is there a LAN port of the print server box? If there is and that works then that would confirm it.

As has been said already, TP-LINK stuff can be a bit femmer sometimes. I have an AP here by them that I could never get working and that was from brand new.

 

[rikrobson]

you should be getting 100% response to the ping and only a few milliseconds. If you are getting packet loss over the loacal network something is very wrong. I'd be takeing the TP link box back and pluging the printer to one of the PCs and then sharing tht over the lan. then attached the networked printer to the other PCs

 

[MrFluffy]

I fought a ethernet connected tplink print server for a while, it just didn't have enough memory in its internal buffers to cope and on long print jobs with lots of data it would randomly crash or trunnuciate the print job and the print server would loose sync with the printer and have to be power cycled loosing the buffer contents. Maybe the firmware has improved of late but the sun shone the day we replaced the older printer with a oki colour laser with a ethernet port on it and binned the seperate print server.
Does your xp machine stay on when you need to print? As rik has suggested might be less grief to share the printer out to the local subnet if so.

 

[RonA]

Have you printed out the test page?

3.3 Self-test Page
To know the current settings of print server, please follow these instructions to print the self-test page of
print server.
1) Turn off the printer’s power.
2) Connect the print server to your printer with the supplied printer cable.
3) Turn the printer’s power on.
4) Plug the AC power adapter into the power connector on the print server.
5) Wait 40 seconds as part of the print server’s Power On Self Test (POST).
6) Press the reset button for 8 seconds, and then release it.
7) Then, the test page includes the current settings of print server will be printed out.

Hi Seadog,
Followed your note & did manage to print out the current settings. The IP & the subnet mask where as the blurb with the printer said they would be. It quote the Gateway IP & this corresponds with the Virgin media superhub. The print server is only a small box with an antenna & a USB type B type male plug, no Lan port. The instructions say to change the IP address to a static one, therein lies the problem getting to log into the server to change it.
RonA

 

[wookie]

Reading the manual you have to first use the PSAdmin program to set it with a static IP address.

So you run the PSAdmin program with the following details....

Enter the IP address of the print server as the URL.
Factory default IP address: 192.168.0.10
User Name: admin
Password: 0000

Then you configure it with the IP address you want it to have and then you connect via a Web Browser to finish configuring it. Talk about going around the blumming houses.

From reading the manual (which I couldn't find on the TP-Link site but Google gave me a link to) I haven't changed my opinion about TP-Link gear, in fact it's convinced me never to buy anything from them again. Badly designed junk

 

[RonA]

Further update, after checking the TP Link website, apparently for windows 10 you can't directly log in to the print server before changing the servers settings. An alternative setup mentioned on the manafacturers website is via an Ipad. Following the website procedure I can now get as far as the device login. The next step is into the device settings after signing in with a factory default username & password. However after supplying these, it appears to log in but nothing else appears & I am beginning to suspect the unit is faulty as others have previously suggested might be the case. I'll contact TP Link & see what they have to say.
RonA

 

[RonA]

Epilogue :- After extensive emails back & fro with TP-Link customer support finally through in the towel & I am returning the unit back to the suppliers, who have agreed to refund my money. The only thing I did learn was that my device had version 2 software & the latest version is upto v5.
I think Wookie put his finger on the problem, will be looking for a Netgear server instead.
Thanks again for everybody who chipped in.
RonA

 

[wookie]

I think Wookie put his finger on the problem, will be looking for a Netgear server instead.
Thanks again for everybody who chipped in.
RonA

I don't have any experience with Netgear printer servers, I've only ever used their ADSL routers and network switches (both of which I'm very happy with) but if I needed a print server I'd be looking at Netgear kit first because the Netgear kit I have got/used has always been a doddle to setup and very reliable.