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Works when it works. so many times I have had to reboot the device. Or my computer. Or both.
This product cost twice as much, but is so much better. Both PCs are XP SP3.
I hooked the printer and harddrives to a D-Link DUBH4 4-port hub, then hooked the hub to the Silex and lastly hooked the Silex to my Buffalo Wireless G MIMO Ethernet Converter. This product was the answer to wirelessly share my Canon Pixma MP510, with full functionality, and a pair of external harddrives.
Here I needed to add the broadcast address to the SX-Virtual Link Software to discover all the devices. After installing the SX-Virtual Link software to PC1 which is hardwired to the Converter, all the devices were listed.
Then I installed the software to PC2 which is hardwired to the Buffalo Wireless G MIMO Wireless Router. I had tried a different device, but only had limited print functionality.
I would recommend it to others looking to network an older printer/scanner.
Be sure to download the new drivers and app from silexamerica website. Allows you to have full functionality of all your USB devices over ethernet. Drop them a line at silexamerica.com and ask them if you have a doubt. If you have a USB devicethat uses more than 100mbit of bandwidth then it may work slower or not at all given this device is only 10/100 on the NIC side. If they go gigabit then it would be a 5 star device. Everything acts just like it's connected via USB directly to the machine. Full functionality of the Canon multifunction device over ethernet is realized, print, scan, and fax.
I have seen some reviews out there that some HP devices don't work right with it because HP is using some different type or form of specialized USB communication. Silex has a website that has a list of compatible devices. This little device is remarkable. I would like to see this product in gigabit. USB 2.0 is capable of 480mbit/s. I have taken 1 star off for that. When one comp takes control of the device it will have to release it for another comp to take control of it. But 2 comps cannot both use the printer at the same time.
I have a Canon MP830, a USB 1TB Hard Drive, an external BD DVD player/writer and thumb drives attached to it through a powered USB hub and all features work on all my comps, combination of XP and Vista64. Note the limitation inherent to USB, only one comp can use a USB device at a time. Buy a good quality USB hub to attach all your devices to it like the Targus ACH81AU Desktop USB 2.0 7-Port Hub then attach that to the silex. Note, it is a 100mbit ethernet device not gigabit. In other words one comp can use my hard drive and the other can use the printer at the same time. Great little product, works as advertised, can share all my USB devices with all my networked computers.
But it started giving us errors that didn't really exist. This device was a real disappointment. But it would not connect automatically when someone sent a print job (as advertised), it had to be connected "manually" through the graphical user interface. Then they produced a "better" version of the user interface which I loaded and it did work by automatically connected the computer with a print job to the printer. It took several evenings of frustration, including our first and only computer restoration from backup. I contacted the manufacturer who sent me a zip file with a new user interface.
And sometimes it would tell us we had a loose ink module. When we first installed it with the enclosed CD it did allow the different computers on our home network (some Windows XP, one Windows Vista) to use our Canon All-in-One Printer / Scanner. For example, it would tell us we had two cyan ink modules installed and not let us print - but, of course, we had all the different colors in their proper places. The XP computer I first tried to install that on immediately started having stability problems just starting up and shutting down - which it had never had in the three years we've owned it. They got worse and I had to restore the computer from a recent backup (hooray for Norton Ghost 10.0). We uninstalled the creepy software and returned the troublesome device to Amazon.com who kindly refunded us the cost.
Beware.
As a result, only one PC can be officially "connected" to the Silex box at a time; and that "connection" is managed by Silex's client software.Print speed was fast, including the job start-up time. Hoping for a "that was easy" experience, I contemplated purchasing a new printer with built-in networking. My printer is an older AIO - Canon MP780. That was great, but only 3/4 of the battle.
Whichever solution I chose, it needed to be an easy-to-use, transparent operation for my wife and teenagers. I have too many computers in my home, all networked together. But I was a little disappointed - I imagined all the end-user training I would have to give the aforementioned wife and kids ("If you want to print something, first you have to click here and here, then make sure is says -----, then you might be able to.") Hmmmm, not good. Now the client starts up on boot, minimized to the system tray, and everyone can print from any computer on the network as easily as having a printer at each PC.The hardware and software works - no excuses. However, the current crop of network-ready, $250-or-less multifunctions didn't seem to be better than what I already had - plus my Canon was chugging along just fine for our light-duty needs.
As it turns out, there is an option you can enable where the software will sense a request to print, automatically establish the connection, then disconnect when the job is done. It is compatible with multiple platforms and operating systems. I got tired of trying to share the printer via a desktop PC, and started looking for a way to attach the printer to my network directly. By default, the client program itself does not start automatically when the PC is booted (which I personally appreciate - I hate software that "takes over"), but I found two tick-boxes in the options tab: "Add to start menu" and "Start minimized". When I came across the SX-2000U2, I rolled the dice and ordered it up - but I was leery of the price: it represented roughly half the cost of a whole new "networked" printer/scanner.It turns out, I'm very happy.These are the computers I'm using it with so far:-Desktop: Vista Ultimate 64 bit-Desktop: Windows 7 RC 64 bit-Laptop: XP Pro (32 bit)-Laptop: OS X 10.5Setup was easy - I plugged everything in, then used the quick-start guide and the included cd-rom to install the client program on each PC.
(I did need to go to Silex's website and download an updated version for OS X 10.5 "Leopard") The software seemed small, unobtrusive, and flexible: the box received an IP address via DHCP, and I ticked the suggested options in the software.After a quick "road test", this is how it worked for me:Using my Canon-supplied print drivers (installed separately), the SX-2000U2 establishes a connection between PC and USB device via ethernet, such that the PC acts as if the USB device is plugged directly into the PC. Viola. The price is a little high, but I'm a bit of a "gadget nut", and I'm really tickled that I didn't have to buy yet another junky printer just to add convenience to my home computing environment.Highly recommended.
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