HP Officejet 5510 on a network?

I have in home 4 PCs connected to SMC router in peer-to peer home
network. This router have a special paralell port for printer (I am
using Cannon i860). Now I want to replace the printer with HP 5510 (I
need a fax). HP 5510 is USB printer and I was told that 5510 is not a
network compatible printer and cannot connect
to a network.

I have 2 questions:

1. If I have a router - does a printer have to be "network compatible"?

I thought the router plays the role of a PC and a printer does not know
if it is connected to a PC or to a router.

2. On my router I have a paralell port and USB ports - do I need
paralell to USB converter?


Thanks,


Zalek

"zalek" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> I have in home 4 PCs connected to SMC router in peer-to peer home
> network. This router have a special paralell port for printer (I am
> using Cannon i860). Now I want to replace the printer with HP 5510 (I
> need a fax). HP 5510 is USB printer and I was told that 5510 is not a
> network compatible printer and cannot connect
> to a network.

> I have 2 questions:
>
> 1. If I have a router - does a printer have to be "network compatible"?
>
> I thought the router plays the role of a PC and a printer does not know
> if it is connected to a PC or to a router.

It's not that simple.. The problem is that there is no standard way to
integrate three devices (printer, scanner, fax etc) into one device. The
firmware in the printer, the software in the PC and the protocol between
them is therefore specific to each manufacturer. A Printer Server would need
to be able to insert itself into this two way stream. Unless this protocol
is written with this in mind its impossible.

Most of the problems associated with networking or sharing printers seems to
be the "back channel" - eg anything to do with data going from the printer
to the PC. Most third party Printer Servers (including those built into
Routers) do a poor job of getting the back channel to work. With many
Printer Servers you are lucky if the ink status works let alone the scanner.

Network compatible printers are designed with the above problem in mind. The
Printer/fax/scanner server is built into the printer.

> 2. On my router I have a paralell port and USB ports - do I need
> paralell to USB converter?

I might be wrong but I think the USB port on your router is for connecting
to a cable modem. What model SMC router? Do the instructions say it supports
a USB printer?

zalek wrote:
> I have in home 4 PCs connected to SMC router in peer-to peer home
> network. This router have a special paralell port for printer (I am
> using Cannon i860). Now I want to replace the printer with HP 5510 (I
> need a fax). HP 5510 is USB printer and I was told that 5510 is not a
> network compatible printer and cannot connect
> to a network.
>
> I have 2 questions:
>
> 1. If I have a router - does a printer have to be "network compatible"?

You're going to find even though the printer can be shared over the LAN,
you won't find the other functions like scanning and faxing works unless
it's connected to one of the existing computers. They call it "File and
Print Sharing" for a reason, that is you can only share a filesystem or
a printer between Windows machines. Faxing, scanning, etc. are not
shareable.

> I thought the router plays the role of a PC and a printer does not know
> if it is connected to a PC or to a router.

Sure, but again, you'll be left with only the printing services shared.
You're going to have to connect this thing to one of your PCs, and leave
that PC on continuously for people to be able to share the printer. And
on the PC that's it's locally connected to, you will also be able to use
its fax and scanning features, but nowhere else.

>
> 2. On my router I have a paralell port and USB ports - do I need
> paralell to USB converter?

Somebody mentioned that the USB might be for a USB broadband modem (i.e.
rather than an ethernet broadband modem), that seems plausible to me.
But your owners manual will know for sure if that USB is also usable by
printers.

Yousuf Khan