USB Server Keyspan US-4A

[kelly]

Been fighting with another print server. This time it's a Keyspan USB Server US-4A. It's pretty neat in that you can share up to 4 USB devices on your network.

The thing plugs into the router. The way it works is that you connect to a device which is connected to the USB Server via the provided software. When you're done using it, you disconnect so that someone else can print to it. Then there's an Auto-Connect feature that should do this automatically.

Problem, I can print from the 2 computers if I manually connect/disconnect, but can't get the Auto-Connect feature to work. The little check box that says to enable the feature works, but I don't see that it's doing what it's supposed to.

Anyone ever work with one of these buggers? The only print server I found that worked, and was easy to configure was a CompUSA branded, bottom of the line unit. Got it working quickly and it was in a mixed Win/Mac environment.

[Dan18960]

I never find USB "network" print servers consistent in their connectivity. I prefer to have a cat5/6 cable connection, ip static assigned address, and let the network spooling manage the print jobs.

The Linksys print servers do this real nicely and cost is reasonable.

[kelly]

What's nice about this Keyspan USB Server is that you can plug several deviced into it so they can be seen by all computers. Also - if you have an All-In-One printer, it's supposed to support all the functions; I believe a Print Server will only support the print function.

Today I connected a USB flash drive to the 4A and was able to see it on my computer.

The problem is that I always that to hard reset it with a paper clip when I power it up. Keyspan doesn't have a toll-free phone number. So I filled out the request for support form on their web site. It would be nice if Keyspan responded, but it's been weeks and two requests with no response. So my response is stay away from Keyspan if you expect any kind of tech support.