| D-Link DP-G321 Wireless-G Print Server USB 2.0/Parallel Port |
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Model: DP-G321
Brand: D-Link
Manufacturer: D-Link Systems, Inc.
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 27
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11g
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| Features: |
Share multiple printers on your network
Features two USB 2.0 ports and one parallel port for hooking up legacy printers
Wireless transfer speeds up to 54 Mbps
Supports multiple networking options - TCP/IP, NetBEUI and AppleTalk/ EtherTalk network printing protocols
Supports Internet Printing Protocol, which lets printer receive print jobs via the Internet or your Intranet |
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| Description: |
| The D-Link DP-G321 Wireless Multi-Port Print Server lets you connect to the latest printers while staying backwards compatible. With this print server, everyone on the network can share access to up to 3 printers. It's the ideal network printing solution for small offices, home offices, schools and other businesses that require sharing multiple printers. |
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| User Reviews (27 total): |
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no WPA2 support, May 26, 2007
By user (Toronto, Ontario Canada)
This print server doesn't support WPA2 encryption making it incompatible with my wireless network. Fortunately, my printer is located near the wireless router so I plugged the printer directly into the router.
I can print fine from OS X and Windows XP.
My firmware version is 2.00. From a quick google search, it seems later versions were made but cannot be found. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&hs=CX4&q=dp-g321+firmware&btnG=Search&meta=
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D-Link Return Problems, May 22, 2007
By user
Think twice before you buy this or any D-Link products. When this unit failed, it took my materials person 2 hours, 6 phone calls and 8 techs to get an RMA authorization. D-Link pay attention, you will be loosing business for poor performance. D-Link hassled my materials person instead of just issuing her an RMA. She had all of the information for the RMA prior to calling and it still took her 2 hours, 6 phone calls and 8 techs to get an RMA authorization!
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Useful - but need some additional work, March 13, 2007
By user (Washington, DC)
Flexible for people with older printers because of the LPT-port. Took some effort to set up. D-Link's installation manual did not solv all the issues and their Customer Support could have done much better. It was hard to get to the right person/department, and their support person was not so skilful in the English language. After lots of trouble and trial and error I finally got it to work with my desktop with Win XP but I could never get it to work with my laptop with Win Vista.
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Great product, installation had small hiccups., November 29, 2006
By user (PA)
I figured that I stood a good chance of a seamless upgrade since my router is also a d-link, but it was not problem-free. I did manage to clear things up pretty quickly and it turned out that in large part the error was mine, ...you have to follow the setup instructions EXACTLY...and it's worked beautifully ever since. I love not having to have one computer on all the time to allow other network computers to print and I've saved a bundle on electricity. Be aware however that d-link tech support is not super-saavy, and I suspect that it would not very be helpful to novice users.
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Limited to some printers, November 10, 2006
By user (Peru, South America)
Doesn't work with any printer. Also has limitations with some printer funtions as color monitoring, calibrations, etc.
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it stinks!!!!, October 1, 2006
By user (Austin, TX USA)
first on the box there is no sign that you need to have a compatable printer. Second the documentation stinks. I've tried for a week to hook up my hp psc1210 to it and no luck. I emailed tech suppport and after giving me info I could of read in the manual their response was "Oh well it your printer must not be compatable with it" Well before I drop my money on this I wish they would of told me what printers are supported.
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Finally a WPA Print Server with Parallel Support, September 7, 2006
By user (Silicon Valley, CA United States)
I've wanted to get my old HP Laserjet III onto my wireless network for quite a while, but there hasn't been an available print server with WPA _and_ a parallel port. Motorola claims to have one, but admits that the WPA doesn't work, and Actiontec has discontinued their WPA capable print server.
I had the DP-G321 up and running within twenty minutes of Fed Ex delivering it. The Quick Installation Guide is excellent, at least if you're running XP.
I wish the unit could be switched so the wired Ethernet port could also serve as wireless to wired Ethernet converter (so printers with an Ethernet port could be connected to it), but the wired port is only for using the print server on a wired, versus a wireless network.
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A bit painful to set up but it works fine, August 31, 2006
By user (New York)
This was a bit painful to set up. It worked fine when hardwired to the router but once I tried a wireless connection it didn't work. After about 3 hours I gave up and emailed tech support. The responded within 24 hours and with thier advice I had it running in about 1/2 hour.
My experience:
DLink suggests that you change the ip address of your wireless lan to match the default range of the router. This caused me to lose my internet connection and I had to change it back.
I then changed the ip address on the print server to match the range of my wireless network. This worked fine but use caution when picking a static ip address for the print server. I accidentially picked the same one as the router and then had to reset the print server to factory settings. You then use this ip address. Whatever ip address you pick you must then use it as the port address when setting up printers.
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Review of DP-G321 Wireless-G Print Server, August 30, 2006
By user
The installation documentation is totally inadequate. Was only able to get a glimmer of the problems by checking online other reviews of the product. After spending over 8 hours trying to get a satisfactory setup I decided to send it back. Printer port names and addressing are the main issues. Don't understand why D-Link would not sort this installation documentation problem out. It appears to have been going on since 2003 or earlier.
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It Works Well So Far, August 18, 2006
By user (Missouri)
You cannot configure it using a wireless computer. The computer must be connected to the primary router with a cat-5. Once I got past that, setup was amazingly simple but offered an array of options that I liked. Once configuration was completed, it has worked well with my wireless laptop and cable-modem/router.
The little "feet" they include are worthless. If they attach somewhere, it's not obvious and they don't bother to address it in the book. The only slots I could find that they would fit into, they promptly fall out of. For now, I have them stashed in a jar on the shelf! :D
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Garbage!- It does not work with most USB printers, June 29, 2006
By user (Rye NY)
I contacted D-Link support and they verified that this product was tested and worked with a very minimum number of popular USB printers (I believe the number was around 30-40).
The D-Link DP-G321 Wireless Print server did not work with any of the 3 USB printers I owned (Lexmark Z320, HP PSC 1250, HP Photosmart 7310). It worked okay with my one parallel HP Laserjet 1100 and I was able to connect it to my network and install the print server, but it was not at all compatible with my printers which was key. It this product was more compatible, I would have rated it 4 stars, because the installation was very easy and almost worry-free, plus it was very sensitive to the wireless radio waves i.e. it sensed my secured wireless network when other print server could not in that same location.
I returned the D-Link and bought instead a Linksys WPS54GU2 print server that worked with all of my printers, but it was not as sensitive as the D-Link DP-G321, so I had to move my printers and print server closer to my wireless access point.
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Low scores given to this product is unfair, June 4, 2006
By user (Fremont, CA)
Most people complained about not getting WPA support and hence gave this product low scores. First, the new version already supports WPA. If you've got an old model, you can also download the firmware to upgrade.
I originally bought the linksys print server with the parallel port. That product sucks big time. Never work and when you contact support, they just tell you your printer is not supported besides asking silly questions like did you chose the printer as your default printer.
The D-Link print server works well. Not sure about durability since I just got it today and spent less than 15 min to set it up. Should have ignored the negative reviews and bought this instead of the linksys one. Would have saved a lot of time.
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Great print server, March 27, 2006
By user (Argentina)
I was just about giving up on my parallel port laser printer because my laptop has only USB ports and I did not want to have a jungle of wires and USB converters! My home wireless is WPA enabled and there arent a lot of affordable print servers that offer WPA with parallel port. Fortunately the DP-G321 print server does offer WPA (with firmware rev 2) was extremenly easy to setup and integrate into my home network without a lot of hardcore network knowledge. Now I have a happy laserjet and the option to expand to 2 more USB printers in future!
I happily recommend this product to anybody who's looking for an affordable WPA multiprinter print server. Just be sure your printer is compatible before you buy the G321!
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Print Server works well, but documentation is spotty, March 25, 2006
By user (Dallas, TX)
I purchased this wireless print server because it was the only one on the market that supported both Parallel Printers and USB Printers. I have an old HP2100 LaserJet which has a parallel printer interface only and an HP Photosmart P1000 with a USB interface only. This this unit was a good -- and as far as I can tell, only -- choice. Both printers work well with this print server. I tried configuring both printers as TCP/IP Printers and that worked just fine. But if you have your printers and this Wireless Printer Server in a Microsoft Windows Network then it is better to configure your Workgroup Name into the print server. That way in Windows you can do an "Add Printer" and simply let your computer scan your local Microsoft network for printers. The wireless printer server shows up as a "Computer" (using whatever name you enter for your Wireless Print Server) with the printers attached. When you create entries for printers attached to your print server be sure you have the drivers for the printer you are attempting to install as a network printer already preloaded. Alternatively, make sure you have the drivers available at a known place so that you can use the "Have Disk" option when prompted to enter the location of the driver files. I am not sure, but I also suspect that when you use Windows Lan Manager (this is what happens when you attach the printer to your Workgroup) the overall flow control of the data between your PC and the network printer is much better. It probably allows for printing of large files since the data will be buffered on your PC as opposed to only using the limited buffer available on the print server if configured as a TCP/IP Printer. I have two gripes about this unit. The LAN port can only be used to talk to the print server for configuration purposes. It is not bridged to the rest of your network so you cannot use this unit as a wireless bridge. I wonder why DLINK decided to limit the functionality of the LAN port like this? Marketing reasons, no doubt. Also the documentation totally sucks. But then that is something that I have come to expect. I am a bit of a techie so I tend not to get intimidated but I took off one star for poor documentation and another star for limiting the functionality of the LAN port. This unit does the job it advertises.
3/26/06 Update -- I installed Norton Anti Virus 2006 on all the PCs in my network and mysteriously this Print Server refused to print any files. I have two computers with Windows XP and one with Windows 2000 -- none of them would print to either of the printers I had attached to this unit. I was able to "fix" this situation by entering the MAC address of all of my PCs into the "USER" configuration menu in the DP-G321 and enabling User Print Control. The Mac address must be correct, the user name can be anything. I used the same name I gave to the computer in my network. Don't even bother trying to call either DLINK or Symantec on this problem as they were both clueless. I discovered this fix/workaround/whatever entirely by following a hunch and a good dose of luck!
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not easy to setup, but works fine, January 18, 2006
By user (Los Altos, CA USA)
The user guide is as poor as it can get. It assumes the user is very technical. However, after alot of wasted paper, I was able to get the print server to print correctly. But that was mostly my fault, as I didn't get the right printer driver installed.
No WPA support, but if you check the UK website, it has firmware upgrade to support WPA. Is the US support site outdated? I'll have to try this out.
(...)
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If you have WPA, don't buy this, November 18, 2005
By user
This product does not support WPA security and, according to D-Link, neither you or I should hold our breath that it will. Below is the vendor response when asked about future (and industry standard) WPA support on the DP-G321
(17 Nov 2005)
"Technical Support does not have the information if and when there will be a firmware that supports WPA. Right now it only supports WEP encryption. Please do not hold on to the device in anticipation of the same.
Sorry for your inconvenience and thank you for understanding."
While I have been impressed with D-Link with some of their other products, this fails to impress and actually causes concern for the security conscious (the paranoid would freak).
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Stay far away from D-Link, November 8, 2005
By user (Chicago)
I was a large network administrator back in the bad old days of Windows NT 3.51 and Netware 4. So, I am aware of complicated setups and problems to get a network to work properly.
At this point in time, however, this should be a plug and play item. You plug in your printer and the server recognizes your network (in my case, it's a working D-Link wireless network!!!). That's it.
I have YET to get it to work and my printer is a DELL 3000 on a D-Link wireless network!! WTF? This is pretty standard stuff.
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Excellent product after you upgrade the firmware., November 3, 2005
By user (KS USA)
Once you get the product connected, imediately go to the following link and download and install the firmware upgrade: http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=gNTyP9Cip9RLIC4AStFCF834mptYKu5YTtvhLPG3yV3oUYl2h64vO5wjM6ds7jUu . Once this is done, the product will work very well. Before I upgraded the firmware, it would not connect wirelessly to my network and the techs at D-Link told me the DP-G321 was defective. Figures the people that manufacture it don't know the first thing about it.
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Works great, October 11, 2005
By user
I have this print server attached to an HP 2100M laser printer. The printer can now be accessed wirelessly from a Win2K, a WinXP, and a Mac OS X 10.4 machine. The Windows machines use D-Link 802.11b cards and the Mac uses Airport Extreme. Configuration took an hour or so. A couple of caveats: You need to do the initial configuration using ethernet and the DP-G321 only supports PostScript compatible printers for the Mac. I have had no problem printing from 40 feet away, through an intervening wall.
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Good, definately upgrade firmware to version 2.00 and install latest printer driver though!, September 26, 2005
By user (Cambridge, UK)
Good product, definately upgrade firmware to version 2.00 and install latest printer driver though!
After upgrading the firmware to version 2.00, and downloading the latest driver for the Brother HL-2040 Laser printer, I got this printer to work with the D-Link DP-G321. I was able to print through both Windows XP and Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger)!
I just wanted to let you know because this printer is not on the printer compatibility list for the DP-G321, and it should now be added to this list.
One note though regarding an innaccuracy on D-Link's product documentation for this product, the print screens for the Mac OS X IP printing are incorrect...I have Mac OS 10.4 and these are not the screens you see when configuring this product...
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