Sure, turning your OS X or Linux-based machine
into a FON Spot is snazzy in and of itself, but what about that dusty grey
printer that stays shoved beside your desk? In an admittedly impressive feat of determination, a certain modder took a screwdriver, cutting utensil, and a few dollars worth of
FON routers to the inside of a printer's case, and the result is a lesson in utility to say the least. By shoving one of those inexpensive FON routers inside the case, and relying on DD-WRT to open up the appropriate channels, he was able to convert a HP LaserJet 5 into a wireless printer and
WiFi hotspot, all without making a scene. Still, the idea of turning your tethered printer into one that accepts incoming jobs wirelessly is no easy task, and judging by the laundry list of duties required to pull this all together, we wouldn't recommend giving this a go without hordes of spare time on your hands. That being said, those still interested should be delighted that a step-by-step guide (with pictures, no less) has been made available for the brave and talented, so be sure to hit the read link and start
digesting.
posted April 27th 2007 8:14AM
So wait, let me get this straight... He took a wireless router router, running DD-WRT, turned it into a bridge, and thats worthy of an entire article? He didn't even hardwire it to the ethernet port in the JetDirect card... he runs a ethernet cable out the back of the card and back inside the printer!
Wow.. just... wow.
Besides the 3 holes for the lights, the printer still looks and functions like a stock laserjet. I could have mounted the fonera directly inside the printer and hardwired everything, but i wanted to have the options to remove the router at any time. I will probably never take it out but i still wanted the option.
Well, no, it was a hardware hack. He did hard wire the Fonera into the LaserJet to get power.
Either way, that's not hard to do. I mounted a 802.11g bridge inside my Tivo Series 2, and at least I soldered the eithernet cable to the bottom of the port so there are no wires running aruond back. Is that worthly of an Engadget article? Apparently...
And the printer is not acting like a FON access point (which is what the write-up on Engadget said). Yes, you took a wireless bridge and hooked it up doing what its supposed to do. Yes, you mounted it inside the printer. Its not like you added a USB port to the FON router, or even anything that would require the least bit of skill. I'm sorry...
Somebody's ^^^^ bitter their tivo "mod" didn't get a write-up on engadget. Computerguru, regardless of the complexity or usefulness of your modification, it still shows ingenuity and talent. So I applaud you and will happily follow the read link to find out the deets.
Sure, it might not be as cheap...but Apple's AirPort Express unit has offered this functionality via USB for quite awhile. Too bad it got overlooked.
Hey guys, if anyone has cool ideas on what to do with Fon routers other than what we do at Fon pls write to me at martin@fon.es.
what??? and they wrote an article about it? My set up is way better than this. I have my Netgear FWG114p router hooked up to the dsl modem(wired). Then I got my Brother HL-1435 printer hooked up to the router. I got my dell pc connected to the router(wired) I got my other pc connected to the router(wireless) and I got my laptop connected to the router(wireless). So i spent 80 bucks on the router and I got a wireless network and wireless printing. So now I can browse internet/network w/802.11g and print from any pc or the laptop. The best part is did not need any additional software, everything was in the windows except the drivers.
WiFi print server devices have been in the stores for a few years now. Why is this hack notable other than letting someone inclined to do the work save a bit of money? Not even that if they value their time at anything significantly better than minimum wage.
You also have to factor in that the price of WiFi print servers is relatively high compared to WiFi routers due to the much smaller market for the items since it isn't especially more useful to have a printer be wireless rather than wired to the router or bridge. The cheapest means to make an Ethernet-ready printer wireless is to use a wireless router with a bridge mode. This is solely because the routers have vastly higher production values compared to bridges or print servers. So a decent router from any company will do the job cheap.
*yawn*
I keep my old laserjet 4+ in the hallway, which is also an ideal place for my router... so I just plug it in there.
I've had basically the same setup as the article for years now, just a couple hundred dollars cheaper and a lot less effort..
This is just another one of those "fuck man, I totally hacked my macaroni and cheese with this ketchup" posts.
You guys are SO STUPID. The point is that he used FONERA ROUTERS. Do some googling before you flaunt your $50, regular router setups. Again, SO STUPID.
"Is that all he did - I could have done that!" - how many times have you heard this said about the most simple creations that make entrepreneurs rich? But you didn't, and someone beat you to it!
Anyway, what I'd like to know is do you need two wireless pci cards in your pc? o0ne to communicate with the printer and one to access your Internet router kit? If not, how do you set up one WiFi card to do both? From: a novice.
i don't get it