Ask Engadget: Best wireless router with USB printing capabilities?
By Darren Murph 
posted March 12th 2009 10:22PM
posted March 12th 2009 10:22PM
If your low-rate router fails on you, you might as well select a replacement with more utility than the one you're burying, right? Axel sure thinks so: "My bargain-basement CompUSA-branded wireless router is finally starting to fail on me, prompting me to buy a new one. I want to get my huge color laser printer (a Konica Magicolor 2400w) off my desk and tucked away next to the router, so I want it to have wireless USB print hub functionality. Gigiabit Ethernet and Draft-N are also necessary here, as I am eventually going to be adding media clients around the house to stream to every TV. Thanks a lot!"
So, there you have it -- which wireless router will provide solid, relaiable USB printing while handling the heavy loads of high-def streaming? Think carefully, you wouldn't want to ruin this guy's life. Oh, and if you have a question of your own you'd like to see here, send it over to ask at engadget dawt com.
Airport Extreme.
I agree, I'm a windows/linux guy, but I have an Airport Extreme with 3 printers and a hard drive running off of it and about 9 computers connected constantly and it works mostly without a hitch. Sometimes craps out when I try to transfer a greater than a TB of info from one machine to another, but in general it's very solid.
I third the APE. And now that its dual band its even better. USB printer and USB hardrives as well. It really is the best router out there. And mines been working without a hitch for two years now.
Definitely agree especially with the new version supporting both the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz simultanisly and the ability for a "guest" account for when someone else comes to visit etc I highly recommend this product, or if you want to save a couple of dollars the the 1st AirPort Extreme is well worth the money too
or Airport Express, both FTW!
Do they supposed USB hubs?
I have a Airport Extreme but it doesn't play nicely with the Kodak AiO printers but I decided to change the printer rather than the Airport. :)
I don't like that it doesn't have a web interface for setup/administration, but I would definitely suggest the Airport.
Absolutely. Airport Extreme.
I have to agree that my Airport Extreme is the most reliable router I have ever owned. I don't mind paying for that, but now with the dualband it is nearly 3 times the price of other N routers? No upgrade for me. To get round the problem of wanting N but have a G ADSL router for internet I had to wire an Airport Express to the ADSL router and have that share the net with my Extreme.
Now, more importantly, if the Extreme is the higher end product, why does it not support Airtunes? Optical would be nice too!
Airport Extreme is my vote too but I do have problems with it dropping a VPN connection about every hour. I don't have this issue on the flying saucer Linksys I have as a backup. I dont remember if that thing has a USB port though.
I've got an airport extreme with a printer connected. It works flawlessly. I only wish it had two USB ports. One for a printer and one for my external hard drive. Time capsule or APE plus an airport express would probably be a better option for me.
I also highly recommend the Apple Airport Extreme. It's been rock solid with a networked printer and USB networked drive attached (for backups).
Agreed. The AE is a great little unit - music, print, drive sharing, dhcp with most standard router features. It's a win for me.
AEBS Win - Now with more Simultaneous Dual-Band Action!
But seriously it's the most solid router I've ever used. It's easy to setup, has all the features and hasn't flaked once on me since I bought it. If you need an integrated Router/NAS solution the Time Capsule is nice, but imho you can get better performance out of a standalone NAS box over Gig E with the regular AEBS.
Time Capsule.
second
third
the new airport extreme isn't that bad at all. has worked non-stop in my case for a very long time, better than all linksys routers that i ever had the misfortune to deal with..
I'm not sure about your exact printer, but many Konica Minoltas do not work with 3rd party print server (only their own). I have a PagePro 1350W which didn't work with either a D-Link or Netgear print server, and I read online somewhere that KM printers only work with their print servers. I would check on that.
I have the PagePro 1400W i like the printer, but it isn't even plug and play. I think its a good printer, but trying to install it is a !@#$%. If you don't get it right the first time it will never work properly unless you format.
Agreed. Not to be a ridiculous fanboy, but the AirPort Extreme is a solid piece of hardware, and it seems to fit all your needs.
I disagree... what do you do when you want to buy something? You usually read reviews on it, you don't read what one person had to say but what multiple people had to say. If you don't, then you should! One persons opinion (in this case Engadgets) would not be a valid source, it would just be a biased opinion... sure they know their gadgets, but so do the readers, what makes engadgets opinion more valuable than ours? They write articles, doesn't mean they know more than their readers
Although it would be very nice if these were polls so that we could have a verdict, its annoying to have to read through all the answers
damnit.. that was meant to be a reply for Kevin
wait so engadget doesn't answer these? I've never read an "Ask Engadget" until I actually wanted to know the answer. Engadget wants the readers to answer without providing any evidence to back it up beside that a "black" router matches their room better? Guess it more like, "Ask the engadget readers"... ehh another reason on why I feel Engadget is slowly loosing my attention, and support.
...go away.
I want back the 30 seconds I spent reading your ridiculous post...
no this guy makes an extremely valid point! wtf is the point of emailing engadget for help when the comment section is filled with a bunch of people trying to outwit each other??
pete's right. But I still want 35 seconds of my life back (add in the replies). And I fifth or whatever the APE.
I disagree... what do you do when you want to buy something? You usually read reviews on it, you don't read what one person had to say but what multiple people had to say. If you don't, then you should! One persons opinion (in this case Engadgets) would not be a valid source, it would just be a biased opinion... sure they know their gadgets, but so do the readers, what makes engadgets opinion more valuable than ours? They write articles, doesn't mean they know more than their readers
Although it would be very nice if these were polls so that we could have a verdict, its annoying to have to read through all the answers
"Engadget is slowly loosing my attention"
Must be VERY fucking slow since this column has been running since 2004.
http://www.engadget.com/2004/08/05/ask-engadget-whats-the-best-laptop-for-travel/
No doubt about it, the router to go for is the new Apple Airport Extreme. (http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/) It is Draft.N, has 4x Gigabit Ethernet, a USB-port for external hard drives and printers, and allows you to set up a public network for guests while keeping your own network secure.
What if you don't want an apple product though?
Not to sound nitpicky(sp>) but the airport extreme only has 3 lan ports on the switch. I have no idea why, but only 3. Other then that yes, this is probably the best router I have ever used. I use one at work to support about 25 wireless clients at a time and it runs without a hitch. The high end dlink and linksys router would get rebooted a couple of times a day.
Yes, the Airport Extreme has 3 Gigabit-ports to connect to computers over Ethernet, the 4th port is for connecting to your DSL/cable modem.
As for the choice of brand: why would you want to ignore the best product out there, just because it says Apple on the box? Apple popularized WiFi, and is consistently one of the first to adopt new WiFi standards. The Airport base stations are among of the best selling WiFi routers in the U.S. today.
D-Link DIR-655 does all of this too.
Holy bull shit post Sam Sheyn! Your second paragraph is now the poster child for blind apple fanboy BS. WOW!
Holy bull shit post FNG! Your icon is now the poster child for blind apple hater BS. WOW!
On topic: Airport stuff has always been reliable for me, with far less unexpected crapping out and general random weirdness than all the Netgear, Belkin and ISP-branded wireless routers (SO MUCH appalling rebadged SpeedTouch kit) I've had to struggle with. Generally, you can set it up and it won't just stop working for no reason. Still, it is rather pricey.
@Wwat
If you don't want an apple product, there's something even better: D-Link DIR-655. It has 4 ports (not 3), has a USB port for attaching flash cards or external hard drives, has 3 external antennas (not internal), looks really nice, basically has everything that apple's product does, and more: it's not overpriced! :)
"D-Link DIR-655 does all of this too."
Yeah, but the "d" in D-Link stands for Doesn't. As in Doesn't Link.
D-Link gear is rubbish.
dir-655 is does everything the airport does but it is cheaper!
yep. I have this one too. If apple made this instead of D-Link, Engadget would have been slurping this thing for over a year...
it is such a solid router... this one might just make it till N is replaced by something faster.
Absolutely thirded ! DIR-665 is where it's at.
655 it is!
i own/recommend the DIR-655, the only problem is that d-link's usb shareport software IS NOT compatible with mac or linux as far as i know.
The DIR-655 is an excellent router.
I was testing its capabilities today, actually. With my iPhone (Surprised I didn't get the Airport Extreme?), three laptops (2 with N), and a desktop, the latency on each machine was around 40 ms. Each computer was gaming at the time.
The two routers I had in mind were the DIR-655 and the Airport Extreme. When it came down to it, price was the determining factor. Also, concerning the mac and linux software capability: Is it that hard to type in the routers IP in your browser to configure it? The configuration is fairly complicated, but easy to manage with the wizard.
mine has been rolling along for a while now... me likey (and I do need all 4 of those giga-ports... 3 would mean purchasing another switch).
I bought a dl-655 to replace a netgear wnr854t which was shocking - constant drop outs, no QoS.
However, I do recommend the buyer consider a machine with both 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz bands (older machines are mostly just dl-655).
Increasingly gear is coming in 5Ghz flavours as well and offers less interference. Dual bands can increase capacity.
To go cheap, I'd go with the DIR-655.For performance and customization, I'd build it myself.
@Chris
"Also, concerning the mac and linux software capability: Is it that hard to type in the routers IP in your browser to configure it?"
Yes, you can configure the DIR-655 from using the web-interface with any OS. But to use the USB port for printing or storage requires you to run special software that isn't available for mac or linux. Also, only one computer can access the device on the USB port at any given time.
That being said, I have it and love it. It had the best performance (when first released) according to the router charts at Toms Hardware (which were up to date at that time). And I've not had a single problem with it. I've had it since it was first released and I've only ever rebooted for firmware updates.