SEH InterCon IC155-WLANPOCKET review

Print server expert SEH was quick to see the potential of wireless networks and offers a comprehensive range of products aimed at freeing printers from the constraints of parallel or network cables. The new IC155-WLANPOCKET takes wire-free printing to the next level: this palm-sized slab of plastic combines a standard Type B parallel port and a NetGear CompactFlash 802.11b wireless card. The only restriction is power, as the device uses an external supply, but it can easily share the same socket as the printer.

Installation is simple, but the route taken will depend on your wireless network. On power-up, the print server starts in Infrastructure mode and connects to the first access point it finds. If it fails to locate one, it will automatically switch to Ad-Hoc mode. A switch is located at the rear and used to manually set any of three operating modes.

We ran tests with a Windows 2000 Professional system fitted with an SMC 54Mb/sec wireless PCI card operating in Ad-Hoc mode and encountered no problems during initial setup. The print server was spotted immediately by SEH's InterCon-NetTool utility, which correctly identified the Oki C5300n printer to which it was attached. Epson's Status Monitor is supposed to be supported, but tests with a Stylus Photo 950 showed this wasn't the case, as no information about consumables was being passed over the wireless link.

The IC155 supports a wide range of scenarios and can function happily in Windows, NetWare, Unix and Macintosh environments. The utility offers good management access and it's here that SEH excels, as the levels of information are impressive. Error-notification emails can be sent to two recipients, while firmware upgrades may be applied over the network or dynamically downloaded from an FTP server. You can easily keep track of usage, as a full job history log is maintained, and print access may be limited to eight IP addresses. As with all SEH products, browser access is supported as standard and the well-designed interface mirrors all the functions provided by NetTool.

Author: Dave Mitchell