Me and My New Router Part 3, the conclusion.

WRT350N_med Was the storage link the end of the story?  Nope we still had funding and I had an idea. So where are we:

  • New Router Working: Check!
  • New Storage Link Working: Check!
  • All Hester Networking problems solved: Failed!

So what else could I need?  That's right you guessed it a new network ready printer.  Your probably thinking how do I justify a new printer.  Actually this was easier than I thought, first my printer at the house was 6 years old, it printed pictures ok, but it was not network capable.  Basically this was like the drive with my pictures, have to turn the PC on upstairs to print to my USB connected printer.  So not too difficult to get approval for the funding, did I mention my wife is a CPA?

So my printer requirements:

  1. Network ready (wireless or wired no preference either way, seeing as my wife's system will doing most of the work wirelessly)
  2. Photo Qualities (have to be able to have all those wonderful pictures printed out)
  3. Fax (for the occasional expense report)

c01074999Again off to the store, this choice was fairly straight forward, and I checked all the printers and with my requirements, I settled on the  HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-One, after looking at all the printers and having a former HP, this fit the bill.  I am very happy report that after all my other trials with my router and drives, the printer was the easiest by far to setup.   After I put in the 6 separate ink cartridges, plugged my phone line in and power cable, the printer was ready to work.  A few system diagnostics and configurations later, the printer was networked and working great!

It was very easy to get my PC's to connect to the printer, and with drivers on CD and CD in hand, I am happy to report it all just worked great.  Love it when a plan comes together. 

So the last test was the FAX.  Again the nice little wizards helped me configure the basics, and stepped me nicely through the type of phone connections I have at home and then it spits a diagnostic report out:

  • Fax Hardware Test: PASS
  • Fax Connected to Active Telephone Wall Jack: PASS
  • Phone Cord Connected to Correct Port on Fax: PASS (very glad I got the cables right)
  • Using Correct Type of Phone Cord with Fax: FAIL

c00059899
Huh, your kidding right: Using Correct Type of Phone Cord with Fax: Fail.  Are you serious, after the first 3 tests you have a problem with the cable, <sigh>.   I had my standard RJ11 cable plugged in from my old fax machine and you would think it is the same, but alas I was wrong.  What I needed to use was the special HP provided two-conductor phone cable, which was, in my case, happily still in the box.  Swapped out the cables and happy faxing!

Well that is it for my new router, so I wonder what is going to be my next purchase and will I get funding.  ;-)?