WINDOWS 98SE WIN98se and ASUS equipment

[heinz57g]

well, after talking to a dealer today asking him what to observe when installing and using a WL-500g, WL-167G and WL-138G and other ASUS equipment under WIN98se, and getting a sad smile (like: 'what an idiot') and an answer along the lines ''... so difficult, don't even try it '', i decided to take this to this forum. somehow i have the feeling we can prove this guy wrong, no?

any tips, experiences, limitations, workarounds and whatever, lets have it for those who stick, or have to stick to WIN98se. wouldnt this be worth a HOW-TO guide?

greetings - heinz -

[brubber]

I am using WL500-g and WL138-g in network with computers running W98 and W98SE W2K and WXP. I think installation and setup is very easy.

Here's the HOWTO:
Put software / driver / documentation cd in computer
Read install section of printed manual supplied with equipment or from file on cd
Install software and equipment accordingly.
Read relevant parts of the manual and configure to your needs.
If everything works as you want, leave it as it is.
If you want to play around or need specific features this forum is a very good place to start.
Find another dealer :D


You may wish to check on the ASUS download pages if they have drivers / firmware with W98 support for the equipment you want to buy. For the models you list this would be:

http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=WL-500g&Type=Latest
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=WL-138g&Type=Latest
http://www.asus.com/support/download/item.aspx?ModelName=WL-167g&Type=Latest

[heinz57g]

a good start, many tks. i was not so much thinking of my own setup (will only have time to start with the WIN98se computers coming weekend), but more for newbies and newcomers.

that most dealers are anti-WIN98 is obvious and explainable: they would have to think, rather then just plug.

this particular one (unfortunately the only one in the country that sells ASUS) told of many problems of the LAN cards talking to the routers, even on wired connections, and similar. and HE for sure wouldnt now how to find out anything.

thats why i thought we could share experiences here.

greetings - heinz -

[jeallen01]

Hi Folks

I have a 3 PC network with all three running 98SE (mostly with latest MS updates) connected to a WL-500g by 100MB Ethernet (but not using the wireless function), and then to a cable modem. Everything basically works fine and has done for months, except as follows:

I am trying to move one of my parallel-port printers (Samsung ML-1210) from one of the PC's to the parallel port on the WL500g (now running f/w 1.9.2.7 - Official ASUS - after yesterday's debacle with 1.9.4.0 Beta!). I also downloaded the July 04 User Manual - but this does not help.

Problem is that the "Add Printer Wizard" under 98SE does not give the same options as the one under XP - which is illustrated in the manual and in the FAQ on this forum. In particular, under the Add Printer Wizard "Select a Printer Port" there is no option for "Remote Port (Printer Sharing Port)".

Also, when I try to do this another way and to create a new port, or select LPT1, and try to add "\\192.168.1.1" as the network location for this, the error messages come back that this does not exist. [When using the Browse function, nothing for the Router itself shows up].

Finally I tried the simple "Add Printer" from the Control Panel Printer options - that let me add a printer at \\192.168.1.1, but told me that it was off-line. No change after complete system (including router and printer) hard power reboot.

What also puzzles me is that in the WL-500g Admin menus, under "Status & Log", the "Status" page includes 3 status boxes for "Printer" but I cannot find anywhere else in the menus where there are options to add and configure printers - so how does relevant data get entered here?

Am I missing something, or is it not possible to do what I want?

Thanks in advance.

John Allen

[brubber]

To get a remote port you need to set it up first with the ASUS tool that is somewhere on the CD supplied with the WL-500g. You can probably find out how to use it by reading the manual. (If you install the wireless router utilities then you will find under "Start, Program Files, Asus utility, Wireless Router" a link to the Printer setup utility.

Alternatively or if your firmware does not support the "Asus Remote Port" you can download the following tool:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/hpspm98.exe

which will enable TCP/IP printing a W98 PC. For reference see the following
post:

http://wl500g.info/showthread.php?p=7328#post7328

Once you added the proper ports, install the printer locally (connect to LPT1) if it's not already installed), then connect it to your WL-500g, and change (and if necessary configure) the port in the printer properties.


The status and log window only shows the info that your WL-500g gets from the printer. Nothing to configure there. It should normally show at least the printer make and model and tell you that it's online. If it doesn't make sure the printer cable is OK and connected properly.

Good luck

[jeallen01]

Brubber( & folks)

Thanks for the input and the suggestions of the various utilities.

Unfortunately having tried these and a few others found on other forums, as well as a very comprehensive HP utility "HP Printer Install Wizard" "hpjsi_en.exe" which you can find on the HP Support Site - nothing worked and none of them could reliably find a printer connected to the router.

The best I could do was to get the printer to initialise when starting a test page - but it would never print anything (from either of 2 PC's), and the printer would never show up in the WL-500 Device search (as you indicated that it should).

Next I changed the old parallel port cable for a genuine good quality bidirectional cable -> no difference.

Then I replaced the parallel port connection by a USB connection (printer has both - luckily) - and, bingo, it immediately showed up in the Device Search and the Admin Status dialogue boxes, and a test page then printed OK.

So, there must be something about the parallel printer port on this Samsung ML-1210 printer which does not fully communicate properly with the HOST PC. (could be related to it having both USB & parallel ports).

After all that it was nothing at all to do with the OS on the PC's!!!!!!!

Brudder - your comment about the printer showing up in the Device Search was critical to solving this problem - MANY THANKS.

Problem is now that I WAS going to connect the printer to the parallel port and a hard drive in an external box to the USB port - so looks like I will have to use a (powered!) USB Hub to connect to both the USB printer and the USB hard drive. So I hope that will work.

Thanks again.

John Allen

[jeallen01]

I now have the Samsung printer appearing to print (reasonably!) reliably through the USB port on the router from multiple connected PC's.

So then I thought I would try to connect my Deskjet 990C via its parallel port to the parallel port on the router - not a good idea, as it completely took over from the Samsung, intercepted all the print jobs destined for the latter, and appeared as the detected printer in the router Device Search
(so the parallel port on the 990C does work correctly whilst that of the Samsung does not, using the same cable!)

Since the Samsung is my default printer (laser = cheap to run) I had to disconnect the 990C from the router and then even uninstall it from the PC before I could get the Samsung back into use. Even then I had to electrically power down the router several times before it stopped showing the 990C as the detected device - even though it was no longer physically connected and the Samsung was!

Therefore I cannot seem to have two printers connected to the router via the different physical ports as the router appears to give priority to the parallel port printer at all times, and then ignores any on the USB port. Is that true?

Now, does anyone know what would happen if I connected a powered USB hub to the router, and then the two printers in USB mode to the hub? How do the remote PC's determine which printers are available - or will that be handled automatically by the USB protocols and drivers (which I assume that it should, otherwise hubs would not work in other applications)?

Then again, if the above works, will the further addition of an external USB hard drive still work?

Finally, as I said,the firmware, is now the latest official Asus 1.9.2.7 - so would any of the BETA or any of the unofficial but proven versions on this website be more suitable?

Many thanks in advance.

John Allen