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I have HP DeskJet 2568 connected to my desktop. The printer does not have a USB or ethernet port. The desktop is connected to a Linksys WRT54G2 wireless router. I wish to share this printer via this wireless router. Is there a solution to my problem?

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If you can flash this particular router with the OpenWRT firmware, you could potentially use that in conjunction with a USB to Parallel Port cable, more info here: http://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/printer.overview

Note that flashing your firmware will probably invalidate your warranty, and it's not a trivial task to undertake. If you're feeling experimental it may well work out for you. :)

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My Router does not have a USB port. – Bruce Jul 6 '11 at 14:40
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You could use a wireless print server, as you can see they come in a wide variety of cost/features so pick one that's right for you. It will handle all of the networking and emulate passing instructions to your printer via parallel. I have not personally tested that printer but I have a few of them running with some old OKI Microline 320 dot matrix printers (same issue as yours, no RJ-45 or USB support). The only advice I can give you as far as picking one out is that I had terrible luck with the TrendNet adapters they were terrible and dropped connection constantly.

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There are parallel port network print servers that may work, freeing you from having to have your desktop on to share the device.

However, in converting a non-network printer to work on a network, you have to make sure there are drivers that will allow network printing. In my experience this can be the hardest part of the whole process, especially with older printers.

For instance, there are some HP printers where the driver deliberately excludes network function and that have no other compatible drivers, so even if they are connected to a print server that recognizes them and has configured them properly, the computer has no way of configuring itself to print to that printer.

You may be in luck with this particular device though. A brief websearch for "deskjet 2568 network printing" returned several possible hits.

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This is odd advice... I have never had a problem setting up a printer as a local printer and just assigning it a TCP/IP port the OS handles the ports not the driver. – Kyle Jul 6 '11 at 14:46
I worked in a Geek Squad like consumer IT support and service company for several years and was their primary in-home installer. There were at least 3 instances where people requested their printers be set up on the network using various print servers (from the Buffalo Terrastation to dedicated Linksys and Netgear and DLink devices) where I was unable to due to driver limitations. I'm happy to say most printers nowadays do not have this issue as the prevalence of networks has made it advisable for printer makers to not disable network function in their drivers. – music2myear Jul 6 '11 at 14:57
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