Dell AIO 960 Network Printer & Desktop WiFi

I was out late last night working again at the same site I was yesterday doing the WiFi home network setup.

I went back to do some additional work on setting up the new Dell All in one Fax/Copy/Printer AIO 960 model…

Project: Setup the AIO 960 Dell printer and add to the wireless network.

Printer Setup: I unpackaged everything (make sure you get all the tape off) and set it at the desk location next to the workstation. I always take everything out of the box and throw all the garbage back in, making sure to separate all the materials first.

After getting the printer setup, and plugged in, it immediately goes into a default ink setup to allow for the ink cartridge holder to be accessed.

Issues: Interestingly, the cartridge holder was not exposed, and I received a message on the LCD screen saying “Carrier Jam.” I tried all sorts of tricks to get it to dislodge, but it was not clear whether this was a physical malfunction or a technical one.

After getting online with Dell’s Online Chat support, I learned something new. The Dell Rep said that often times the ink holder / cartridge holder flips open and becomes ajar during shipment. The problem was the cartridge holder was not fully exposed.

Solution: I looked inside and noticed that it was indeed jamming due to the cartridge holder being ajar. I took a small screwdriver and stuck it in perpendicular to the cartridge holder, forcing the lid to snap and close. I then hit the “Check mark” and resumed the ink loading process. Sure enough, this did the trick and we were up and running.

Networking the printer: The printer was hooked up to the desktop via USB cable. The Desktop itself was connected to the WiFi network. There was also a laptop being used at this home network so I wanted to make the printer available to all computers sharing the network.

The D-link hardware came with a setup disk which allowed me to select “Share printer on the network” option. Network Magic also had a setting that allowed for me to turn this feature on.

Since I setup Zone Alarm for triple protection (firewall, spyware, antivirus) I had to make sure that I allowed the printer connection and made sure that was set correctly under the firewall>programs feature in ZA.

Results: This visit went fairly smoothly and now the client and his family can enjoy 54Mbps wireless connectivity and share printing, files, and internet between the two computers.

-Knabber

Wireless Home Networks (D-Link)

I just completed a Wireless Access Point setup for a client of mine... It went quite smoothly, and part of that success is owed to D-Links latest 802.11g Wireless AP gold series platform.


Project:
Setup a home WiFi network for 1 desktop and 1 laptop.

HW Solution: D-Link Wireless 802.11g router(WBR-2310)

D-Link supplies some neat Software employed to make the installation go more smoothly:
Network Magic (30 day free trial) allows for a dynamic graphical view of the network and all of the computers connected. It also supplies pertinent network activity information and alerts.

I also performed a Security update and removed all spyware, thanks to the new ZoneAlarm Interenet Security Suite 2006. I purchased and installed the software on behalf of my client, and installed it.

Issues:
Interestingly, after the install of ZAISS 2006, a common occurence is that the antivirus proection is disabled due to a conflicting antivirus program running.

In this case, it was the infamous PC-Cillin by trendmicro. I was more than disappointed when PC-Cillin had a password protection on it, preventing me from any clean uninstalls.

Instead, I ended up having to go in and fix the registry key through a manual process. (Trend Micro does provide a fix for this in their support forums.)

Results:
For anyone out there not using ZoneAlarm Interenet Security or a combination of Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, and Firewall software, you are asking for trouble! get secure and get ZoneAlarm. Check out the links on the sidebar for more info.

-Knabber