Phrases

Sometimes we say things, and we really don't know what we're talking about.

Take our Lexmark printer, for example. It's plugged directly into our desktop PC. Any of the wireless laptops (is that redundant?) can print to it -- the address is \\Desktop\Printer, which means that it's logically part of the desktop. That computer has to be on in order to print to the printer. This is a minor pain when you want to print, but since you usually have to go into the room to turn on the printer anyway, it's not that big of a deal.

Now that we find that the new Windows 7 PC can't print to that printer -- don't know why; my guess is that its a driver problem, but I have to admit that I have only a general idea of what that means -- we're thinking that we should get a new printer. We don't want to, but we do want the new PC to be able to print, so, barring a driver specifically for Windows 7 showing up for the HP laptop, what choice do we have? (Lexmark says use the vista driver, but that doesn't work. Why it doesn't work, I have no idea. It just doesn't.) So we did some research, and found that the HP 4500 printer, which is a wireless printer, would work - supports XP and Windows 7. It also has wireless connectivity, so we could plug it in anywhere and print to it. Not necessary to turn on the desktop. Okay, this is good. We went to Staples to look at it.

First off, we were dismayed to find that it makes a lot of noise when it starts. Thats something the Lexmark does, too, and we really don't like it. I don't know if its the cartridges moving or the scan head positioning, I don't like it. But, okay, it has a power saver mode, so I suppose it would be okay to leave it on all the time. It does say wireless, so that's good. The wireless feature adds $30 to the price, but that is okay. Then we think: the printer is going to sit about four feet from the router. Why can't we just connect it to the router and forego the 'wireless' part? In which case, why can't we just buy the non-wireless version? In fact, why can't we just connect our existing printer to the router? Well, sure, that wouldn't address the Windows 7 problem, but until that is, we wouldn't have to turn on the desktop PC to get to it.

So when we get home, we look, and the cable from the printer to the desktop is a USB cable. I unplug it from there, plug it into the router, which has five CAT5 plugs and one USB plug. Try to find it on the network. Nope. Try to add it to the network. Nope. Try printing to the existing definition, the one that includes the desktop as part of its name. Nope, though I'd have been surprised if it did. So we conclude that just plugging it into the router isn't going to work. Plug it back into the desktop, the printer immediately starts and kicks out the page I'd created. We talk about it. If plugging THIS printer directly into the router didn't make it addressable, why should I assume that plugging the NEW one would? Maybe they assume it'll be plugged into a PC, not a router? Which would bring us pretty much back to where we started. Then again, if its wireless, it doesn't need the cable, so maybe it could work directly with a router. Maybe.

Sometimes.....