Wireless Bidirectional Print Server?

The problem of the bidirectinoal communication really isn't one of just the device, but of the software that controls the device.

Recommend you check Canon's website and the manufacturer of specifically noted wireless print servers.

If they are really good, the router/printserver company will tell you models of printer (or whatever) they've tested it with.

Canon, and most printer companies don't seem to see the value in making their software multi-user enabled, instead they put that into the higher end models that would be "work group" types.

Speaking from experience, sometimes even that isn't enough.. we had an employee that worked for the president of the company.. said "oh I had one of these before and it allowed me to print and make copies..." etc...

she in turn got enough of his ear to allow her to purchase the printer / copier device she wanted.. and then the IT department was told "make it work" with the rest of the network. The IT Department purchased a 150 dollar network device, only to find that it couldn't be configured because it was from the days of Novel, and the office is MS Only, and the other protocol can not be installed just for this.. so now the device sits and gets used as a coper/fax/personal printer only, no workgroup component.

Oh.. and that assistant is gone, thankfully!!

I don't think so. There may be someone who knows of some new breakthrough in this field, but my experience has been that print servers are for output only, ie: they recieve print jobs and send back confirmation packets, but you can't scan a document and send it across the network to a PC. How would you give the MP730 access to your PC without some authentication? That would seem to be a huge security problem if it were possible. Bi-directional protocol exists for serial, parallel, and USB. No authentication needed because they are directly connected. I don't think a peripheral device is a peripheral device any longer if it's on a network. Again, someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this...

I ran into this problem recently and did some research. There *are* bidirectional wireless print servers such as the HP JetDirect 380x which accomodates both printing and scanning with HP MFUs. It costs about four times as much as other 802.11b print servers, though, and I don't know if it will be compatible with a Canon machine.