IOGEAR 2-Port USB 2.0 Printer Auto Sharing Switch GUB211 (Black)

I purchased this product for my son after he moved into his college dorm this last fall. Before he arrived at school, his college room mate kindly offered to share his printer with my son, so it didn't make sense to buy a new printer. However, it would have been a difficult process for my son to use his room mate's printer each time he needed to print something: He'd have to unplug his laptop, bring his computer over to his room mate's desk, unplug his room mate's computer from the printer, connect the printer to his own lap top, reconnect his room mate's computer to the printer and finally, reconnect his own computer to the power source. In addition, if my son needed to print something while his room mate was also using his own computer, that would be distracting and annoying for his room mate to have my son interrupt him each time. This switch solved the problem and saved us from unnecessarily buying a new printer!My son said it is convenient and works great. No plugging and unplugging - just plug in both computers to the switch and it will automatically print from either computer without any software installation. If I remember correctly, you will need to purchase a USB printer cable in addition to this switch if you don't have an extra one handy.

Just purchased and installed -per instructions - this and as many, many others have saidIT DOES NOT WORK. Just lets one computer work with printer. Green light only comes onfor one device. If I change cords, the other device works, but it will not automatically change andwill NOT recognize the printer on the other device. Very unhappy and plan on returning to Amazon.Update - Finally got to work - Customer Support at IOGear was HORRIBLE !! Short, curt and not helpfulat all - finally had a friend help who has one and he got it to work by reinstalling it on both computersand it finally worked very well - therefore product seems good, but be ware of trying to get help.Will NEVER purchase a product from them again and recommend others who are not computer"savvy" to lookelsewhere for products.

I ordered the IOGEAR 2-port switch so I could share a printer between my older (2005) Dell 8400 and my new (2012) iMac desktop. Just getting used to the Mac, I did not want any further complications and my wife and I both use these computers, often at the same time. I spent less than half an hour setting up the connections, downloading the drivers from the website (I always find that to be faster than using the included CD's) and setting the preference for the icon on the Desktop (Dell) and Tray (Mac). It is a distinctive round icon that changes colors based on printer availability and function. Bottom line is that it works flawlessly. Very simple and, even when my wife and I are on at the same time, switching printing beteen each computer is either automatic, depending on who used it last, or two mouse clicks. Great, no-nonsense product.

I saw mostly good reviews and ordered it, hoping that poor reviews involved operator error. I followed the directions for installing the drivers on two machines - an ASUS notebook running Windows 7 (64 bit) and an HP notebook running Vista. I also went to the IOGEAR website and updated the drivers (from V1.0 to V1.1). The auto-switching worked perfectly, just as advertised. I had one glitch, which involved the notebook running Windows 7. Although the device would switch to this computer, the printer sent a printing error and wouldn't print from that machine. I went through the IOGEAR troubleshooting checklist to make sure I had done everything correctly (including making sure that the printer drivers were installed on both machines and the printer operated with a direct connection on both machines). When I still got the printing error message, I used the IOGEAR support website and wrote an email, sharing complete info on the hardware involved and the problem. Within two hours (or less) I got an response saying: "On the Windows 7 computer go to Devices and Printers, right click on the printer icon and Printer Properties (not just Properties) then go to the Ports tab. Under the list of all the printers look for a check box labeled Enable Bi-Directional Support, if that box can be uncheck do so then apply the change to see if that helps." That instantly fixed the problem. Now it switches automatically AND prints off both notebooks. LOVE IT!UPDATE: April 9thI've just changed my rating to four stars. Everything I said before is true, BUT...my scanner on my HPL7590 All-in-one has errors and won't work. I tried just uninstalling the GUB211, but unfortunately that didn't fix the problem. I had to completely uninstall my printer too, and reinstall. I want scanner capability more than I need the ability to switch between PCs, so I'll just do it the old fashioned way and swap the USB cable between PC's instead of using a switch.

I used this to share a printer between a Windows 7 and a Windows XP computer. It is necessary to install software in both computers, but other than that it was pretty simple to set up. No problems after several weeks of using it. It comes with a couple of 6 ft cables and if you need a longer one, be sure to order it at the same time from amazon.com rather than a rip off store like Best Buy or Staples (do you believe they want $30-45 per cable?)The small size is especially nice. It is just sitting on a book shelf in back of the computer and all I can see to know it's alive is a little green light.There is a rather large noise through the speakers when it switches from one computer to the other. Some may be bothered by this, but I like it because I have audio proof that everything is working.