I was researching wireless print servers that work with Linux for use in the
apartment, but it occurred to me that (since we are in a public environment, we
always work through a personal VPN service. Can anyone tell me whether this
would cause a problem with a wireless print server?

I installed a Brother laser printer which can be wireless a couple of months
ago. I'm pretty technical, but I found the instructions a little intimidating.
I wound up using an ethernet cable from the printer to my router, which works
very nicely for everybody on the network.

There was one little quirk: Ubuntu likes to talk to the printer at a specific IP
address. To make the printer have a static IP address instead of DHCP, I had to
use a manager program which is written for Windows. My wife's computer uses XP,
so I didn't have to figure out if the manager program would work under Wine.