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I'm looking to buy an all-in-one printer/copier/fax/scanner for use on a home office network. As for budget, from what I've seen out there, I'm expecting to pay $200 or less.
What do you guys and gals recommend? What have you had good experiences with--included linux software (if any), the # of pages per cartridge, price of cartridges, paper feeding/jamming, how well-built, etc. You get the idea.
A trip to Sam's Club left me surprised that HP doesn't include Linux drivers with their all-in-one printers. Since I first posted this message, I found, HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) at: http://hplip.sourceforge.net/
Whatever we buy, we'll be stuck with for awhile, so I appreciate your info and suggestions to help me make the best possible decision.
I would not recommend an all-in-one machine. Depending on your needs, you can get it all separately for maybe $300.
Best everyday printing: Cheap laser (I have HP 1022, which has been great)
Best photo printer: Epson ink-jet
Scanner: A bazillion choices
FAX: Do you really need it?
Distribution: Distribution: RHEL 5 with Pieces of this and that.
Kernel 2.6.23.1, KDE 3.5.8 and KDE 4.0 beta, Plu
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I have used HP models for years with great success using either HPLIP or the older HPOJ drivers. HPLIP covers most models over the last 3 or 4 years. Current model is a PSC3310. I was up and running in minutes.
Distribution: Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.2, Windows 2003 Server/Vista/7/XP/2000/NT/98, Ubuntux64, CentOS4.8/5.4
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We have a few of these machines. The best that I like and affordable is the Brother 8860DN. We have 4 of them. It is networkable, does double sided scanning/fax/copies and double-sided printing. HP multifunction printers do not have this feature for under $1,000. The Brother 8860DN is only $500, about $400 on Amazon. I have no Linux systems hooked up to this printer so I have no idea about compatibility.
We also have a HP Color Laserjet 2840 which is a multifunction printer. It has copier, color printing, scanning, and fax. It does only one-sided printing. I had troubles with their software and the printer, but once I updated the firmware and software, it runs fine. I have only gotten Linux to print to this HP machine. Have not tested scanning or faxing in Linux with it. Everything works well for Windows, of course!
I agree with pixellany. All-in-one units do not work easily in Linux. If one component fails, it then becomes useless for that feature. It is best to buy the fax, printer, and scanner separately. The most reliable printer types are laser. Inkjet printers gets costly over time and they tend to break down usually with in a year. The printer head for inkjet printers have to be aligned from time to time, but the utilities in Linux to do this only work with a few units. When looking for an inkjet printer, make sure it has a built-in head alignment that can be access through its menu.
If you print a lot of pages at once, Brother HL-5140 is faster than what it is rated for. It can print pages about 30 to 40 pages per minute with out a noticeable loss of quality.
For the fax machine, buy a serial 56Kbit modem or a US Robotics/3Com internal modem and use it for faxes. It will save paper because you can choose what faxes to print and what not to print. Though it is easier to buy this separately.
If you do not have enough space, buy a shelving unit.
I use a Brother MFC-5440CN over network. I can print, and scan from my Debian Etch. It has a fax and can be used as a copier. To be short great device on my Linux, Mac and Windows.
Well, I will tell about my experience too. First Brother printers have been mentioned. There are proprietary drivers avaible, but it is always a struggle to get them running. And even then it is a hassle: for changing settings like page size, resolution, you can only do it with the CUPS web interface, and even then it does not always work. The scanner works fine once you've succeded in installing and configuring the driver.
HP PSC's series (those are the cheap inkjet multifunctions) on the other side are, since some years, very Linux friendly. I had come accross a couple of different models over the last years and since hplip is avaible, they all are as easy to configure as plug in, let the system automagically configure it (if your distro offers this) and print straight ahead (so much for "do not work easily with Linux", at least the HP's I had are a hundert times easier and faster to configure under Linux than under Windows!!!). This is for somewhat older models at least. Of course these models can be expensive when printing a lot and only buying original HP ink.
The scanner usually is of inferiour quality, but it is usable for small jobs. The HP's that I have worked with hadn't any fax so far, so I have no experience with it.
So it also comes down to what you use the printer for. For the family usage here the HP PSC have turned out to be an excellent choice: they are compact, work well, not too expensive when using third party ink and offer nice possibilities with the scanner. I like to note that the copy capability is often used (with often meaning once a week! No copier could be justified) and turns out to be a handy feature if you don't use it often. So I personnaly wouldn't buy separate devices (scanning then printing is much to cumbersome and explain this to computer illiterates!)
Last edited by hansalfredche; 06-29-2007 at 03:26 AM.
I agree with pixellany. All-in-one units do not work easily in Linux. If one component fails, it then becomes useless for that feature. It is best to buy the fax, printer, and scanner separately. The most reliable printer types are laser. Inkjet printers gets costly over time and they tend to break down usually with in a year. The printer head for inkjet printers have to be aligned from time to time, but the utilities in Linux to do this only work with a few units. When looking for an inkjet printer, make sure it has a built-in head alignment that can be access through its menu.
There are utilities for all maintenance on Epson printers. One is now built-in to GIMP.
My Epson 900 has been running for 4+ years with no problems---same with my 1280.
Costly??--not if you use re-fillable cartridges.
I've never had to align the head on any Epson printer.
We have not heard from OP and he/she may not give a hoot about photo printing.....
I've decided to try the HP OfficeJet 6310 All-In-One Printer/Copy/Scan/Fax from CompUSA for $169.99 w/tax $184.01.
It will be used mainly for personal business, not fun. i.e. CEU certificates from online courses, legal/tax forms, etc.
As for photo printing, pixellany guessed correctly; we could give a hoot about photo printing, although I've read that the 6300 print driver from HP prints excellent quality borderless photos if we ever decide to try it.
I'm anxious to see how much I have to go through to configure this printer with Linux.
I'll post my results of the experience. Should be interesting.
Thanks again everyone for all your feedback and suggestions!!
I've decided to try the HP OfficeJet 6310 All-In-One Printer/Copy/Scan/Fax from CompUSA for $169.99 w/tax $184.01.
It will be used mainly for personal business, not fun. i.e. CEU certificates from online courses, legal/tax forms, etc.
As for photo printing, pixellany guessed correctly; we could give a hoot about photo printing, although I've read that the 6300 print driver from HP prints excellent quality borderless photos if we ever decide to try it.
I'm anxious to see how much I have to go through to configure this printer with Linux.
I'll post my results of the experience. Should be interesting.
Thanks again everyone for all your feedback and suggestions!!
JohnE1
I promised to post the results, so here goes.
Along with the printer, I purchased a USB cable and an ethernet cable since this printer can connect from either one. The initial setup was fairly straight-forward.
IMPORTANT: For those used to configuring USB devices under Windows, you're used to installing the driver first and then hooking up the USB device. In order to select the printer and its port, I had to connect the printer first, then add and configure the new printer to the system.
1) Connect the printer.
2) Under CentOS, or any version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, open a console and enter: system-config-printer-gui
3) To add the new printer, open the Action menu and select: New queue
The screens are fairly self-explanatory. It auto-detects the attached device; this is why you must have the printer connected in order to select a driver and setup the new printer queue.
4) I selected HP All-In-One-OfficeJet model 6100 (closest it had to 6310) and that seems to be working fine.
END RESULT: The printer has been working fine for both B&W and color printing with 1 exception (see CAVEAT below).
---------------
CAVEAT:
Once the printer was setup and working, I decided to check out the Network Settings via the printer's menu in anticipation that I would next configure the printer on the home network using the ethernet cable I had purchased.
Oddly enough, changing those settings "broke" the USB connection between the printer and computer. Nothing I tried, initially, worked. i.e. Rebooting the computer, power cycling both the computer and printer, etc.
What did get the printer and computer talking again was to go back into the printer's menu and select, Reset Network Settings. Why IP addresses and other network settings should have any bearing on the USB connection is beyond me. Apparently, the printer has some built-in software which tries to auto-select which way the printer is connected, and it seemed to be based on whether or not those network settings were changed, regardless if a USB cable was physically plugged into the printer or not. At the time, the ethernet cable was NOT plugged into the printer!
-----------------------
Hope that info helps someone out there.
Thanks again to all those that responded to my initial query!
I have a Brother multi-function inkjet. The biggest problem is that my cats jump up on it, and make it think that I dialed a fax number, which is strange since it isn't even hooked up to a phone line! At that point it wastes a sheet of paper printing a report. Have to see if there is a menu item to shut that off. Anyway, it has lasted a couple of years, it even has a doc feeder, and I paid well under $100 for it during pre-inventory sale at Wally World. I like the fact that the ink supply is seperate for each color, makes it easy to refill with cheapie kits. It hooks up thorugh ethernet and/or USB. I can also make it networkable through my router's USB port, though I use that for my Konica-Minolta mono laser printer, which currently is not working. I mostly use the Brother as a scanner, and ran a 186-page legal transcript through it. I have it hooked up to a machine that only runs Win XP, though, so can't say how it works under Linux. But I love it and don't think that there is a better unit on the market for the money. I'm not that fond of Brother's lasers, though. But I have had zero problems with this printer, and I'm on Clay Electric Co-operative, which is the worst electricity I've had at any home that I have maintained in my life! I'm sure that's what killed the Konica-Minolta, and I've had to reload the OS several times on this Gateway PIII-866, but the Brother churns right along. The scanner and printer are both excellent, and I'm sure the fax would be if I used it. When I had a fax, I used my scanner and laser printer, with fax software in the computer, and found that highly satisfactory--look at it on screen to decide if it's worth printing
I also use a Brother MFC5440CN. It sits in my un-air conditioned shop (today it was above 90° F, and that's cooler than it's been) which is also dusty and humid. It's worked very well for a couple of years now- printing and scanning over the network.
I also like that Brother is actively developing new Linux drivers.
It doesn't have the best printing quality (it's not a photo printer, though for basic business needs it's fine), but it was cheap, ink is cheap, and it does the job.
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