Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought the HL-2170W from Amazon at the beginning of 2008. I found it very easy to configure for both wired and wireless networks, although I use mine on a wired connection out of convenience. I print mostly plain text, and the quality is very good.
I have but two complaints:
First, the paper comes out slightly curled, but this is a fact of life for a printer this size.
Second, Brother has programmed the printer such that when its thinks the toner is empty, it stops working. This happened to me when I was printing some important documents. I did some internet searches and examined the toner cartridge. There is a clear plastic circle at each end of the toner cartridge. The printer shines a light through to see how full the toner is. Simply cover one of them with a piece of opaque tape, and the printer will think that the toner is full. I've already gotten 1500+ pages out of the starter toner that was "empty" at 983, with no difference in printed quality.

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Ideal for both home and office use, the affordable Brother HL-2170W Laser Printer features network connectivity via wireless/wired interfaces, and prints up to 23 pages per minute at a high-quality resolution, giving your work and personal documents a polished finish colleagues and friends are sure to envy.
Versatile and Professional This monochrome laser printer not only warms up in less than 10 seconds and prints up to 23 pages per minute to give you near-instant access to important reports, documents, and annual family letters when you need them, it also includes a manual bypass feeder for professional printing on envelopes and letterhead. The high-quality resolution (up to 2400 x 600 dpi) of this personal black-and-white laser printer reflects the time and care that you put into each document, while giving you the benefits of low cost per page laser output. The printer also includes 32 MB memory, and a 250-sheet capacity tray that can conveniently accommodate standard, legal, and custom-sized paper.
Built-In Wired and Wireless Networking Perfect for family or home offices, the HL-2170W gives you the option to connect the printer via USB, Ethernet, or 802.11b/g wireless networking. Brother makes wireless setup a snap; for users with wireless access points that support SecureEasySetup, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, or AOSS, you can automatically configure your wireless settings by simply pressing a button on your router.
Ergonomic and Energy Efficient The Brother HL-2140 17.9-by-18.7-by-14.2-inch efficient design features a toner save mode for extended toner life as well as sleep mode. Easy to set up and a breeze to use, this printer is compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems, and includes an animated user-friendly tutorial to help answer common support and maintenance questions.
Environmentally Friendly Design For added peace of mind, this machine is Energy Star compliant, which means it helps save the environment while saving you money. (Energy Star is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy promoting energy efficiency).
This personal laser printer is backed by a one-year limited manufacturer's warranty.
What's in the Box HL-2170W laser printer, starter toner cartridge and instruction kit.

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Brother MFC-665CW Photo Color All-in-One Printer with Wireless Networking Review

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(More customer reviews)Having gotten a new desktop replacement computer which lacked the parallel cable port for my old Xerox 490cx multifunction, I got this model because of its functions, wireless capability, and cost (one-fifty at office depot). It's also the first flatbed device I have gotten. Its relatively small footprint was also a selling point. My use is light home office and personal use - short work-related text documents, recipes for wife, color pictures the kids make, simple copying tasks, and for sending and receiving short faxes.
Set-up - a little bit involved as far as setting it up for wireless on my somewhat old netgear router. Still it found my network, and entering the security key was fairly straightforward. It would be nice if its mac address was more obvious. It might be hard for a total novice to hook this up to wireless unless s/he were running an open and unsecure network. While the box touts its wireless capability, the instructions time and time again recommend using usb or Cat5 connection for best results. Rather disturbing they would choose to discourage you from actually using a feature they tout so prominently on its packaging. I had to turn off the computer's firewall for it to find the printer on the network the first time. You have to use the install disk on every computer you want to enable to access this printer. But I got it working, and all connected computers can find it and print to it. Nice to cut down on a single wire (usb or LAN), but you still have a power cord and a phone-in and phone-out cord so you still have a heavily wired set-up.
Features - the LCD screen is a nice touch and it folds up so you can see it from different angles. It has card reader slots so you can print directly from flash memory cards. The print quality is just so-so. I easily could see the grain on text; on graphics the colors bleed a little. Even using photo paper the results are not satisfactory for printing photos. It has individual ink cartridges which is a plus, and they are very elegantly and easily accessed from the front of the machine. Can't comment on ink cartridge duration yet. I like to refill my own cartridges especially black, but don't know yet if these are amenable to after-market ink refilling. Print speed is a little slow for color, and adequate for text. You can load up to 100 sheets in the cartridge easily accessed at the front of the machine. As a scanner, the resolution certainly should be adequate for most home user tasks, but i found the colors of scanned photos lack vibrancy. This could perhaps be touched up using photo-editing software. After getting a question, i checked it out and you can indeed scan to PDF format - just set up a custom scan program.
Other - It has a built in phone handset and answering machine which are a nice touch if you also want to get rid of a separate phone/answering machine. In retrospect the phone is almost useless to me. You can set the machine to answer faxes only, or phone calls also. The PC fax is a great feature, and you can create a cover page in a snap - all you do is "Print" and select PC-fax from the drop-down menu. Unfortunately you can't preview your scanned fax before sending. I have not received a fax yet, but you are able to save these faxes directly as computer documents - not sure which format yet but another great saver of paper and time. I haven't tried the document feeder yet but if it works for a few pages without a jam, i'll be delighted.
I've not owned a brother brand printer before; I hope it lasts as long as previously owned canon and Xerox devices I've had. For its price, I'm satisfied but not blown away.
UPDATE:
It's Broken
I bought all this Brother ink and now it doesn't work.
Upon starting the machine there is a grating sound as if plastic gears are turning against resistance and then the "Paper Jam" message appears. But there is no paper stuck inside. Rebooting (which you can only do by unplugging) doesn't help. A plastic gear has broken off in the cartridge housing. It is out of warranty. This is after 7 months of very light household use, so you might want to refrain from buying this. And this after I bought alot of Brother LC51 ink.

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The Brother MFC-665cw is a powerful color multi-function center with wireless (80.211b/g) networking capabilities, making it a great addition to your home or small business office.
Color Printer The MFC-665cw features a flip-up, 2.5-inch color LCD so you can control all of its functions at a glance. Enjoy up to 27 ppm black and 22 ppm color print speed, as well as photo quality printing up to 6000 x 1200 dpi. With a droplet size as small as 1.5 picoliters you can be assured of fine details and color accuracy. The unit's front loading paper tray holds up to 100 sheets, while a photo by-pass tray holds up to 20 sheets of 4x6 glossy paper. Borderless photo printing is possible, and USB, ethernet, and wireless 80.211b/g interfaces are included. The printer works with Windows and Mac operating systems.
Color Copier With a versatile flatbed design, the MFC-665cw offers easy copying. No PC is required for copying, and you'll enjoy up to 20 cpm black and 18 cpm color copy speeds. The copier also offers up to 1200 x 600 dpi resolution, as well as multi-copying for up to 99 copies. Reduce or enlarge your copies from 25 percent to 400 percent, in 1 percent increments.
Color Scanner Use the MFC-665cw for flatbed color scanning at up to 19,200 dpi (interpolated) resolution, and up to 600 x 2400 dpi (optical) resolution. The unit includes award-winning ScanSoft PaperPort SE with OCR Software for Windows and Presto! PageManager for Mac.
Photo Capture Center Use the color LCD display to preview, print images or even an index--all without a computer. The MFC-665cw features convenient digital camera media card slots for high quality photo printing (Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, xD-Picture Card Type M/Type H, CompactFlash, Secure Digital, and MultiMediaCard). The memory card system also works as a removable disk drive, and there's also a PictBridge interface to print photos directly from your PictBridge-enabled camera.
Color Fax When it comes time to send a fax, you can choose black and white or color faxing using the ITU-T30E standard. A 10-page auto document feeder makes big faxing jobs a snap, while the 14.4 Kbps high-speed fax modem delivers your documents quickly. The fax machine supports caller ID and distinctive ring modes. No PC is required for faxing. You can also take advantage of 80-station auto dialing, and 32 MB of total memory means you can store up to 480 pages.
PC Fax The MFC-665cw comes with the Brother PC Fax Driver for sending and receiving faxes from your computer. The software supports fax broadcasting from your PC, as well as network PC fax send and receive. PC fax functionality works with Windows and Mac operating systems.
Message Center The MFC-665cw's built-in digital answering machine records up to 99 messages or up to 29 total minutes. The unit features a built-in telephone handset, as well as a full-duplex speakerphone for hands-free operation. Volume controls for both the handset and speakerphone are provided.

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Linksys by Cisco SRW208P 8-port 10/100 Ethernet Switch - WebView/PoE Review

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(More customer reviews)There was one setting I had to change to get them to work. It was under multicast. I had to set all of the ethernet ports to static. Other then that it worked perfect. Also this switch comes with 3 years hardware and 5 years of phone support from Cisco. They have people on the phones 24x7 which is awesome. And to top it off, the people you speak with are American!

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Growing businesses require cost effective, networking solutions that can scale with ever changing business needs. The Linksys SRW208P WebView managed switch brings a whole new level of intelligence and security to the network infrastructure. The combination of its intelligence and small size make it ideal for a conference room or training room where security and uptime are important. It offers a two Gigabit copper or optical interfaces for connection to a core switch. For Wireless or VoIP deployments, the SRW208P supports IEEE802.3af standard for Power over Ethernet. With automatic load sensing, the power control circuitry automatically detects Power over Ethernet on end-device before providing power. Power feeding of Ethernet limited for fixed 10/100 Base-T/TX ports. The solution can provide maximum output power per PoE port up to 15.4W on 4 ports or 7.5W per PoE port on 8 ports simultaneously.

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Lexmark E120N Monochrome Laser Printer Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a good printer for the price. Print quality for normal print jobs is good, it has a small footprint, easy to use interface via a web browser, a dust cover over the paper tray, and the network connection is a lot better than having to connect directly to the PC (although you can do that if you wish). If you have more than one computer on a network at home, I would recommend this printer. The only thing I don't like about it is that you cannot specify custom paper sizes. This means you have to do some trial and error and arithmatic in your application to get it to print the way you want on non-standard paper. For $125, I can live with that.

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An exceptionally low-priced network laser printer, the Lexmark E120n offers an outstanding value for small and home office workgroups that want to benefit from professional laser print quality.

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Brother HL-5250DN Refurbished Network Ready Laser Printer with Duplex Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought the Brother HL-5250DN printer from Amazon for five reasons:
1) fast monochrome (black and white) printer.
2) network capability.
3) automatic duplexing (printing on both sides of the paper).
4) Enclosed paper tray.
5) Price (and the one-year manufacturer's warranty is nice, even on the refurbished product).
I also like the low toner, paper, and drum replacement indicator lights on the printer. The cost of the toner cartridges is about the same with other printers I've seen.
What comes in the box:
Printer, drum and toner assembly, AC power cord, paper Quick Setup Guide, CD-ROM. The CD-ROM has the drivers, entire Owner's Manual, and animated installation guide.
Note: No cables are provided.
If you are going to connect the printer to a wireless router, you will need an Ethernet cable.
If you are going to connect the printer directly to one computer, you will need either a USB or parallel cable. The printer has connections for both.
Setup
The setup did not go as easily as I hoped.
I had two problems with installation and setup:
1) I was not sure which network to use (peer to peer or shared).
2) After installation, I could not print from one of the two computers on the network.
After easily removing some shipping adhesive tape, inserting the drum/toner assembly (looks like a full toner cartridge, not a starter cartridge) and paper tray, I was ready to proceed with installing the software drivers.
The Quick Setup Guide presents you with choices for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP: USB interface, parallel interface, and network interface. There are also choices if using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Macintosh. The manufacturer's website indicates Microsoft Vista has "built-in" drivers but Brother drivers are also available on the website.
Upon clicking "Install Printer Driver" from CD-ROM menu, I was presented with three choices: USB cable users, Parallel cable users, and Network cable users. I chose the network cable users since I wanted to add the printer to my wireless network router. I was presented with a license agreement that I accepted. I then had to choose between "Brother Peer-to-Peer Network Printer" or "Network Shared Printer". I chose peer-to-peer to print directly to the printer over the network rather than to a central server on a shared printer. On Step 8 I had to choose "LPR" or "NetBios". I had no idea which one to choose and I didn't find any useful information to help with the decision. I chose LPR and clicked Next. The printer was recognized. Make sure to write down the IP Node Address (for a wireless router it is something like 192.xxx.xx.x).
Now, I needed to access the printer from my wireless computer running Microsoft Vista. I went to the Control Panel and double clicked on Printers. I then chose "Add a Printer" and selected "Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer". The computer searched for and found the printer. A couple more clicks and I was successfully printing from the wireless computer.
Printing from the desktop computer running Windows XP, connected to the router with an Ethernet cable, would not be as simple. The computer recognized the printer but would not send any data to the printer. I went to Control Panel, Printer and Faxes, right clicked on Properties. The General tab did not have the Location of the printer. I added 192.xxx.xx.x and clicked OK and tried printing a document but I was not successful. After two hours of dealing with it and looking at the company's website, I called the company (toll-free phone number right on the box). The company was closed; I called the next morning just after the company opened at 9 a.m. Eastern. I went through a very brief voice prompt menu and I was connected to Robby in all of about two minutes. He was polite but he was not able to solve my problem. He told me second level support would call me within 24 hours. Just over two hours later I got a call from Debbie, who was in Memphis, Tennessee. She was very helpful and quickly identified the problem. When hovering over the printer icon in the Printer and Faxes folder, the little popup message indicated the printer was offline. I don't know how I missed that. To correct the problem all I had to do was right click the printer and select "Use Printer Online". After a few seconds the printer was in Ready status. Problem resolved.
Summary
This is my first Brother printer and I am very favorably impressed. I don't think there is another printer on the market with these features at such a low price, at least at the time of this writing.
The product is shipped in the manufacturer's box, not an Amazon box, so all your neighbors will know what's in the box on your doorstep. The box looks like the box for a new printer, listing many features of the printer but it is clearly marked "Factory Refurbished". The printer itself has a sticker on the back with "Re-manufactured Product". My printer was originally manufactured in September 2005. I bought it in May 2007.
My experience with Brother International has been very positive. I got a great printer with excellent features, a full-size toner cartridge TN-550 (not a starter toner cartridge!), and a one-year warranty. From idle/sleep, the first page took only 20 seconds to print and the text quality is great. The icing on the cake was the technical support provided by Americans. Their promptness and knowledge was impressive. This was easily the best technical support experience I have ever had!Update December 4, 2007:
I am still very pleased with the printer but it is noisy when printing and it does make "tick, tick, tick" noises sometimes. Neither of these issues has effected performance. The only annoyance I've experienced is with envelope printing - the envelope always crinkles. This isn't a big deal for me but it is something to consider if envelope printing is important to you.
Update October 7, 2008:
I purchased another refurbished HL-5250. The toner and drum are also factory refurbished. The drum unit (DR-520) has life expectancy of 22,500 pages, about 90% of new. The toner cartridge (TN-550) has an expected yield of 3,150 pages at 5% coverage. A new toner cartridge has an expected yield of 3,500 pages.

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The EHL-5250DN is a 30ppm network-ready monochrome laser printer with a built-in duplex feature. Designed for busy offices and small workgroups, it is a smart and versatile choice.

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