Wireless Printer?
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Aena, we have an HP 7410 Office Jet all in one and I highly recommend that approach. It's a pain to have separate devices and this one unit capably does photos, scanning and faxing in addition to lots of printing.Now, the 7410 is old news so I recommend going with one of the latest wireless HPs linked below. The top of line seems like the way to go because the current rebates make it a great deal.
Not exactly what you're asking for, but we have a Brother 7820n multifunction. It's a laser printer, fax, scanner with a wired network (Ethernet) connection & it works great. I haven't seen any wireless ones that work well with more than basic wireless security.We have a separate printer for photos - I think it's better to go separate if you print a lot with your "main" printer - and it's a wireless HP but after many attempts getting it to work right I switched back to wired network.
Lonnie,Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Will let you know what we end up selecting...though it may be some time before we get to it. Aena
Seth,Thanks for raising the point about wireless security. A follow - up question is: what should one be concerned about regarding wireless security, and is it not the same as with a wireless router? Aena
All wireless routers tend to have a range of choices for security protocols - the way you keep your network traffic away from prying eyes. You'll want to verify the printer you buy supports what your router is currently set to.If you look around at the settings of your router you'll see acronyms like WEP/WPA as the choices for "authentication" and sub-choices like AES & TKIP for "encryption". I use WPA & TKIP & the HP doesn't support TKIP. The simpler answer is: if you've never looked at those settings, there's a good chance the default is "off" or "WAP". I would suspect all printers support that. To be honest, I don't really know all the benefits of those choices other than a friend suggested I use them. It's just that I don't wish to change & theoretically lower the security on my wireless network (& reconfigure everything that connects to it) just for a printer that I can easily hook a cable up to. Especially since it ended up that the best location for the printer was right next to the router.
As someone who has worked on network security issues, I think Seth's recommendation is a very good one. Wireless is nice if you REALLY want to have the printer in a place where you can't get Ethernet cable to it, but otherwise it is has a lot of deficiencies compared to wired: less reliable, harder to set up, and potentially less secure.Aena, I think you are also right that a flatbed scanner is much better than one with rollers, for various reasons (no jams, you can copy a page from a book, etc.) My recommendation for printing photos is to print them at Walgreen's if you have one nearby. You can just upload the photos to Walgreen's web site and they are ready in less than an hour. The per-print cost is comparable to what you'd spend on ink and photo paper and the results are probably better. That's what we do. :-) Otherwise, if you get a single printer that can do all of these things well, it will be verrry expensive.
Elliot - I agree with you re: printing photos elsewhere; it would be more costly to do so at home, but requires a wee bit of planning (quite often lacking around here.)Seth and Elliot - the whole wireless issue is making my head spin, but the point about the printer inevitably being next to the router makes a lot of sense. I was just hoping to avoid having a bunch of cables everywhere. Alas, maybe in another generation or so... Thanks. Aena
I recently bought an HP C7280, which is a home wireless copier/scanner/fax/printer (inkjet). I love: Irritating: Overall I love it and recommend it.
Hi Ben,Any particular reason that you went with the HP C7280 vs. some other HP or other printer? Costco has a good price on the HP Officejet Pro L7555 so I was thinking of getting it, but I'm hoping my husband will do some of the research on it.
It was hard to find a machine with:* a sheet-fed scanner * native wi-fi * multiple paper trays * SD card slot I prefer HP and Canon printers because i've had such lousy experiences with other brands.
Well we finally bought a printer. Thanks for all the input folks.It is an HP Officejet J6480. Why: it is an all-in-one, wireless, color & photo printer, and has a flat bed copier. How much: HP website is selling it for $150 incl shipping Pros: working well for us, nice photo printing, wireless feature is great - printer is tucked way away in an under used corner of the house Cons: installation was a pain - don't follow their directions (if you decide to get this, my husband will help you with the installation); also the machine is kinda big, but i suppose that is how they come if they have a flatbed copier.
LOL! Maybe HP should publish AB's phone # on their web site.
Does anybody know if these wireless multipurpose printers also allow you to Fax wirelessly? We use VoIP, so theoretically we already have access to the phone line through the PCs.Thank you, -Jorge
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