Printer Guidance / Wireless / Ink Prices

[broadway]

Hi Folks,

I need to get a new printer and wondered if anyway has experience with a wireless one and the pros / cons?

Also, do people have a view on make against ink cartridge prices or are they all "much of a muchness"??

[Pumpy]

I got a new printer for a friend of mine a few weeks ago. We had real trouble finding just a printer, wireless all in ones were everywhere and really cheap. But my friend already had a scanner which works as a copier and the printer was to sit right by the PC so wireless wasn't needed.

Semi broken all-in-ones are ALWAYS coming up on freecycle. Printer might work but the scanner bit broken etc.

As an IT guy, I always look to see if a wireless printer is actually needed, if, as in this case the printer is by the computer not much point really. If its in another room then thats different. Wireless will always suffer from drop outs, sometimes the data just won't get picked up by the printer, depends on your location. But generally they will work fine. Wireless also suffers from the possibility of data interception, someone could evesdrop on your printing sessions. Very slight chance of this, but its there as is some bright spark close by thinking its funny to send 100 pages of black to your printer, but there are ways around this, so don't worry too much.

In terms of inks and makes, Epson inks are very expensive and don't last long, HP is probably a better choice. If you can, get one that uses seperate cartridges for each colour, that way you only replace whats empty and not a tri-colour that has no yellow.

Hope that helps a bit.

P

[grannymem]

Having recently had a new laptop that was Windows 7 I'd just make sure any new printer is Windows 7 compatible. I couldn't use my old printer so... if you're thinking printers, even if current computer isn't W7, you may want one in the future.

[HotStuff]

I agree with Pumpy, do you really need wireless?

If your household has one PC and the printer is to be sited near it then there's no point.

If, as is more likely these days, you already have a home network involving more than one PC then there are other factors.

If you attach the printer to one of the PCs then you can share it on the network, but in order to use the printer, the PC it's attached to must be switched on. So that may not be convenient.

If the printer is to be sited close by your Router or Home Hub then Routers generally have a number of Ethernet ports. If you have a spare Ethernet port on your Router then you could buy a Network enabled printer and connect it by an Ethernet cable to your router. All the PC's on your network should then be able to access the printer. This is more secure and less susceptible to inerference.

Of course, if you've got the money and you really really want one then that's OK too

Dabs have quite a good website for finding what you want, even if you don't buy from them.

[HeyWayne]

If quality matters when printing don't opt for the cheaper "re-filled" ink cartridges.

The company I work for tried re-filled cartridges for me and despite their "no-bleed" and "as good as the original" claims, they were rubbish.

I print using HP and it's pretty decent even though it's only an inkjet.

[PAULW]

I have a HP 3in1 printer which is very good but the ink costs an arm and a leg as soon as the ink runs out I am seriously looking at getting a KODAK machine which has ink that costs less than half price of the HP

[broadway]

Thanks for all the replies folks,

Another question, does anyone know if you can you set a printer up to default to blank and white printing or do you select that when printing the document?

[HotStuff]

Not sure if it applies to all printers, but certainly some you can set this in the Printer properties thru Control Panel. I've even heard of people installing the same printer twice and having one set B&W and the other colour

[Pumpy]

Depends on the printer driver, some you can, some you can't. But you can ALWAYS select B+W when printing the document.

P

[HeyWayne]

Not sure how widely available this option is, but on my HP printer at work I can set the "ink volume" - how much ink is used when printing. I usually have mine set to "lighter" which is the setting that uses the least amount of ink. No loss in print quality, just means the cartridges last a bit longer.

[broadway]

Thanks again folks