TR Forums

It seems this is the right subforum to put this, if not my apologies.

I'm looking for a good cheap printer for my home, I would like one that can be conected directed to my Home Network without needing a host computer to share it across the network and can work well with both Windows XP and Windows 7 computers.

Does anyone has any recommendations? Do you guys have a preference for printers in your home?

Do you need good photo printing capabilities or is this for documents? Do you even need color? Brother makes a well-regarded laser printer (B&W only) that has WiFi and ethernet connectivity, and it is frequently on sale for about $100 (check Office Depot, Staples, Fry's, etc).

I'll second the recommendation of Brother printers either B&W or color. I have a Color Laser Multifunction printer that has been excellent. Connects to directly to the network, for use by all computers in my home. Toner is easy and cheap to refill - a big consideration for color lasers.

UberGerbil wrote:

Brother makes a well-regarded laser printer (B&W only) that has WiFi and ethernet connectivity, and it is frequently on sale for about $100 (check Office Depot, Staples, Fry's, etc).

That's a pretty good model - we have it in our vacation house, very convenient for printing stuff from laptops, the printing quality is good and it's been pretty reliable so far.

UberGerbil wrote:

Do you need good photo printing capabilities or is this for documents? Do you even need color? Brother makes a well-regarded laser printer (B&W only) that has WiFi and ethernet connectivity, and it is frequently on sale for about $100 (check Office Depot, Staples, Fry's, etc).

Sounds like a good offer, but I am looking for something that prints in color, doesn't have to be photo quality, just for documents.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6828113510

looks pretty decent, and it emulates PCL6 and PostScript.

bthylafh wrote:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828113510

looks pretty decent, and it emulates PCL6 and PostScript.

That's not exactly cheap, though. For a less spendy option I'd look at the first couple listed here (and check Amazon and the B&M suspects I listed earlier for specials). I don't have any direct experience with color printers from Brother but I trust the brand.

Too late, perhaps, but right now Newegg has a couple of those "workgroup" (aka networked) Brother laser printers on sale.

I have one of Canon's inkjets in the $150-200 range, an all-in-one with discrete color cartridges, and can't praise it enough. Instant Wifi setup with Windows Update drivers (aside from download time), great scanning quality, and excellent print quality, including photos on nice glossy paper.

It replaced a Lexmark that literally broke itself; after dealing with Lexmark's drivers, where the printer will just stop printing until reinstalling the drivers (even between print jobs in the same session!), I think I'll stick with Canon for inkjet and probably HP for laser.