Small Workgroup Printer Recommendation

Hi,
I currently run an office of 6 people; 2 on Macs, the rest on XP, all on a LAN (but no server, as yet). Each desk has an inkjet printer. This is costing us £600+ per year.
I'd like to move us all off of these "cheap to buy, but dear to run" printers, and use a central networked printer. Cost isn't the only reason. I have to do colour prints occasionally that mean my current inkjet is chugging away for 1-4 hours. However that level of print use is a few times a year at the moment.
While a all-in-one would be great, we need to photocopy at A3 occasionally, so an AIO is out. We also need to have at least three paper bins: headed paper, continuation paper, and copy paper. It'd be good to have a forth override try to put in the lesser used headed paper/invoice forms. It may be I'd have to settle for two trays and an override. Our print load isn't high. Less than 500 sheets per month.
Can anyone recommend an A4 printer? I'd also like to know if my assumption that the print driver is intelligent to realise that a two page letter would use one headed page and one continuation, without the users intervention (other than preference settings). I'd also like to know if laser media is really cheaper than inkjet overtime.
Thanks,
Frank.

Hello Frank,
Just wanted to make a comment about the driver intelligence question. The answer is no, the driver is not able to determine the difference. It usually requires user intervention to select the desired trays. That said, there is often a way that the application can preset the tray selection, such as Page Setup it Word for mail-merging.
And from my experience laser is definitely cheaper to run than inkjet. Our office had a mixture of ink on the users desks and laser in central places. We found users would print locally rather than walk a few metres to the lbp and this was costing us a small fortune. So we disposed of some of the inkjets and forced users to print to the lbp, and noticed a considerable price reduction in consumables. For the record we're using Canon iR Copier/MFD's, and while they cover all the requirements you are looking for, they are probably overkill for your office as they have much higher volumes than 500/month (and they probably cost considerably more than what you are willing to pay).

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Richard, welcome to the discussions.
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I have been unable to connect to my home office network with my MacBook Pro to print documents. So, I am looking for a decent (preferably small-ish) printer for use with my MBP. I'd prefer to sans an Airport device and connect to a "wireless" printer instead. I am printing quality color documents, but not photos.
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Hi!
Let me start with a short background:
I've developed an ASP.Net application which currently uses Apache Solr for search and retrieval operations and for that purpose it works well. However, the users of this application has started to ask for facilities such as discussion forums, document-collaboration
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web site: http://www.loisandclark.eu
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Printer RECOMMENDATIONS/Suggestions

I would love one or all of your wireless printer recommendations.
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What are your best suggestions for a wireless all-in-one printer?

I've had good luck with my Epson Artisan 810.

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I probably should have inquired here first. :-)
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When you use HP stuff.. in a network.. WPS can be a problem.. but on the apple WPS system did you try first attempt not pin.. apparently most HP will not work with pin.
I have good reports of Brother.. I personally still use the older series HP with EIO slots.. Or MIO I think they became.. Sometimes old printers are better than new ones.
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As a work around.. there is nothing wrong with buying a cheap little TP-Link (or any of the china brands) N lite routers.. $30 or so.. and use it as AP on the network for the HP in particular or any PC .. that will still allow it to be used by any device on the network and even airprint should work.

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Welcome, Wombat!
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In helping a friend get a printer for an old Mac, we found no current multifunctions that did not require an Intel processor, something the G5 lacks. However, we did find some inexpensive print-only ink jets from Canon and Brother that, by getting drivers from their web sites, would support as far back as G3 processors and Mac OS10.3.9. We set him up with a Canon PIXMA 3100 (I think--that was about 18 months ago!).

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There is a solution ... I've been happily printing for a while from my iPad to my battery-operated HP H470 with absolutely no wires (and no router / pre-existing WiFi connection - it operates in AdHoc mode). Literally just the iPad and the H470 - in fact, one time in a marquee in the middle of a muddy field with no power and a long way from the nearest WiFi connection, so it can be done from literally anywhere.
I also couldn't find any info on a true mobile printing solution for iPad (or iPhone/iPod for that matter) but felt sure it must be possible, somehow - so once I'd sorted it all out, I wrote down the solution and the steps to get it to work in the hope of helping others:
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Can anyone recommend a reliable, small wireless printer?

I am looking for a (as small as possible) wireless printer that works well wirelessly under OSX and could become a potential print center also for my iPad. I have had an Epson wireless PX800FW for a while, but it is bulky and the wireless connection is a pain to set up. I am looking for something smaller and simpler.
Thank you!

I'd really recommend the Canon MP640. However not word yet on Airprint compatability (although I have escalated this to Canon support). The scanning function works wirelessly too.

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Was looking at the HP OfficeJet Pro 8500 wireless and that looks like a nice unit except half the people who buy one hate it. Looks like HP quality control is lacking and if you get a good unit, great, but the odds are good you’ll get a lousy one.
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I would steer clear of the 500 express. Since you seem to be new to cisco products, I would use the opportunity and buy what most of your potential customers already have. Get yourself a pix/asa and a 2900 series switch as first poster suggested. If you are interested in certifications, you will need to learn the command line interface. The 500 express will do you no good as it is all gui. This is only my opinion of course. Oh, and did I see not expensive and cisco in the same sentence. :)

Ideas / Recommendations for Workgroup Printer with LOW Cost-per-page?

(Like everyone else), we're printing more color than we anticipated.
Our leasing company charges $0.09 per color page on our Xerox Workcenter 7545 copier.
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We'd probably purchase (vs. lease) in this case - but cost-per-page (toner cost) is an important consideration.
Has anyone else done a similar recent study - and been happily surprised by the actual outcome? Or - are your costs lower - but you've been unsatisfied by reliability, etc.?
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This topic first appeared in the Spiceworks Community

I would greatly appreciate any feedback please!!! I thank you in advance!!!

Looking for laser printer recommendations (please read!)

I couldn't find a spot that fit this question and although I may not receive any answers here, this is a very active forum with members who are unafraid of new technology, so here's letting one rip...
OK, I've not had a laser printer in a number of years - when my beloved LaserWriter II NTX gave up the ghost. I find that I am lately, however, printing more and more text-only or text-heavy documents at home and going through black ink cartridges like a hungry lumberman through flapjacks. Although I've not looked into laser technology for years, I am wondering if it may not be more economical to print these pages on a 'personal' laser printer (I know that toner cartridges are not cheap, either, but they are less expensive, from what I've read, than using inkjet to print text-heavy documents) than to continue racking up rebate dollars by selling my soul for black ink cartridges.
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As I wander into the local Office Depot I am overwhelmed by the choices and yet stupefied to find that the 'hang tags' on many of the models don't really give too much information - page one can expect from a cartridge, connectivity options, duplexing capabilities (I seem to find none, yet am certain that I've read of their existence).
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1. monochrome
2. PostScript emulation (unless CUPS supports lasers? It'd difficult to tell by the ad hype yet Apple does seem to have drivers or, at least, Brother and HP laser printers). I don't want to be limited to 72 typefaces...
3. automated duplexing
4. small footprint
5. more economical to operate than an inkjet at 2,500-4000 pages per month
6. networkable, though served through another CPU via USB is fine
7. brand is not important - as long as reliability is high (and, like Brother, for instance, is supported by Apple)
Please leave a message if you should have ANY suggestions or, if you can point me towards a website with a good overview of what's available (and with actual tests would even be better!) I would be very appreciative.

Jamie,
I just wanted to thank you once again for your suggestion of the HP LaserJet 1320. I picked one up last week at Office Depot and, after I receive my $50 mail-in rebate, my total cost will have been $139.99!
The printer itself had an 'instant savings' of $100 off the SRP of $399.99 (and - for those who might be interested - this instant savings continues until June 30 - see the HP website for details.), bring it down to $299.99; I had an $100 Office Depot 'rewards' card plus a $10 'instant off' coupon from the previous week, bringing it down to $189.99 and there was a mail-in rebate for $50 (which, according to the paperwork, I can expect within 6 weeks) so... I was able to get a $400 printer for less than $140 (+ tax, of course).
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Had it not been for your recommendation, I likely would have forgotten the $100 Office Depot card until it expired and would not have sought out the printer there in the first place.
It's such a warm and fuzzy feeling to get such a deal on such a terrific little printer... and, so, I thank you, again.

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i would recommend buying a simple black and white laser printer for your everyday printing needs. i bought a used HP LaserJet 4 off eBay about 5 years ago for $150 shipped. The cartridges for those are about $70-$90, but in 5 years i bought only 2, becayse they last forever. plus that printer has a network connection. The downside is that it is pretty big and ugly.
You can also find a used HP LaserJet 1100, those are way smaller than the one i have and cartridges run about $50, but you still get the same great laser quiality and dont spend nearly as much money on supplies as you would with an Ink Jet

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Any recommendations for a decent scanner / printer (all-in-one unit)?
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Hi Beach-Comber
If I was to replace my 4 year old Epson CX4200 that's printed thousands of great photos, it would definitely be with another Epson all-in-one product.
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/ProductCategory.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes&oid=-8 182
Dennis

Thinking it through - Sharing/accessing email messages in a small workgroup

Am setting up a Mac Mini server for a small (8 person) legal workgroup.
I will be giving this group their own registered domain (xyzlawcorp.com).
They currently use one Hotmail account (yikes!!) to share inbound/outbound correspondence. And their internet connection only has a dynamic IP address assignment.
Several issues arise when installing the Mini Server...
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3) Should I look at simply using IMAP mail hosting at an external web hosting company instead?
Thanks

This all really depends on your current network and your sysadmin.
If you want to use the G5 as a file server, see here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1549
The G5 would not be my choice - it's getting old, and if it's still working well, it doesn't owe you anything in terms of future reliability. Of course, there's no guarantee that a new machine wouldn't crash the day after you set it up, but I wouldn't choose to make an old machine a file server if I could avoid it. Also, RAID solutions for G5's may be harder to come by, and not inexpensive if they are worthwhile.
There are solutions for integrating OD (i.e. OS X Server) with AD, but if you or someone in your company aren't already familiar with OS X Server and integrating it with AD, you'll find a bit of a learning curve is involved. On the other hand, if there is a good sysadmin available who is willing to work with OD/AD, it's worth considering.
you may also want to consider a NAS solution. They can come configured with RAID, and may fit your budget. I would recommend calling the manufacturer's support and/or sales folks first, but you may find more reliability and better configuration options with a new NAS versus file sharing on an old G5.
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/network-storage/home-and-small-office/
is one example Google offered - I have no experience with that manufacturer - it's just an example of what's out there.
Jeff

Small Workgroup Printer Recommendation

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