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Started By
Message
Need a new printer. Am I crazy to want a wired ethernet connection?
Posted on 9/8/22 at 8:37 am
Posted on 9/8/22 at 8:37 am
Long story short. Our years old Epson gave up the ghost a week or so ago. Looking to replace it with an "All in one" type printer/scanner. Looks like most everything is wireless now. Even though wireless connection and printing are 100% solid, I still find myself wanting a wired connection for stabilities sake. Am I daft?
Also any model suggestions would be appreciated as I'm clueless on what's good these days.
Also any model suggestions would be appreciated as I'm clueless on what's good these days.
7
Posted on 9/8/22 at 8:56 am to Lonnie Utah
I was highly reluctant to give up my wired printer but now 10+ years later I haven't had a single issue with our wireless multi-function printer shared by multiple devices.
I'm partial to Epson but just pick the make/model that has the features at the pricepoint you want. When I was replacing ours a few years ago a deciding factor for me when choosing between two similar models was that replacement cartridges were significantly cheaper for one vs the next model up in the same Epson line.
I'm partial to Epson but just pick the make/model that has the features at the pricepoint you want. When I was replacing ours a few years ago a deciding factor for me when choosing between two similar models was that replacement cartridges were significantly cheaper for one vs the next model up in the same Epson line.
Posted on 9/8/22 at 8:59 am to Lonnie Utah
Wired is nice, but printers have become such POSs I buy the cheapest one that will do what I need it to do so I can throw it away and buy a new one if I need to. Cheap printers ain't usually gonna have a wired connection. That being said, the Brother INKvestment printer I bought has run like a champ for 2 years now. It get sporadic use so the Epson it replaced was always getting clogged printheads. I don't know if I've even replaced the damn ink in it yet, so it doesn't use a lot of that either. The printing is slow as shite tho, but the tradeoff is worth it IMO.
This post was edited on 9/8/22 at 9:07 am
Posted on 9/8/22 at 9:07 am to Rufus T Firefly
Yea I've had a wireless Dell B&W laser printer for like 8 years that's been chugging along with zero issues, literally zero
Posted on 9/8/22 at 9:57 am to bluebarracuda
quote:
a wireless Dell B&W laser printer
Those were just rebranded (from Lexmark, I think). We bought a bunch of the 23xx series MFPs over a decade ago. We still have a few running. Most of them were freaking tanks (but nothing to compare to some of the older HPs).
quote:
Am I crazy to want a wired ethernet connection?
No. Wireless is great but it's never going to be as reliable as a wired connection. We make sure our company printers/copiers/mfps are wired so we can make sure we can monitor them (and it makes people more reluctant to move them around the offices on their own).
Posted on 9/8/22 at 10:59 am to Bard
Thanks for the replies folks. You guys should all DV me for not posting this gif in my original post... 
Posted on 9/8/22 at 12:44 pm to Lonnie Utah
Brother multifunction with network port is what I have.
Posted on 9/8/22 at 1:47 pm to highpockets
HP was garbage for a bit but their latest lasers have been running well.
Posted on 9/8/22 at 4:10 pm to broadhead
Ended up going with this one. Epson EcoTank 4800
It will do everything I need it to. It came down to this one and one from brother. The brother would duplex print and the epson wouldn't. The deciding factor was the Epson had lots of 3rd party ink suppliers for cheap on Amazon. Hopefully, with the ink tank(s) I'll save $$ over the life of the machine as opposed to buying cartridges.
Thanks everyone for your $0.02.
It will do everything I need it to. It came down to this one and one from brother. The brother would duplex print and the epson wouldn't. The deciding factor was the Epson had lots of 3rd party ink suppliers for cheap on Amazon. Hopefully, with the ink tank(s) I'll save $$ over the life of the machine as opposed to buying cartridges.
Thanks everyone for your $0.02.
This post was edited on 9/8/22 at 4:13 pm
Posted on 9/8/22 at 5:17 pm to Lonnie Utah
Idk how inkjet tech is nowadays, but my god was it terrible like 5 years ago
Posted on 9/8/22 at 7:05 pm to Lonnie Utah
Wired connection not necessary at all.
Posted on 9/9/22 at 5:56 pm to SaltyMcKracker
quote:
Brother INKvestment printer I bought has run like a champ for 2 years now.
Same. And I'm just now having to buy ink.
Posted on 9/9/22 at 6:27 pm to Lonnie Utah
For our business we always ran a hard wired connection and turned off the wifi functions, I don't know if that is still possible. For home we have had a cannon color laser for a few years now. I get off brand toner and it is way cheaper than any other printing option. The wireless is flawless and I love that I can print from my phone, tablet, laptop even was able to print from my TV. I didn't know that was possible but when I saw the option I just had to try it.
Posted on 9/10/22 at 7:17 pm to Lonnie Utah
Unnecessary. The printer, in comparison to your phone or tablet, gets so little data sent to it in the course of the average day, it's worthless. I had my Brother MFC3770 wired, but the different laptops, desktops, phones etc would see both the wired and the wireless interfaces as available print destinations. Too much of a PITA. Disconnected ethernet. No problems.
Posted on 9/10/22 at 7:58 pm to Lonnie Utah
I have to very much disagree with those saying this doesn't matter. It's been quite a number of years now since I worked in support (thank God), but we fielded a tremendous number of calls troubleshooting printers in which the solution was simply to get the printer reconnected to the WiFi after a disconnection event. At least 3-4 times a day I would have to ask the client to reconnect the printer via USB, remote in with LogMeIn Rescue, and use the printer's WiFi configuration utility to reconnect the printer to the network. In fact, just discussing this topic is giving me tech support PTSD.
Posted on 9/10/22 at 8:55 pm to efrad
quote:
It's been quite a number of years now
I think that's the key to your anecdote, though. I had a Brother from 2006-ish that I constantly had to disconnect/reconnect/refind on PCs (MFC7840). However, the one I bought in 2020 has had this issue a single time in two years.
I've had laser printers in my house for ~20 years, including ones with LPT ports, and I made a mistake in underestimating how far the software and firmware has come. Scan straight to the cloud from the printer without the PC being on? Print a school worksheet from wife's phone without me having to pull up the email and print it? Also awesome.
Wifi connectivity has gotten leagues better, but it's also important to fix the actual problem. If your wifi has issues, fix the wifi. It's not the problem of the printer. Also, the powersaving settings have gotten better in the last decade, where "sleep" doesn't seem to mean, "I died and you need to reconnect me the hard way."
Buy a wireless one, keep the box, use it for two weeks, and return it or put it on eBay if it doesn't meet your needs.
Posted on 9/10/22 at 9:08 pm to Lonnie Utah
quote:
You guys should all DV me for not posting this gif in my original post
useless fact:
PC LOAD LETTER
Means Paper Cartridge Load {paper size.}
I had to get certified in farking laser printer repair 20 years ago. The issue was that with multi-tray printers, you often couldn't tell which tray needed paper, if the size was just set wrong, etc.
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