Multifunction printers

[vjp...@at.biostrategist.dot.dot.com]

Please advise.

I'm looking for a heavy duty sole-practitioner multifunction printer, fax,
scanner, &c (was gonna jibe: toothbrush, vaccuum, dishwasher, and pet
shampooer). I'm guessing I need to spend more like $500. I had gotten the
cheapest HP inkjet recently and it was a disappointment. (I just moved and
junked about half of my equipement to save on moving.)

Not sure if I want cartridge-less inkjet or laser. For pure home, I'd prefer
ink jet. For office, I'd get laser toner but keep it in a place where I don't
mind dusty toner spills (heck, garage works). In same cases I still use MSDOS
and would like the printer to know what plain text ascii is. I had a 2005
Panasonic dot matrix that didn't.

I had an HP OJLX printer 1995-2015 which worked great. I refilled it by
syringe. But about a third of the time it didn't "equalise" right and leaked.

I also worked with some folks who had a big professional HP 5555
which I could do wheelies with from the computer. I loved it, but can't
afford it. It was leased & profesionally maintained monthly
To do stuff like that on my own, I use Fedex/Kinko.

But some friends had the cheapest HP laser printers at their home and they
could be real wimpy. For example when you did two sided card stock, the toner
on the back side didn't fuse well. I'd'a thought the hotter the better (ie,
it didn't cool'nuff because it was thicker) butit was disappointing.

I still have my HP41C calculator and am planning of refurbishing my hp2621a
terminal (screen has "cataract", ie, glue deteriorated). I loved HP products
most of my life, but, yes, firms change.

My first printer (1982-95) was also great, Oki 82a. It used regular old
fashioned typewriter ribbons. It was like an army tank. I so kick myself for
dumping it when I got the HPOJLX, I just ordered a used one on eBay. With
film ribbon, in the early 80s some folks thought I had a Wang. Yes,I'm that
old. Except we used Wang at work ca 1985, not at home.

I also still got my SCM daisy wheel "robot typewriter".

Dunno about interfaces. Had mixed experience using USB to parallel or serial.

Yeah, and when I need to scan big stuff, I really miss those big xerox copiers
with foot pedals that could email you the file. Usually at some big law firm
we sometimes hired. With most home scanners you need to do a dance every time
you turn the page.

--
Vasos Panagiotopoulos panix.com/~vjp2/vasos.htm
---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}---

[steve1...@outlook.com]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2023 14:05:00 -0000 (UTC),
vjp...@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com wrote:

>
>Please advise.
>
>I'm looking for a heavy duty sole-practitioner multifunction printer, fax,
>scanner, &c (was gonna jibe: toothbrush, vaccuum, dishwasher, and pet
>shampooer). I'm guessing I need to spend more like $500. I had gotten the
>cheapest HP inkjet recently and it was a disappointment. (I just moved and
>junked about half of my equipement to save on moving.)

Canon do a range of printers that have always met my needs over the
years. Since retiring my printing needs are just at home and the
TS5151 does everything I need. It's multifunction but not heavy duty.
They do heavy duty printers but I don't need one at the moment.

[The Real Bev]

I've been really happy with my Brother printers, including the
HL-L2395DW print/scan/copy/fax/email I've had for 2 years now. New
toner cart is $20 or so.

The wireless connection is annoying, though. When we had a power
failure recently our router got a new IP address for the printer and we
went through a LOT of shit before discovering that that was the problem.
There's a USB connection for the windows machine (no wireless
capability), but the linux machines have to do things wirelessly. CUPS
is a real POS.

--
Cheers, Bev
"My parents just came back from a planet where the dominant lifeform
had no bilateral symmetry, and all I got was this stupid F-Shirt."

[Dan Purgert]

On 2023-08-22, vjp...@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com wrote:
>
> Please advise.
>
> I'm looking for a heavy duty sole-practitioner multifunction printer, fax,
> scanner, &c (was gonna jibe: toothbrush, vaccuum, dishwasher, and pet
> shampooer). I'm guessing I need to spend more like $500. I had gotten the
> cheapest HP inkjet recently and it was a disappointment. (I just moved and
> junked about half of my equipement to save on moving.)
>
> Not sure if I want cartridge-less inkjet or laser. For pure home, I'd
> prefer ink jet. For office, I'd get laser toner but keep it in a place
> where I don't mind dusty toner spills (heck, garage works). In same
> cases I still use MSDOS and would like the printer to know what plain

> text ascii is. [...]

Brother "MFC" series laser printer sounds like it'll fit the bill --
printer/copier/fax with the ability to save PDF scans to network storage
or email directly. I've never had one of their cartridges "spill" on me,
and the cyclical nature of how I print means that inkjets dry / clog up
in between bouts of "printing a lot" (and $30 or whatever for a brand
new cartridge every 4 months when I need to print again ... ehhhh no).

Does pretty okay with most "printer-friendly" paper weights (most of my
printing is done on 90 pound paper), and I've run some cardstock
through, though that's a pretty rare occurrence. Wife and kids like it
for printing color as well (although "color" wasn't a prime requisite
for buying this one).


--
|_|O|_|
|_|_|O| Github: https://github.com/dpurgert
|O|O|O| PGP: DDAB 23FB 19FA 7D85 1CC1 E067 6D65 70E5 4CE7 2860

[Peter W.]

We have an Epson Ecotank unit that has performed flawlessly for over two years - and we are just coming to the end of the first fill of inks. Does scanning, faxing, printing, and so forth, but not so hot on photos (we do not have the need, so we did not spring for that option). It also does two-sided printing automatically.

Peter Wieck
Melrose Park, PA

[hub...@ccanoemail.com]

Thanks for posting.
Recently, I thought I'd need to replace my trusty old
Brother colour laser - but it revived itself somehow.
The Ecotank was going to be my next printer.
John T.

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Tue, 22 Aug 2023 07:46:12 -0700, The Real Bev
<bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 8/22/23 7:26 AM, steve1...@outlook.com wrote:
>> On Tue, 22 Aug 2023 14:05:00 -0000 (UTC),
>> vjp...@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>Please advise.
>>>
>>>I'm looking for a heavy duty sole-practitioner multifunction printer, fax,
>>>scanner, &c (was gonna jibe: toothbrush, vaccuum, dishwasher, and pet
>>>shampooer). I'm guessing I need to spend more like $500. I had gotten the
>>>cheapest HP inkjet recently and it was a disappointment. (I just moved and
>>>junked about half of my equipement to save on moving.)
>>
>> Canon do a range of printers that have always met my needs over the
>> years. Since retiring my printing needs are just at home and the
>> TS5151 does everything I need. It's multifunction but not heavy duty.
>> They do heavy duty printers but I don't need one at the moment.

>I've been really happy with my Brother printers, including the
>HL-L2395DW print/scan/copy/fax/email I've had for 2 years now. New
>toner cart is $20 or so.

I retired about 2.5 years ago, but am still repairing laser printers,
mostly Brother and HP. Like all manufacturers, quality varies.

>The wireless connection is annoying, though. When we had a power
>failure recently our router got a new IP address for the printer and we
>went through a LOT of shit before discovering that that was the problem.

Here are 3 fixes for that problem:

1. Brother printer drivers have an optional "Network Connection
Repair Tool":
<https://www.brother-usa.com/brother-support/wireless-network-tools>
This monitors the LAN connection between the computah and the printer.
If the connection is lost due to a change in IP address, it will
search for the printer by its name and change the IP address as
required. During printer driver installation, the installer will ask
if you want to install the Network Connection Repair Tool.

2. Most wireless routers include a "pre-allocated IP address"
feature. Other names are "sticky IP address" and "DHCP Reservation".
<https://portforward.com/dhcp-reservation/>
When the router assigns a new IP address to a particular MAC address,
it does it's best to re-assign the last used IP address. However, if
this fails for some reason, it will randomly assign a different IP
address. This is the source of your connection failure. To prevent
this from happening, the router will allow you to pre-allocate an
preferred IP address to the MAC address of your printers wireless
device. For this to work, you will need to configure all references
to the printer to use this "pre-allocated IP address". One thing nice
about using this method is that your reset the printer's network
configuration to the default settings, and it will still work (as long
as the printer is set to get it's IP address via DHCP.

3. Assign a static IP address to the printer. Configure all
references to the printer to use this static IP address. This will
fail if you reset the printer's network configuration.

Hint: Wireless devices that move (smartphones, tablets, laptops etc)
should have their IP address assigned by DHCP. Wireless devices that
do NOT move (desktops, printers, repeaters, media players, game
controllers, NAS storage, weather stations, etc) should use
pre-allocated IP addresses or static IP addresses.

> There's a USB connection for the windows machine (no wireless
>capability), but the linux machines have to do things wirelessly. CUPS
>is a real POS.

I used CUPS on Linux Mint. CUPS is IPP 2.1 for Linux. If your
printer ancient and does not support IPP, there are magical ways to
make it print, but you will likely have problems. I went through that
will a Brother MFC-7360N printer. I gave up and bought a later model
with IPP support, which worked. CUPS also does one thing that the
alternatives lack. It correctly handles multifunction printers
(print/scan/fax). You really don't want to go back to the days of
lpr/lpd or port 9100 printing.

--
Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[The Real Bev]

Thanks! Bookmarked and I'm replying here to save the contents of your
message. I seem to remember some problem with the linux driver (no .tgz
available, and conversions are sometimes iffy), but the suggestion
(somewhere in the flailing process) that the control panel on the
printer would give the new IP address was the magic solution to the problem.

I was really impressed with Brother's linux support with my previous
super-cheap laser printer. Not so much with this one. Still, much
better than nothing. Does Canon still spit on linux?

We do that too. Belt+suspenders!

--
Cheers, Bev
"Screw the end users. If they want good software,
let them write it themselves." -- Anon.

[Trevor Wilson]

**No-brainer. Buy a laser device. Of the laser units, I prefer HP, but
Brother is probably as good, but a bit cheaper. DO NOT EVER BUY a Samsung.

I've owned an HP MFP M479fnw for a couple of years (still current, I
believe). It has performs flawlessly for that period. It's fast and even
prints photos with respectable quality, though not up to good ink jet
quality. If I had my druthers, I would have spent the extra and bought
the duplex printing model for a few extra Bucks. As it is, I have to
shuffle paper around to arrange duplex printing. Toner is expensive, but
lasts a long time. Paper jams are very, very rare and easily cleared
when they do occur. Swapping toner cartridges is a doddle. Nothing like
the Samsung, which jammed every other day and required a screwdriver to
clear!

Just don't buy a Samsung. Buy an HP or a Brother.

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
www.avast.com

[Tim R]

On Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at 7:02:28 PM UTC-4, Trevor Wilson wrote:
> On 23/08/2023 12:05 am, vjp...@at.BioStrategist.dot.dot.com wrote:
> > Please advise.
> >
> > I'm looking for a heavy duty sole-practitioner multifunction printer, fax,
> > scanner, &c (was gonna jibe: toothbrush, vaccuum, dishwasher, and pet

I use a Brother black and white laser. I haven't seen an affordable color laser with good quality, and the kids are grown so no more need for color for schoolwork. B&W is enough for 98%, and I can use an office supply store on the rare occasions I need color. Ink jets are a waste of time, IMO.

[Jeff Liebermann]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2023 08:12:59 -0700, The Real Bev

<bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On 8/22/23 8:59 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> On Tue, 22 Aug 2023 07:46:12 -0700, The Real Bev
>> <bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:

>> 1. Brother printer drivers have an optional "Network Connection
>> Repair Tool":
>> <https://www.brother-usa.com/brother-support/wireless-network-tools>
>
>Thanks! Bookmarked and I'm replying here to save the contents of your
>message. I seem to remember some problem with the linux driver (no .tgz
>available, and conversions are sometimes iffy), but the suggestion
>(somewhere in the flailing process) that the control panel on the
>printer would give the new IP address was the magic solution to the problem.

If you do that, you might as well configure the printer for a
pre-allocated IP address or a static IP address. I prefer
pre-allocated.

>I was really impressed with Brother's linux support with my previous
>super-cheap laser printer. Not so much with this one. Still, much
>better than nothing.

That would be a HL-L2395DW. I haven't had any experience with that
model.

>Does Canon still spit on linux?

I don't think Canon knows what Linux is. Nothing on Canon's web pile.
This page describes the typical ordeal process:
<https://www.linuxfordevices.com/tutorials/linux/install-canon-printer-drivers-on-linux>
I had one customer with a Canon imageCLASS something color laser
office printer. They had to hide any evidence that Linux was being
used in the office when the authorized service center tech was on-site
or they would (unofficially) refuse to work on the printer.

My guess(tm) is that your Linux problems are buried in Brother's
implementation of IPP. CUPS uses IPP to deliver printing that does
NOT require installing a printer specific driver:
<https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSDriverlessPrinting>
If one model printer works, but another model printer does not, it's
mostly likely a problem with the printers implementation of IPP. Not
much you can do about that except to check for printer firmware
updates. Since the lower end Brother laser printers cost only a
little more than a service call, I often suggested that buying a newer
model would solve the printing problem. I've only done that maybe 5
times, but it worked every time. Incidentally, Apple AirPrint also
uses IPP and can have similar problems.

[The Real Bev]

On 8/24/23 11:03 AM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Aug 2023 08:12:59 -0700, The Real Bev
> <bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On 8/22/23 8:59 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>>> On Tue, 22 Aug 2023 07:46:12 -0700, The Real Bev
>>> <bashl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> 1. Brother printer drivers have an optional "Network Connection
>>> Repair Tool":
>>> <https://www.brother-usa.com/brother-support/wireless-network-tools>
>>
>>Thanks! Bookmarked and I'm replying here to save the contents of your
>>message. I seem to remember some problem with the linux driver (no .tgz
>>available, and conversions are sometimes iffy), but the suggestion
>>(somewhere in the flailing process) that the control panel on the
>>printer would give the new IP address was the magic solution to the problem.
>
> If you do that, you might as well configure the printer for a
> pre-allocated IP address or a static IP address. I prefer
> pre-allocated.
>
>>I was really impressed with Brother's linux support with my previous
>>super-cheap laser printer. Not so much with this one. Still, much
>>better than nothing.
>
> That would be a HL-L2395DW. I haven't had any experience with that
> model.

The HL2170 (I think; cheapest one they made) came with CUPS and linux
drivers on the disk. So did the previous cheap Samsung, which was
always a dog and insisted on wrinkling paper. The disk with the 2395
had NOTHING except windows and mac stuff, but included the repair tools
you mentioned previously. I think there was some sort of automatic
setup when I turned on the 2395, but I just don't remember where its
info came from. Maybe when CUPS updated when I upgraded to Slackware
14.2. Just a guess.

>>Does Canon still spit on linux?
>
> I don't think Canon knows what Linux is. Nothing on Canon's web pile.
> This page describes the typical ordeal process:

I've got a chaap Canoscan scanner that does slides. Nice device, but I
had to use windows with it. SANE has some capability now, maybe even
full, but I haven't used it since 2005. Damn, I had to go look at the
dates on the files. I seem to remember making a phone call and being
told "We do not support linux" in a rather stuffy voice as if I'd asked
him about his porn preferences.

> <https://www.linuxfordevices.com/tutorials/linux/install-canon-printer-drivers-on-linux>
> I had one customer with a Canon imageCLASS something color laser
> office printer. They had to hide any evidence that Linux was being
> used in the office when the authorized service center tech was on-site
> or they would (unofficially) refuse to work on the printer.

See above reference to porn...

I liked my Canon camera too (with serious exception regarding its
battery contacts), but I had to take the card out and read it
separately. Not a big problem, but still...

> My guess(tm) is that your Linux problems are buried in Brother's
> implementation of IPP. CUPS uses IPP to deliver printing that does
> NOT require installing a printer specific driver:
> <https://wiki.debian.org/CUPSDriverlessPrinting>
> If one model printer works, but another model printer does not, it's
> mostly likely a problem with the printers implementation of IPP. Not
> much you can do about that except to check for printer firmware
> updates. Since the lower end Brother laser printers cost only a
> little more than a service call, I often suggested that buying a newer
> model would solve the printing problem. I've only done that maybe 5
> times, but it worked every time. Incidentally, Apple AirPrint also
> uses IPP and can have similar problems.

We have 3 slackware machines feeding the printer wirelessly via the
router. Two of them work, one obstinately refuses. The windows machine
is connected via USB and is no problem at all. I haven't tried printing
from my phone. We've temporarily given up getting the third machine to
print; workarounds exist.

I can't scan to my computer using the buttons on the printer; it just
doesn't see a PC and there seems to be no way to tell it there is one.
I could email it to myself or send it to dropbox et al., of course. Or
turn on the winmachine and then transfer the files to my REAL
computer... Fortunately Xsane works.

I have to wonder if a more user-friendly distribution would just take
care of the nastiness all by itself...

--
Cheers, Bev
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can
only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote
themselves largess out of the public treasury."
-- Alexander Tyler (Unverified)

[Jerry Peters]

cups 2.4.6 still uses printer drivers. Version 3 is dropping drivers
so I'm planning on sticking with version 2.
I have a Brother HL-2280dw which supports IPP-1, which cups doesn't.
There'a a github project called brlaser
https://github.com/pdewacht/brlaser/ which supports a large variety of
Brother laser printers. I switched to it since Brother doesn't provide
64 bit drivers for the printer, but does for the scanner.

Jerry