and because i’m a lazy ass i didn’t read the specs but just read the search engine result.
I also assumed that because 6 years ago i bought a $50 hp envy and it had wifi, this much expensive one is also going to have it
Result: that $250 printer doesn’t actually have wifi
Get a brother laser printer
While this is perfect for documents and prints where picture quality doesn’t matter, OP mentioned later that they bought it specifically for photos.
You can use laser for photos but it looks like shit, so inkjet was the right way to go here
Only cheap laser looks like shit for images.
Also, using the right paper is crucial.
Paper is everything, yes. But you can’t beat the image quality of inkjet when it comes to photos. Acceptable images, sure. But printing photos to sell or frame? No way.
Yeah, that’s the rip off right there, 250$ for a printer and it’s not a Brother? Fuck no.
I paid $45 for mine and it works flawlessly every time.
I bought mine on clearance for $30 20 years ago and I’ve bought toner once since then. I’ve rarely been happier with a purchase.
If it isn’t connected to the internet there a much lower chance of ink janga.
Get a USB cable and a device with WiFi. Install Linux and then setup cups as a print server
There’s also much less chance that you can print easily from your pc
I dunno, I’ve been.printing through a print server for decades. I find it far less problematic than wifi-connected printers (especially consumer ones).
Consumer wifi printers are a kludgey mess.
I set up a RPI 2 at my parent’s house connected to a 15 year old printer and it works like magic. Basically any device can detect and use the printer using Samba as long as it’s on the network. No drivers or anything.
Server or not, it needs to connect to the network
And a raspberry pi will do a hell of a lot better job at doing that than the printer.
Our brother printer at work is otherwise a fairly great printer. But dear god does it have the WORLDS WORST wifi connectivity. I had to put it directly under an AP at work so it wouldn’t try to connect to one on the other side of the office at 0.1Mbps and constantly dropping packets.
I have to disagree. I support a Multi-Site org where all windows printing goes through cups servers first, we’ve never had a problem connecting any printer. If anything, it makes it easier for us to replace printers as we can keep the same print queue and send it to the physical replacement printer without the windows devices needing to do anything.
It should work a lot better
Unfortunately, reading the specs for a tech product is mandatory. A single sentence in a preview will never tell you everything you need to know; this was an expensive lesson for you. I’d like to second the recommendation for a Brother laser printer.
I also took 30 minutes of reading the manual before realizing that, yes it doesn’t appear in the wifi network list because it doesn’t actually have wifi connectivity…
edit before someone calls me dumb “u even don’t know how to read the manual”: the user manual is shared with other 10 models and has sections like “how to share the scanner in the network”
the user manual is shared with other 10 models and has sections like “how to share the scanner in the network”
I was so ready to call you dumb, but this is the most annoying bullshit. Makes the manual virtually useless when it has specs for shit that you didn’t buy. Needs to be illegal
This is also why you get search results that seem like this model has wifi.
I’ve found Canon printers to be generally good overall but this is BS. If its any consolation I have a Canon printer with WiFi. Win 10 is so shit the scanner literally never scans over WiFi & ive given in using the printer over WiFi for anything & just use it via a cable
Setup a Raspberry Pi W Zero as your print server, using CUPS.
Last one I bought was under $10.
So one thing I tend to do when researching a product is search for “<model_name> specs” or “specifications”. I usually try to see if they have a marketing slick or one pager of what the item has to find it out. If worse comes to worse I’ll browse the user manual, if something is ambiguous but majority of the times that search will help me find what I need.
Ewww ink jet.
Honestly why buy a printer? Consumer grade sucks and printing is typically .10 a page
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if I didn’t have a printer I would need a standalone scanner, which costs almost the same amount
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Driving to Staples to print a $0.10 page wastes $50 worth of time and gas
A cheap printer pays for itself very quickly.
I guess it depends where your printers are.The library is a mile from me and cost .1. My work also has free printing.
I don’t think it’s worth it in how quickly ink dried out. Those higher tier ones that print thousands per cartridge are worth it but expensive.
The library is a mile from me too, that’s a 30 minute round trip, or I have to drive and pay for parking
I bought a $60 inkjet 10+ years ago. Every 3-4 years I buy a multipack of aftermarket ink for $30. Every 18 months when the cartridge dries up half full in my printer I chuck it knowing the $5 of ink I just wasted saved me $400 in billable hours
I’ve bought two laser printers, both for about $50.
My 1997 laser just died this summer. That’s 27 years of runtime. Even if it was $500, that’s $18/year, with thousands of pages printed, and I think I replaced the toner once.
Glad you have a printer nearby. I do to, but it would take me an hour to print one page, because I’d have to copy it to a thumb drive, then go to the print shop (15 min, using fossil fuels to get there), then deal with printing and hope it prints right, then shuffle back home.
I mean, yea, that’s a fabulous approach. Do that 50 times and I’ve paid for my printer.
That sounds 100% worth it. I would also pay $500 if I knew which could last so long. I’m talking the inkjet garbage that doesn’t last and ink is more expensive than the machine.
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I specifically bought this to print photos, ink is not ridiculously expensive like other models, is like $150 per liter, which is still high considering that’s colored water, but not the usual $5000 per liter.
Oh okay, idk about printing photos!
