Rating: - Excellent Value
Bought this laser printer after growing tired of the endless inkjet replacement cartridge costs. Its a fantastic unit so far I really like it. One tip for wireless setup: download the wireless setup guide from Brother for this unit - its a separate PDF document and its incredibly simple step by step. I am using this printer with two PC laptops (one vista and one XP) and two Macs all wireless no problem. Trust me download the that guide - the directions that come with this printer skip some of the key steps for wireless setup.
Rating: - troublesome setup
I bought this printer because it was a good deal, and has both ethernet and wireless network capabilities. The wireless router in use is a Netgear wgr614 v7. It was a little tricky getting first getting the network itself set up. The software package that came with the printer just didn't work. But I fiddled with it for some time, and finally went the manual route and got the router, laptop and printer all wirelessly connected. That done, I then tried again to use the software package that came with the printer to install just the driver for the printer. This time it found everything nicely. So much for "automatic installations"... not errors with testpage attempt but still no print. Finally I uninstalled the whole software package and let Windows XP find the printer and then chose an older generic driver from the the list, Brother HL-P2000. Finally success. I certainly wouldn't call it user friendly to set up. Perhaps it would work a little better with a newer router and laptop IDK. It seems some other had better luck.
Rating: - Great wireless b/w laser printer
The setup was slightly more complicated than I think is necessary but this is otherwise an awesome printer! It prints very fast and begins printing from stand-by very quickly as well. The printed pages are crisp and readable. I am making use of it's built-in wireless networking. The paper tray is also quite large. All around, this printer is awesome and the price is unbeatable.
Rating: - Difficult to setup on Mac OS 10.5
I really like this printer - it's compact, very fast and has great quality print outs. The duplex feature is relatively easy to use. However, if you are planning to use this with a Mac running OS 10.5.x, you should be aware that setup can be difficult which is why I only give it 4 stars. I followed all the instructions in the included setup manual and the printer would not work - I got a "printer offline" error every time I tried. I had to modify the printer settings in the Mac CUPS. Here are the instructions for doing this: [...]
Rating: - Couldn't Ask for More
After reading numerous reviews on this printer and others like it, I went with this one for the wireless feature. I have two wired desktops and one wireless laptop all running through a Linksys WRT54G router.
Initally, I hit the easy setup button on front of the router and in no time, the printer was up and running and working from both the wired desktops. When I went to check the laptop, I realized I had changed the settings of the router when I hit the "easy" button.
Long story short, I reconfigured everything and installed the printer as a wireless printer via the wired setup option. I HIGHLY recommend doing this if you have the wireless router.
The printer is working like a champ now on all computers. This thing is fast too! I have no need to print anything in color and I anticipate this printer lasting me a long time.
- Excellent Value
- troublesome setup
- Difficult to setup on Mac OS 10.5