Wireless printers recommendations, but NOT HP?

Posted by: Tony Lockhart on 12 December 2012

I'm finally at the end of my tether with my pos HP wireless printer. My wife needs to print at home some docs for her major American IT company, as they've no printing or scanning facility. Incredibly Bad Management?

Every time I try to use this HP thing, it has dumped its brain, and sits there 'Initialising'. Switch it off, and on again.... Initialising. Unplug it for a week, switch on, same thing. Leave it on for a week, same. There are no clues anywhere on t'internet, and in the past a long power down has kicked it up the backside, but not this time.

Now then, I HATE printers, and don't want anything that'll print my photographs. I just want a wireless printer that will print from our iDevices via AirPrint, hassle free, and reliably. Available from PC World would be a bonus.

Can anyone help? Or are they all frustratingly hopeless?

Thanks

Tony
Posted on: 12 December 2012 by fatcat

If you don't already own a NAS, why not consider a NAS with a built in printer server. You get the benefit of wireless printing and a backup device.

Posted on: 12 December 2012 by Tony Lockhart
Well, firstly thanks for the advice. Secondly, you'd need to live in my computer room for a month to show me what's what. I become filled with dread at the thought of having yet another device attached to my computer/s. I bought a new MacBook in June to reduce my anger at these bloody things, and I still have my ancient desktop pc. Just in case. I'll ask our resident geeks at work about NAS and see what I think. Cheers. :/ Tony
Posted on: 12 December 2012 by fatcat

All you need is a spare port in your wireless router. I set the NAS up using my PC and I must admit it took longer than it should have. My son has an iMac, he can access the NAS by opening finder. It just appeared there, no need to download drivers or setup anything.

Posted on: 12 December 2012 by Tony Lockhart
Then I'd still need a printer.......
Posted on: 12 December 2012 by fatcat

But not a wireless printer...

Posted on: 12 December 2012 by Tony Lockhart
Hmmmm. Ok. That's looking better.
Posted on: 12 December 2012 by Tony Lockhart
How much is a NAS thingy?
Posted on: 12 December 2012 by fatcat

Only cost about £200 including hard drive. It's worth that for the backup facility, the print server will be a free added bonus.

 

I spend more than that a year on garlic bread.

Posted on: 13 December 2012 by Tony Lockhart
Well, like an old car the printer must have seen its impending doom. It's working again. So I'll hang back on the £200 plus new printer for now. Thanks for the advice. I'll bear it in mind in future. Tony
Posted on: 13 December 2012 by TomK

We bought an Epson Stylus SX510W a couple of years ago so it's probably been superseded a couple of times by now. It prints documents quickly at easily acceptable office level quality and images for the occasional cd compilations I create at decent quality. And it was a dawdle to set up for three laptops and a PC.

It's not a photo printer but it cost less than a hundred quid. There's bound to be better and cheaper out there by now. Don't know what its successor model(s) is (are) but I can certainly recommend Epson for entry level printing.

Posted on: 15 December 2012 by hungryhalibut

We have a Canon MG 6250 and it works really well. The previous HP drove us mad, well rid of it.

Posted on: 15 December 2012 by Hook

The thing that used to drive me crazy about my HP printer was the artificial expiration date of the cartridges.  They would be working fine, have plenty of ink left, but the printer would refuse to use them!

 

Switched to an Epson WF-3540 (wireless color inkjet, copier, scanner, fax). Have been really happy with all of its functions, especially the fast, clear color printing.

 

Will never buy anything from HP again.

 

Hook

Posted on: 16 December 2012 by Tony Lockhart

Thanks for the alternative wireless printer recommendations. When my size 13 safety shoe finally makes its uninterrupted passage through the HP pos, I've a better idea of where to look. Thanks.

 

Tony

Posted on: 13 January 2013 by Tony Lockhart
Well. It finally pissed me off so much I smashed it to pieces: That's it all tidied up. I bought an Epsom something or other, fingers crossed. It's all set up and works as it should. The sales dude in PC World/Currys took a step backwards when I told him what I'd done to the crap HP printer, which cheered me up. Tony
Posted on: 14 January 2013 by Tony Lockhart
Epson, obviously. Blinking auto-correct.