Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces
by BROTHER
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Our Price: $305.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $75.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces
Customer Review: Troublesome install under Vista
Summary: 3 Stars
Note as of 21 June 09: This review was written using Vista SP1. I do not know if this was fixed with the recent release of SP2.
After about 3 hours of troubleshooting, I finally got it to work. After searching the net, I found that it isn't necessarily a Brother problem, but a network printer problem with Vista (XP doesn't have this problem). Still I wasn't the first to have these problems (lots of people seem to have the same problem), and Brothers support site makes no mention of it. I called tech support but they were closed for the weekend.
I was setting it up as a network printer using the easy setup button on my router. Basically you press a button on the back of the printer, press the easy setup button on your router (if your router supports it, otherwise you have to use a cable just for setup), and the network configuration is sent to the printer. You don't have to do anything else, just click through the dialogs to install the drivers. Very easy, and it seemed to work. The printer was showing up, it had an IP address assigned to it and the included Brother software was showing it's status.
Except it wouldn't print. Vista showed the printer as offline, and there aren't any settings or buttons to put it online. Reinstalled the driver and set up the network on it multiple times, trying different methods. It wouldn't even print using a USB cable, still showing offline.
The printer was showing up on the network, so I figured I would try it with my MacBook Pro. A slight drawback is the first thing you see when you open the box is a piece of paper saying the included CD doesn't provide full support for OSX Leopard (10.5). I went to their website, downloaded the newest drivers there and set up the printer quickly and easily with no problems at all. Printed fine, so I knew the printer was working.
If anyone has the "offline" problem on Vista, the fix was very easy once I figured it out. The secret is to let Vista set up the printer, not the Brother software. Although the included software is nice for guiding you through the network setup. Once it was installed using the included software I removed the printer in the printer control panel. I then clicked add printer from the same control panel instead of using Brother's install software as I did every time before. It found the printer and installed it and now it works fine.
Print quality is good, but not great. I am pleased with it for what I will use it for. For the price though, it's the perfect home printer. Cheap, relatively small footprint, good print quality, speedy (for the price range) and a tray that holds a large amount of paper.
The only thing I don't like about it, besides the difficult install, is it's power draw. When I turn on the printer or when it starts to print, my UPS (Uninterpretable power supply) turns on due to noise on the line, and the lights flicker. Granted I have a lot of stuff plugged into the circuit, but this seems a bit extreme for a printer.
I only gave it 3 stars for a few reasons. Brother's website at the very least should have a work around for set up. Obviously a lot of people don't have the problems I had, but there are quite a few reports of this problem if you do a Google search. The power draw is another factor, a printer shouldn't be making my lights flicker. And lastly as others have noted, the manual feed "tray" is very flimsy and you can't really call it a tray since it won't support any paper without you holding on to it.
Customer Review: Wow, such a great priced machine
Summary: 5 Stars
THIS IS a nice printer. I was looking around to buy a decent one long time ago but never got into that. HAD to after my 1 year old Epson Inkjet asked me again for new cartridge. In one year I possibly printed like 50 pages and I was surprised so I was ready to dump Epson far far away. Well one night I decided to look for laser printer B/W because that is what we use in our office and I came across this one. Because it is very compact I read in depth description and some reviews here and there. But the most helpful ones I found here. So after hunting for price on the same night, next day I went to local BestBuy and picked up the best deal that could be found, no mail-in rebated, no shipping and LOW LOW cost. I was afraid to set it up after reading so many reviews negatively pointing out one thing - setting up the wireless connection. I also have the Linksys 54g and I was really concerned how many hours will I spent suffering with the device.
I unpack the box and first thing I take is the manual, I read every required piece of information and follow every step they recommend. I connect the device, insert the CD, connect the network cable, etc. I was waiting for that big boom when my brain would explode from not understanding anything. BUT it did NOT. Everything went so well that I was finished setting up my main PC and my laptop after 1 hour - It felt great!
So the lesson is again - READ THE MANUAL - and follow the recommended steps and you will fall in no trouble at all. Except you have to know your router settings (I did set that up a few years ago and that was painful). So somehow I found my old notes and was able to access the router settings and I believe that saved me at least half of the night, as I read in the reviews people were in so much trouble because they did not have that info just pressed next next and hoped that it finishes.
Overall - great product, nothing fancy just basic printing needs with a little twist that it is wireless. I LOVE this printer
I just bought this printer after my Epson inkjet asked me for another cartridge AGAIN after like 10 pages in 6 months. I bet it dries up the nozzle and it thinks that it is out, I do not use the printer much so I was looking for low cost solution and here we go - I think I got a real winner! In addition now I can print from both of my computers which is VERY nice. So after reading some of the reviews yesterday I thought - WoW this is going to be a tough night setting up this printer to work wirelesly, but I was ready for a battle and decided to pick up the printer next day from BestBuy - they had a great deal on this and no mail-in rebates. So I come home and I'm aware that everynoe said afterall READ THE MANUAL. So I read and followed every step they RECOMENDED me to do. And it was a breeze, I was done setting up printer, main PC and laptop in like an hour, I felt so good that I did not mess anything up and everything did go without a hitch. So I am very pleased with the product and the manual and the CD - can not complain about anything. I used the network cable to set it up, and unpluged it after setup as instructed - so the machine is completely wireless except power of course. My suggestion to everyone setting up this printer as wireless printer - use the network cable and KNOW your router settings - VERY IMPORTANT to know the settings because without them - I have read how many people suffered...spent hours and hours undoing the bad they did...and suffering again...hope this helps at least one person :)
Customer Review: Fine, low-cost printer, BUT...
Summary: 4 Stars
As numerous others have said, this is a great light-duty printer. Considering that over the past 15 years I've spent nearly $1K each on several Panasonic lasers and $300 to $500 on various Samsungs, Brothers, and Okidatas, this Brother HL-2170w is a remarkable piece of technology. It prints quickly with fairly good resolution, and will serve well for small-office tasks and will certainly meet all of your home-printing needs.
BUT...if you're buying one to attempt to network it wirelessly, I urge extreme caution!
Before making this purchase, I took the time to carefully read through *all* of the reviews here, and I recommend you do the same. You'll see both sides of the coin, with many users saying they had no problem in networking the Brother and others clearly about ready to shoot themselves or the printer.
The setup of the machine itself was simple. But in our case, the networking was a total nightmare.
We have a laptop and desktop, each less than 4 months old, running Windows Vista (please, don't get me started!). They're networked with an almost-new Linksys Wireless G router. All three pieces of equipment worked fine.
The adults in the house *faithfully* followed every recommendation in the Brother installation guide, attempting both the "temporary cable" wireless installation, and the "search the air for components" wireless installation.
Both were total and dismal failures.
The printer eventually worked with a USB cable attached to the desktop, but no wireless interface could be established. (After what I read here, I didn't bother to try contacting Brother.)
After a total of four days of nearly constant tinkering by well-educated but non-geek-type adults, we finally abandoned the "helpful" (??) Brother installation book, ignored most of what the software told us to do, and just started trying anything and everything.
After about two hours, voila: we had a wireless connection to the desktop. And we're still not sure of how we did it. I wish I could tell you the secret, but we honestly didn't take note of it ourselves! It just sort of all of a sudden happened.
We finally (after an additional couple of hours) got the laptop to function with the printer also, but there are still problems. Daily, in fact.
At various times, ALL of our printers disappear from the Vista printer control panel on the desktop. Mysterious print jobs appear in the printer queue, and we can't delete them (total reboot is the only solution). When printing Excel spreadsheets from the laptop, the desktop crashes! No, I'm not kidding! Print spooler problems abound at every turn.
We can print, wirelessly, about 90% of the time from both computers. But every single day, issues arise.
No, we're not tech-o-philes here, but we're not exactly stupid. Either Brother's hardware isn't up to snuff, or their drivers and installation software are poopy, but the net result was nothing but agony and headaches in trying to get our wireless network to accept the new printer.
BOTTOM LINE: a fine printer for light to moderate use, but understand and accept that if you purchase one, you may have to give up your wireless dreams and connect it via USB to your 'pooter. The driver/software issues are overwhelming if you're unlucky enough to have a "problem" installation. Other than that (BIG grin), it's a nice machine.
Customer Review: Easy to Install Wirelessly if You have Apple Hardare
Summary: 5 Stars
I am an Apple person, and I was able to install the 2170W wirelessly without calling any tech support personnel. Installation wasn't complicated at all -- I had some problems, but nothing that couldn't be solved by following my nose. What follows is my installation story.
I gave up on Microsoft 18 month ago and bought all Apple products. I have an Apple Airport Extreme router; a wireless hooked up iMac and Work Book Pro (laptop); a .Mac account (database in the sky); lots of iPods; and my wife and I both have iPhones. We use the iMac for our mail, bills, and directly attached printing - an HP inkjet printer/fax/copier . I wanted a laser printer because, like other reviewers, I was tired of not being able to print from my Workbook Pro and tired of paying for all of the ink cartridges. My wife wanted the printer stored in an out of the way place -- i.e. wirelessly!
Before buying, I googled "2170W" and got to the Brother web site. I went to "support" and downloaded the Quick Setup Guide. Then I read it! It didn't look like my Airport Extreme supported the direct hook up approach, but the two step approach looked straight forward. So I knew before I placed my order that I would hook up the printer via a cat5 cable to my Airport Extreme, configure the wireless set up, and then remove the cat5 cable. Seemed easy - so I ordered the printer and a cat5 cable.
After my printer arrived, my first problem was that a note told me to go to the web site for the Apple printer drivers. This was easy to do and they installed readily on both of my computers. I later determined that the correct drivers were already on my computers since Apple make it easy to keep your machine up to date. All of my Apple products are always up to date -- always!
Installation of the toner and the drum was straight forward. I hooked up the printer to the AirPort Extreme via the cat5 cable, and it printed perfectly from both of my wireless computers.
I was stumped at first on the wireless configuration because the CD-ROM wouldn't let me get past the "install the driver" part, and I didn't want to install back-leveled drivers from the CD-ROM. I followed my nose and look for other things on the CD-Rom. I found a utility program - BRAdmin Light.jar. When I executed this I was able to proceed to the wireless configuration. The "Printer Setting" configuration required a user name/password but a handy "?" told me that these were "user" and "access" (Unix stuff). This is how I set the toner to "save toner". The Administrator Setting required "admin" and "access" to get inside where I selected "Network Configuration." I needed an SSID but a browse button found my router. Thus, I didn't even have to type in any IP addresses. After the wireless configuration was done, I was told to remove the cat5 cable. I did this and the printer then printed out two pages of technical stuff -- IP addresses and all sorts of thing I don't want to know about. The wireless printing worked from both computers after I removed the cable.
That was it -- no other problems. I moved it to the location my wife wanted, and it has worked for both of us. My wife prints a lot more. I recommend placing an order for more toner when you order the 2170W . I can't tell the difference in print quality when I changed the setting to "toner saver - on."
It really prints fast -- perhaps this is why my wife prints more. For less than $100 I don't think you can find a better laser printer.
Customer Review: Great economical printer
Summary: 5 Stars
I was a bit leery buying this printer because the brand didn't have the market "mind-share" that HP, EPSON, and Canon have. I own both HP and Canon inkjets that use way too much ink, so I decided to try this one since for about $47 (the same price as the ink cartridges), I could get 2,600 printed pages!! It seems like I get about 100 pages on the HP and Canon before I need to order more ink. No matter what site I looked at, the reviews of the printer were SOLID, with people generally complaining about the wireless set up. I think if you know your wireless settings, you won't have too many problems.
I used the directions and CD that came with the printer, and followed the directions that used the ethernet cable, since I have a very old wireless Linksys G router. I have Windows XP machines, and since I knew all my wireless settings, the computers were set up very quickly and printed on the first try, except one machine, where the personal firewall was blocking the print jobs. Once I added the printer's IP address to the firewall, all the print jobs went through. I did use the BRAdmin Light Utility that came with the CD to change the printer to a static IP address to eliminate any issues with the IP address I specified in the firewall, since I can have a variable number of machines connected to the router.
So far, the print quality has been very good. The printer is completely wireless... no cat5 wire from the printer to the router, nor are there any wires from the machines to the printer. What Freedom! The printer is in a completely different room from the router/modem. Duplexing is manual, but for the current 89.99 price, that's a small inconvenience. I have been impressed with the utilities that come with the printer... I can see exactly how many copies I have printed, and I can also see how many jams have occurred (none). I don't think you can get that kind of information from HP or Canon.
Overall, I am very pleased with this printer.
Update: October 13: I have printed over 992 pages on the printer, and the copies are still coming out crisp and clean. The original starter cartridge lasted 601 pages, but most of that was printed without the toner saver setting on. I now have a TN360 cartridge rated at 2500 pages in the printer, so i don't expect to replace that until sometime next year. BTW, several people have complained about the high price of the toner cartridge. On amazon, the TN360 is 48.99 with no tax and no shipping. HP cartridges are about the same price... However how many pages can you print with HP? 200? 300?
Status Update: January 21, 2011
This printer has been a champion! it has printed 15,300+ pages on 5 toner cartridges (includes the starter cartridge)... Unfortunately, I didn't learn about taping over the clear lens until the 3rd cartridge, so there's been a bit of waste on the first couple of cartridges. We are approaching the "end of life" on the drum now. :-( I'm tempted to buy one of those toner refill kits now... plenty of videos on youtube.com. That sticker the toner cartridge about voiding the warranty ... that's where you would fill the cartridge! ha. printer is out of warranty anyways and if breaks, we have new Brother printer to replace it (See below).
Because I am dealing more with color output, I have just purchased a HL-3070CW (wireless color) printer. It goes on sale periodically and I snagged it for $199!