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spacebugI'm shopping for a new printer at work, and it turns out that getting a printer that has everything that I'd like it to have doesn't seem to exist for as cheap as I want it. Help?
We have an aging Apple Laserwriter 8500. I call it "Big Beige". It's definitely not pretty, but it does the job. Or, it did, until a plastic bit on its toner cartridge broke last week rendering it inoperable. Big Beige is aging, it's creaky, the paper drawers don't slide out easily, etc. This cartridge and the last one broke in a similar fashion well before their toner was gone. I'm not sure why, but I'd wager the aging mechanics sped that along. Cartridges are almost $150. Granted, they're high capacity, but still, that's expensive for something that's apparently not going to live out its whole life, and I don't want to buy another one. Big Beige was the main printer here until we got a leased, high-class, network-capable copier/scanner/printer/does the dishes type job that I'll call Mr. Fancy. Big Beige got a lot less traffic once Mr. Fancy showed up but was still used, mainly because it's the only printer hooked up to the public terminals we have. (It's still the only printer hooked up, so right now the public terminals have no means of printing, which is icky.) Mr. Fancy lives in the copy room and is not accessible to people using the public terminals. So... We want to replace Big Beige. I'd like to replace it with something network-capable so that it could be a backup for Mr. Fancy in case Mr. Fancy should, shudder to think, break down, or used while Mr. Fancy is busy copying and auto-stapling hundreds of workshop fliers or printing thousands of solicitation letters. So, I want it to have a network connection, be compatible with macs and PC's (we have a hybrid network), not cost a million dollars, and take a toner cartridge that carries more than a thimble. Things it does not need: color, dizzying speed, multiple trays, multifunction capability.
If nothing like this exists, I guess I'll get a cheap printer just for the public terminals and all of us will live on the hope that Mr. Fancy is infallible, but I'd rather have a second one we can all use, plus it's nice to be able to monitor the print queue somewhat so I know who's printing out eight billion pages off the intarweb and not paying us for them. It seems like there are two printers that exist that have a direct network connection and they're all super expensive and not happy with macs. What's up with that?
Any suggestions?
We have an aging Apple Laserwriter 8500. I call it "Big Beige". It's definitely not pretty, but it does the job. Or, it did, until a plastic bit on its toner cartridge broke last week rendering it inoperable. Big Beige is aging, it's creaky, the paper drawers don't slide out easily, etc. This cartridge and the last one broke in a similar fashion well before their toner was gone. I'm not sure why, but I'd wager the aging mechanics sped that along. Cartridges are almost $150. Granted, they're high capacity, but still, that's expensive for something that's apparently not going to live out its whole life, and I don't want to buy another one. Big Beige was the main printer here until we got a leased, high-class, network-capable copier/scanner/printer/does the dishes type job that I'll call Mr. Fancy. Big Beige got a lot less traffic once Mr. Fancy showed up but was still used, mainly because it's the only printer hooked up to the public terminals we have. (It's still the only printer hooked up, so right now the public terminals have no means of printing, which is icky.) Mr. Fancy lives in the copy room and is not accessible to people using the public terminals. So... We want to replace Big Beige. I'd like to replace it with something network-capable so that it could be a backup for Mr. Fancy in case Mr. Fancy should, shudder to think, break down, or used while Mr. Fancy is busy copying and auto-stapling hundreds of workshop fliers or printing thousands of solicitation letters. So, I want it to have a network connection, be compatible with macs and PC's (we have a hybrid network), not cost a million dollars, and take a toner cartridge that carries more than a thimble. Things it does not need: color, dizzying speed, multiple trays, multifunction capability.
If nothing like this exists, I guess I'll get a cheap printer just for the public terminals and all of us will live on the hope that Mr. Fancy is infallible, but I'd rather have a second one we can all use, plus it's nice to be able to monitor the print queue somewhat so I know who's printing out eight billion pages off the intarweb and not paying us for them. It seems like there are two printers that exist that have a direct network connection and they're all super expensive and not happy with macs. What's up with that?
Any suggestions?
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Date: 2006-12-16 01:50 am (UTC)