Rating  - Does not come with USB 2 cable
Got printer today, installed in minutes, works perfectly. I knock off a star because I connected to Win XP thru USB 2.0 cable. Cable does not come with printer. I had to dig up a cable.
Rating - Let me try to save you some time
(Please note that this entire "review" applies only to those who intentionally set MAC filtering on the wireless router so that only known MAC addresses can use the router.) The standard directions (Install using temporary network cable) worked for me with one important caveat: if you use MAC filtering on your router, the MAC address that appears in the setup is the wrong one to use. The printer has a separate MAC address for both the wired (BRN node prefix) and the wireless (BRW node prefix). Obviously the wireless one is the MAC address you want to add on your router. This did not display until the printer was done with the setup, failed to associate with my router (run of the mill Linksys), and printed a page. That's when I noticed that the Ethernet address and node name had changed to the BRW (wireless) node. Now I could enter the correct MAC address on the router. Hopefully this will save someone the two nights I wasted not knowing about this and having the printer Fail To Associate!
Rating  - Troublesome install under Vista
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.
Rating  - Wireless Printing
I purchased this printer not really expecting the wireless printing to work as advertised (due to some of the prior reviews) so I feel it necessary to set the record straight. Setting up wireless printing was remarkably easy (following the directions actually works!) and it's been up and running the past two months without any issue. Everything works exactly as advertised. This was all set up on an all Mac network with Panther, Tiger and Leopard versions running.
Rating - Great Printer
Very easy to setup. Just follow instructions and you'll be good to go. Great quality printing at a great Amazon price. Highly-recommend.
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Customer Reviews for BROTHER,HL-2170w,012502619468,0012502619468,B0010Z3LGO, |
