Recently our trusty old HP laser printer began displaying a cryptic series of blinking lights instead of printing pages. Since the printer was already 7 years old and was cobbled onto our wired LAN using an unreliable print server module, we decided it was time for a new printer. I wanted direct Ethernet support and a price under $200.
It came as a surprise when I saw a Samsung printer listed as not only having built in Ethernet (as well as USB) but also duplex printing. The next question in my mind was whether it would work with a Mac. Well, not only does it work with a Mac, it nearly installed itself.
The printer arrived with a cryptic sheet with visual-only instructions for inserting the toner cartridge and attaching the included duplex adapter. Then it was just a matter of plugging in an Ethernet cable and a power cord, and finally turning on the power. That was the hard part.
On my Mac Pro two rooms away I brought up the Add Printer dialog in system settings. My Mac asked me if it was the Samsung printer it saw that I wished to add (yes, I do love using OS X). The Samsung printer uses Bonjour to announce its presence to Macs. We were also able to use IPP (Internet Printing Protocol) to setup a PC running Solaris to use the new printer. It is a PostScript printer.
Of course for those who have not yet escaped from using a Microsoft operating system there is also a CD with drivers and you can play the reboot game.
The printer supports automatic two-sided printing without any options or difficult setup. On the Mac you simply select the Two-Sided checkbox in the print dialog and it handles everything else.
I’m completely satisfied with this printer, and was very pleased to pay less than $200 including tax and shipping. Woo hoo! Poor HP.
[tags]Laser Printer, Samsung ML-2851ND, Duplex printing, under $200, Mac friendly, Bonjour printer, Network printer[/tags]
