Sharing a printer?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We will finally have an office soon, no more living room junk yard. I want to share a printer with Ayaan's computer. Do I need a router or what? /clueless

[MiM]

You have some kind of box connecting you to the Internet? That box has holes for LAN cables (cat5/6)? If true, then all you need is a network capable printer (it should also have a LAN (cat5/6) cable port. Not all printers can print directly from the net, but require a USB connection. If that's all you got it gets trickier. There are boxes that can connect those, but in my experience their functionality is so and so.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You have some kind of box connecting you to the Internet? That box has holes for LAN cables (cat5/6)? If true, then all you need is a network capable printer (it should also have a LAN (cat5/6) cable port. Not all printers can print directly from the net, but require a USB connection. If that's all you got it gets trickier. There are boxes that can connect those, but in my experience their functionality is so and so.

We'll have our cable modem on the desk, it has four ports. The printer can be connected to that via an LAN cable? (Recapitulating to confirm understanding.) I know I'll need a network capable printer, but I'm tired of buying two different cartridges.

[MiM]

Yes, a network capable printer will connect to one of the ports of your cable modem via a LAN cable. Some configuration might be needed, e.g. if you want to give your printer a fixed IP number. BTW: I hope you are buying a laser and not an inkjet.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yes, a network capable printer will connect to one of the ports of your cable modem via a LAN cable. Some configuration might be needed, e.g. if you want to give your printer a fixed IP number. BTW: I hope you are buying a laser and not an inkjet.

I hope to not buy a printer at all. If I do buy it will be a good-ish one, not a cheapo. Suggs?

[JimC]

Yes, a network capable printer will connect to one of the ports of your cable modem via a LAN cable. Some configuration might be needed, e.g. if you want to give your printer a fixed IP number. BTW: I hope you are buying a laser and not an inkjet.

I hope to not buy a printer at all. If I do buy it will be a good-ish one, not a cheapo. Suggs?

I have a Canon inkjet (MG8150). If you avoid printing in colour unless you really need to, the cartridges last a long time, and you just have to replace the large black one. It works fine, does scanning and photocopying, and we do all our printing via WiFi...

[MiM]

All inkjets I have used have the problem, that the crtridges either empty fast, or if you don't use them regularly, they dry. No such problems with laserjets. If you need to make high quality pictures at home (which is expensive as hell), an inkjet is preferable.

[JimC]

All inkjets I have used have the problem, that the crtridges either empty fast, or if you don't use them regularly, they dry. No such problems with laserjets. If you need to make high quality pictures at home (which is expensive as hell), an inkjet is preferable.

True, if you leave the cartridges for a long time, but laserjets have a much higher initial cost. At the moment, the Canon works well for me, and I haven't yet had a problem with drying out. If I have to print lots, I use the school's printer, which is actually our fancy photocopier...

[MiM]

All inkjets I have used have the problem, that the crtridges either empty fast, or if you don't use them regularly, they dry. No such problems with laserjets. If you need to make high quality pictures at home (which is expensive as hell), an inkjet is preferable.

True, if you leave the cartridges for a long time, but laserjets have a much higher initial cost. At the moment, the Canon works well for me, and I haven't yet had a problem with drying out. If I have to print lots, I use the school's printer, which is actually our fancy photocopier...

The price of laserjets have come down considerably. You can get one with colour and scanner for about 100€. However, with all printers it is good to know, that the initial cartridges are usually only partly filled, so fairly soon you will need a new set of cartridges, which might easily cost more than the initial investment.

Another thing that inkjets has going for them, is that they are smaller.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

So, how many pages does your cartridge promise, and what's the per page cost?

[MiM]

2300 pages/black, 1500 pages/colour and about 70 €/cartridge, if you buy original, 50 for bulk. 1 black and 3 colour cartridges. So that's about 2-15 euro cents/page going from bulk black to original colour. You probably get them for less $, than I have to pay €.

And it spares you the hassle to change cartridges all the time.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

2300 pages/black, 1500 pages/colour and about 70 €/cartridge, if you buy original, 50 for bulk. 1 black and 3 colour cartridges. So that's about 2-5 euro cents/page going from bulk black to original colour. You probably get them for less $, than I have to pay €.

And it spares you the hassle to change cartridges all the time.

http://ganson.com/TCO-For-Color.html

[MiM]

2300 pages/black, 1500 pages/colour and about 70 €/cartridge, if you buy original, 50 for bulk. 1 black and 3 colour cartridges. So that's about 2-5 euro cents/page going from bulk black to original colour. You probably get them for less $, than I have to pay €.

And it spares you the hassle to change cartridges all the time.

http://ganson.com/TCO-For-Color.html

For a relatively low volume of 50 to 100 pages a month, the supply costs aren’t too bad! But, if you decide or need to print 200 to 500 pages a month, the cost becomes pretty high! Consider that $0.25 X 200 pages = $50, supply costs must be factored in as you compare printers.

Do you buy a new printer every month? . I'd think the life of a good printer should be at least 3 years, so the supply cost, if you print 200 pages/month (which is really high, for home use) would be her 50$ * 36 months, or 1800$

[Gawdzilla Sama]

We only print when we have to. (I print recipes, and interesting items from Soap Opera Digest, but that's pretty much it.)

[mistermack]

Can't you save your work to a usb dongle, and print off that? Either through the other pc, or just plugging it into the printer?

I have an old HP three in one, which keeps going, so I'm not up to date. I can refill the cartriges myself, the newer ones are apparently a nightmare.

My buddies printer is wireless, so I assume if you had that, you could print off two pcs on it.