Looking for a wireless Laser Printer to use with PC and Mac

[Parm]

Here's the setup:

I have my PC running Windows Vista Ultimate upstairs and connected to my broadband on a Netgear DG834GT router via ethernet cable.
Downstairs, I have my brothers iMac connected wirelessly to the router.

What I want is a laser printer downstairs in the study by the iMac but I want to be able to print from both machines. The PC and the iMac aren't networked together (no file or printer sharing etc) so I'd like to be able to connect from the PC to the printer wirelessly when printing, is that possible? Or is there a better way?

As for the printer itself, it doesn't have to be amazing. I'm not too fussed about colour (are colour laser printers still far more expensive?). Any suggestions?

[MadduckUK]

get any laser printer that has an ethernet port. then get a wireless print server?

[staffsMike]

Colour Lasers are actually quite reasonable now..but as always with printers.. Toner is what kills you.

We have a epson all in one thing which is wireless...its a bloody pain..always having to just use the lan port.

Id do as Madduck says and get a print server.

[nichomach]

You shouldn't need an ethernet port on the printer if you have a print server, however. It'll hook up via parallel or USB. Something like http://www.dabs4work.com/productview...Quicklinx=3774 ought to do.

[Splash]

why get a printer with an ethernet port (ie built in printserver) then buy a wireless print server?

My recommendation would be to get a wireless printserver, then hook it up to the parallel/usb port of the printer. That or get a printer with inbuilt wireless printserver (though my experience of these has not been good)

[nichomach]

I fink I just said dat...

[dave87]

I used a Netgear WGPS606 to wirelessly share my printer when at home, pretty reasonably priced too

[Parm]

Ideally I'd like to get a printer that has the wireless functionality built into it but they seem to be few and far between.

Having had a look around, I've found that a multi-function machine would be very handy. One of those all singing, all dancing, printing, scanning, copying and faxing type jobs.

The only one that really seems to fit the bill is the HP C6180. Although it seems rather tasty, it isn't a Laser! With printers I find nothing worse than changing ink cartridges all the time.

Is there such a thing as a wireless multi-function printer similar to above but as a laser rather than an inkjet?

[Parm]

I've now come across this Samsung: http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/p...cx_4200xeu.asp

It's a nice little laser printer that copies, scans and prints for around £130. It doesn't however have any built in networking features so it'd have to go on the iMac or on the PC. If I wanted to network this printer to both machines, what would I need?

[nichomach]

Depends what you're looking to do. If all you need is shared printing, a wireless USB print server'd do nicely. If you expect network scanning, that's a different kettle of fish. Most MFDs even with networking are fine for printing, but don't do network scanning without a host running some form of network TWAIN software or similar.

[Parm]

Ah, if Network scanning is that much of a problem, just the printing would have to do!

[nichomach]

Well, back to something like the Belkin I linked to above, then . You can do scanning from some expensive MFDs to SMB shares, ftp, email etc, without a host PC running software but the controller cards that give that sort of functionality alone cost rather more than you want to know about...

[Parm]

Thanks! I think I'll be picking up a printer and one of those wireless print servers in the very near future!

[dave87]

If you want networked printing and scanning, then the HP Photosmart PSC might be up your street. Not a laser, but the inks last a fair while, and it comes with software for both Windows and Mac, allowing Network scanning, printing, faxing etc.

I've got the 2710, think its been replaced with a newer/better model since though.

Dave

[Parm]

Thanks for the suggestion Dave, I do have the HP C7180 in the corner of my mind as it seems to pack every possible feature. Better still, is has built in wireless networking which really would be perfect for me.

The downside, it's an inkjet and not a laser. I've always had inkjets in the past and I always found myself running out of ink, maybe they're much better now though? Having used laser printers elsewhere, I find the quality is always clearly better than inkjets. But then again, maybe the quality of inkjets has improved too?

Another downside, the HP C7180 is around £200! Mind you, if I were to get the Samsung laser for £130, I'd need to get a wireless print server so I'd be edging up to around £200 by going that route too.

Gah, there just doesn't seem to be a perfect sollution!

[dave87]

The HP Photosmart got brilliant reviews when it came out (cost me £330, but can be had for less now). Has inbuilt wireless, wired, usb and telephone connections. It was the perfect solution for here, where its shared between 5-6 computers depending on whos home (laptops etc).

The C7180 seems to be a similar idea, just not Photosmart branded (probably makes bugger all difference).