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My current client is asking me for a Network Printer for his new office. Anyone have an recommendations. along with any extra information that I might inform my client about for the pro's and con's of having a Network Printer for 4 PCs instead of each PC having their own Laser Jet

One pro is to save cost by just buying one laser printer instead of 4 of them. The cost of networking cables and hardware would be far cheaper than buying 4 individual laser printers. Even wireless technology would be far cheaper too. The only downside, is that each worker has to walk to the networked printer instead of waiting at their desk for the document to print out. I hope this helps as its the one thing that came to my mind.

Good Luck finding a printer that suits your needs.

plus also the physical space occupied by 3 printers saved.

i love my HP LaserJet 1200.
wish i could afford the LaserJet 2000 series (LaserJet 2200 i think). that sounds like a good solution for a 4-user net.
but also depends on the printing workload.

Does anyone here own or use a color laser printer??

I used one last summer where I was interning and they are really nice. The color quality produced by them is simply amazing.

BuddhaTB wrote:Does anyone here own or use a color laser printer??

I used one last summer where I was interning and they are really nice. The color quality produced by them is simply amazing.

my best friend and supplier for most hardware parts, has one. I use it when I have something really nice i want to do. Ya they are amazing.

Does no one have a model to suggest for the Network Printer?

I have access to a HP Color Laserjet 8500 series printer, one of those that literally reminds one of "R2-D2" and HP Color Laserjet 4500 series printer at the office. The Xerox (formerly Tektronix, sp?) Phaser series was used by our presentation group, great print outs. Our company is primarily a HP shop for printers.

Getting back to the question, the HP LaserJet 2300n will run for $999 (manual duplex printing, network ready) and HP Laserjet 2300dn will run for $1099 (automatic duplex printing, network ready).

If this thread is still active, HP makes a line of print servers (HP jet direct print servers) that will basically allow you to put any lazer and most inkjet printers on an ethernet LAN (either 10BaseT or 100BaseTX).

I had a couple of the 160x or 170x print servers. They were great. Ebay has the parallel port printer version cheap(about half price) since the technology is soon being faded out by USB printers. Buying the print servers retail you'll probably pay >$100.

Optionally you can get a network capable Laser printer prepare to pay about the same $100 extra for that capability though.


A networked laser is definately the way to go in a small office where you can place the printer in close proximity to all workers. If you can't go for a single printer, two would probably work fine. Posibly you can use a single laser and then individuals who need it can have their own inkjets...


Networking a printer is going to save hundreds (or thousands) initially on the cost of printers/paper. Over time you'll also have lower maintanence costs. And eventually you'll have lower upgrade costs.