Brother HL-5250DN Refurbished Network Ready Laser Printer with Duplex Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought the Brother HL-5250DN printer from Amazon for five reasons:
1) fast monochrome (black and white) printer.
2) network capability.
3) automatic duplexing (printing on both sides of the paper).
4) Enclosed paper tray.
5) Price (and the one-year manufacturer's warranty is nice, even on the refurbished product).
I also like the low toner, paper, and drum replacement indicator lights on the printer. The cost of the toner cartridges is about the same with other printers I've seen.
What comes in the box:
Printer, drum and toner assembly, AC power cord, paper Quick Setup Guide, CD-ROM. The CD-ROM has the drivers, entire Owner's Manual, and animated installation guide.
Note: No cables are provided.
If you are going to connect the printer to a wireless router, you will need an Ethernet cable.
If you are going to connect the printer directly to one computer, you will need either a USB or parallel cable. The printer has connections for both.
Setup
The setup did not go as easily as I hoped.
I had two problems with installation and setup:
1) I was not sure which network to use (peer to peer or shared).
2) After installation, I could not print from one of the two computers on the network.
After easily removing some shipping adhesive tape, inserting the drum/toner assembly (looks like a full toner cartridge, not a starter cartridge) and paper tray, I was ready to proceed with installing the software drivers.
The Quick Setup Guide presents you with choices for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP: USB interface, parallel interface, and network interface. There are also choices if using Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and Macintosh. The manufacturer's website indicates Microsoft Vista has "built-in" drivers but Brother drivers are also available on the website.
Upon clicking "Install Printer Driver" from CD-ROM menu, I was presented with three choices: USB cable users, Parallel cable users, and Network cable users. I chose the network cable users since I wanted to add the printer to my wireless network router. I was presented with a license agreement that I accepted. I then had to choose between "Brother Peer-to-Peer Network Printer" or "Network Shared Printer". I chose peer-to-peer to print directly to the printer over the network rather than to a central server on a shared printer. On Step 8 I had to choose "LPR" or "NetBios". I had no idea which one to choose and I didn't find any useful information to help with the decision. I chose LPR and clicked Next. The printer was recognized. Make sure to write down the IP Node Address (for a wireless router it is something like 192.xxx.xx.x).
Now, I needed to access the printer from my wireless computer running Microsoft Vista. I went to the Control Panel and double clicked on Printers. I then chose "Add a Printer" and selected "Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer". The computer searched for and found the printer. A couple more clicks and I was successfully printing from the wireless computer.
Printing from the desktop computer running Windows XP, connected to the router with an Ethernet cable, would not be as simple. The computer recognized the printer but would not send any data to the printer. I went to Control Panel, Printer and Faxes, right clicked on Properties. The General tab did not have the Location of the printer. I added 192.xxx.xx.x and clicked OK and tried printing a document but I was not successful. After two hours of dealing with it and looking at the company's website, I called the company (toll-free phone number right on the box). The company was closed; I called the next morning just after the company opened at 9 a.m. Eastern. I went through a very brief voice prompt menu and I was connected to Robby in all of about two minutes. He was polite but he was not able to solve my problem. He told me second level support would call me within 24 hours. Just over two hours later I got a call from Debbie, who was in Memphis, Tennessee. She was very helpful and quickly identified the problem. When hovering over the printer icon in the Printer and Faxes folder, the little popup message indicated the printer was offline. I don't know how I missed that. To correct the problem all I had to do was right click the printer and select "Use Printer Online". After a few seconds the printer was in Ready status. Problem resolved.
Summary
This is my first Brother printer and I am very favorably impressed. I don't think there is another printer on the market with these features at such a low price, at least at the time of this writing.
The product is shipped in the manufacturer's box, not an Amazon box, so all your neighbors will know what's in the box on your doorstep. The box looks like the box for a new printer, listing many features of the printer but it is clearly marked "Factory Refurbished". The printer itself has a sticker on the back with "Re-manufactured Product". My printer was originally manufactured in September 2005. I bought it in May 2007.
My experience with Brother International has been very positive. I got a great printer with excellent features, a full-size toner cartridge TN-550 (not a starter toner cartridge!), and a one-year warranty. From idle/sleep, the first page took only 20 seconds to print and the text quality is great. The icing on the cake was the technical support provided by Americans. Their promptness and knowledge was impressive. This was easily the best technical support experience I have ever had!Update December 4, 2007:
I am still very pleased with the printer but it is noisy when printing and it does make "tick, tick, tick" noises sometimes. Neither of these issues has effected performance. The only annoyance I've experienced is with envelope printing - the envelope always crinkles. This isn't a big deal for me but it is something to consider if envelope printing is important to you.
Update October 7, 2008:
I purchased another refurbished HL-5250. The toner and drum are also factory refurbished. The drum unit (DR-520) has life expectancy of 22,500 pages, about 90% of new. The toner cartridge (TN-550) has an expected yield of 3,150 pages at 5% coverage. A new toner cartridge has an expected yield of 3,500 pages.

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The EHL-5250DN is a 30ppm network-ready monochrome laser printer with a built-in duplex feature. Designed for busy offices and small workgroups, it is a smart and versatile choice.

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Brother MFC-465CN Color Inkjet All-in-One Printer with Networking Review

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(More customer reviews)I can't be happier about finally being able to take a sledge hammer to the festering pile of... err... that is, the HP PSC 1410 All-in-One Printer (Q7290A#ABA) I've been chained to for the past two years. This new Brother MFC-465CN is *everything* that the HP PSC 1410 is not -- it's quiet, it's fast, it's insanely easy to use, and (the single most important feature of all, in my opinion) it doesn't install hundreds of megabytes of useless bloat-ware and a dozen memory- and cycle-pig services on your computer when you install the printer driver.
I've got the MFC-465CN plugged into my LinkSys WRT54G wireless router, with wireless NIC's on five Windows boxes. It took me less than a minute per machine to install the driver, and (*gasp!*) it didn't add any services! Or tool tray garbage! Or auto-run garbage in the registry! My prayers had been answered! I wept for joy!
Regarding the other reviewer comment about slow printing, I have the feeling that your mileage may vary depending on how things are connected together. I just dumped this here page (lots of color, graphics, images, and whatnot) to the MFC-465CN and it took just a hair over 30 seconds from start to finish. Much, *much* faster than my old FrankenPrinter. And the print quality is *superb*, for both text and images. No idea how photos will look, but my bet is that it'll do an excellent job of it.
Also no clue about how long I'll be able to go before I have to replace the ink cartridges, but ANYTHING has to be better than the FrankenPrinter, which ate a black cartridge every three or four weeks... even though I rarely print more than a page every other day (!!!).
Just the mere thought of being able to nuke all of that HP bloat-ware on my computers and disembowel that PSC 1410 gives me great pleasure. And I think I'll jump up and down on its carcass a couple of times, and sprinkle some salt on it, just to make sure it doesn't rise from the dead.
UPDATED, 16JAN08: I've been working this printer like a plow-horse for the past month, churning out all sorts of stuff (maps, photos, mailing labels, etc.) and I *still* love the bejabbers outta it. I've dumped at least a dozen full-color Google maps, a dozen or so photos, around a hundred B&W pages and lots (and lots!) of mailing labels, and as far as I can tell it's NOT EVEN CLOSE to running out of ink -- black or otherwise.
Very happy camper. Loving this printer, and thinking about buying another one and putting it up in the attic, just in case they stop making 'em.

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The MFC465cn includes a 2 color flip-up LCD display and a 4x6 photo bypass tray.Print rich, vibrant borderless photos with a droplet as small as 1.5 picoliters and True2Life technology. The MFC465cn can also do other tasks with built-in functions to scan, copy, fax/PC fax, and the PhotoCapture Center to print high quality color photos from digital camera media cards, PictBridge-enabled camera or USB Flash Drive. Print resolutions up to 6000 x 1200 dpi and color inkjet print speeds (30ppm in black and 25ppm in color).

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Xerox Phaser 6125/N Color Laser Printer Review

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(More customer reviews)I am awarding this printer 5 stars for its ease of installation, quality of output, quality of workmanship, unit price and the average cost of a printed page.
The Xerox Phaser 6125N appears to be a solid, quality unit. Given that you will print about 500 pages before you need to buy your next toner, you get a lot of value for the price. Thereafter, based on the prices currently listed at Amazon, paying $70 for 2000 black and white pages is not bad at all. In fact, on a per-page basis, you are paying significantly less vs. what you would spend on a generic ink-jet printer.
I installed the printer at home, in the basement, plugged into a wireless Linksys router via an Ethernet wire. My printer is now taking jobs from 5 different computers, connected through the same router over Wi-Fi and running Windows XP and Vista.
The unit comes in a nice, neat box where very little space is wasted. The unit is very much assembled and ready to go. There is a `Quick Installation', poster-sized guide (also a 'flash' animation on the CD) that explains in detail how to remove the various sticky tapes that held the printer together during transportation and lock in the toner cartridges. Once that's done, you plug in the power, connect the printer via either USB or Ethernet (USB and Ethernet cables NOT included), turn it on, set up your favorite language if it's not English and you are ready to go. On the computer side, you need to install the Xerox printer driver.
The driver installation(*) was relatively quick and nearly flawless. For it to proceed, the setup program must first find the printer. Since the printer was not physically connected to the laptop, it immediately started to look for IP-based printers. You must make sure that the printer is turned on and it has an IP address(**) while this is happening. The status page, which you can print from the front panel, will tell you if that is the case. My DHCP-enabled Linksys router assigned an address to the printer so no complicated setup was required. On the Vista side, I had to give Vista permission for a couple of tasks to complete. The setup gives you the opportunity to register your printer online. I agreed and it was quick and easy even though I was surprised that the setup knew my printer's serial number but not the model which I have to pick it myself from a long drop-down list.
From the moment I opened the box to the time I printed my first page off a document, it took less than one hour. I can see how some users may require help with the network installation part. I cannot say how Xerox supports end-users with more complex network setups because I did not have to call the tech support.The Phaser 6125N is a large, solid box (see Amazon's picture) and it is so because it holds large (fully loaded) toner cartridges and the fuser unit. Printing is quick and quiet and I experienced no paper jams yet. The colors are bright and both the text and the graphics are crisp - I printed some very complicated flowcharts and a colorful logo to test and I was satisfied with the result. Out of the box, over 200 PCL and PostScript fonts are supported. Other features include 128Mb of memory, support for various paper sizes and paper types including glossies and envelopes, it can be set to go into PowerSaver mode after a period of inactivity (and I reduced it from the 30 minute default to 5 minutes), can be set to produce an audible tone on various conditions, will produce Configuration pages with values for various settings and parameters including the environment's temperature and humidity.
This printer should be ideal for the small office and it could be great for the home if the relatively large size does not bother you. In my case, it doesn't because it's going to stay in the basement. Memory expansion or wireless connections were not issues for me but those who have such concerns should do some research before buying.
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(*) Be aware that a nearly identical model, the Xerox Phaser 6130/N Color Laser Printer offers a few enhancements and extra capabilitis such as:
- Double standard memory (128 MB vs. 64MB) and the ability to upgrade it up to 1152MB
- Larger toner cartridges
- Mac OS support
- Built-in PCL emulation and PostScript 3
(**) Note that you will have to install the driver on ALL the computers that are going to use the printer. Every time you install the driver, you will be prompted to register again. After you complete your first registration, ignore any subsequent invitations.
(***) I can think of 3 basic way you can connect the printer without having to buy any extra hardware, other than a cable, if you don't have one already:
1 - Personal printer - use a USB cable to connect it directly to your desktop computer (or your laptop's docking station)
2 - Shared printer - after connecting the printer as above and you install the printer driver, share it (the specific steps depend on your operating system but it's usually easy). This way, anyone on the same network can use it for as long as the computer that's sharing it is up.
3 - Network printer - you plug it into a network port or directly into a router using an Ethernet cable. Unless you place some restrictions, everyone on the network should be able to use the printer for as long as it is on and the network is up.
(****) The 6125 Toner capacity are: 2000 pages for 'black' and 1000 pages for the Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. If found a 'third party' that offers the set of 4 cartridges for about 55: Xerox Phaser 6125 Set of 4 Compatible Laser Toner Cartridges: 1 each of Black 106R01334 , Cyan 106R01331, Magenta 106R01332, Yellow 106R01333 by LD Products.

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Xerox makes color the easy choice with the refreshingly office-friendly, value-packed Phaser 6125 color laser printer. This's compact printing solution powerful enough to handle all of your office printing demands with ease.

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