New Fax/Scanner/Printer.. The MFD for me!

IT HAS THAT NEW CAR SMELL
Its always nice to bring home a new Multi Function Copier. But which one is going to give you the most bang for your buck? Today's technology gives you many options. Most of you are Agents that need a copier, printer, scanner, and fax  in one device and thats easy to use. You need a  reasonable price for a quality appliance. Lets look at All-In-One MFC's to narrow it down a bit.

Granted if you have a large scale office and all of your users are printing and faxing to one appliance then you will  need a commercial alternative like the Small Office BIZHUB. If you want your own personal printer/fax/scanner then lets look at what's out there for you to choose from.

BIG THINGS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
Recently i setup a small business office with 10 people on a hybrid WIFI-LAN network. I setup transparency in the WIFI router to allow all WIFI users to connect to the LAN appliances and LAN users to connect to the WIFI appliances. In this case the appliance that the customer had purchased was a small MFC for $69 at Best Buy. I set it up on the WIFI network and connected all 10 office computers to it with full  print - fax - and scan functions from each desktop on both the WIFI and LAN segments. The same little MFC was plugged into the fax line jack and used for sending and receiving faxes over a phone line.

For the cost of $69 all of this businesses users, from their desktop computers, can easily Print, Fax and Scan anything that they want to from one appliance. Of course i would not recommend this for a business that needs to receive a lot of faxes or thats has to print a lot of documents. Since this business  mainly needed the Fax From Desktop functions, this is a perfect and affordable set up for them.

IT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD MFC, TURNS OUT TO BE AN MFer!!
First and most importantly be sure that you can use all of the functions that an MFC offers over a network
connection. Some MFC's offer many functions that include network printing, but only if you have the printer plugged into your computers USB port. It may not allow you to fax from your desktop over a network. For these you have to print out your documents, scan and then fax them. Worthless to you!

You need a Multifunction device that has full network functionality. It needs to be able to print, fax and scan from a network connected computer. It needs to be WIFI ready. Some may also include a LAN port, but make sure that its WIFI capable. Check that it has a phone jack for the fax connection and a bypass jack for an external phone if you want to use a voice line on this phone number also. Email is everything today. Be sure that you can scan to email on your choice of MFC's. You may be interested in a new line of device functions that allow you to send an SMS messages (TEXT messages with attachments) to cell phones. A Big Plus for some.

A BIG APPLIANCE FOR A BIG JOB
I can give you a lot of information concerning resolution and DPI and other stuff, but i'm not going to bore you any longer than i have to. Most of what's out there will do everything that you need it to do. If DPI or resolution is an issue then you may need a commercial alternative. Off The Shelve MFC's do have their limits. They are not going to send out 10 fax jobs that are 100 pages each with any speed. In fact the internal memory of the MFC may cause it to refuse fax jobs if you send too many to it at once. In this scenario you may get a Fax Busy Try Later message. Its the price that you pay to save... Speaking of price.

THEY GET YOU COMING AND GOING
Remember that ink jet printers cost almost 3X more than laserjet printers to use. If you are just sending faxes and emails it doesn't matter. If you are doing a lot of printing or receiving a lot of faxes then it does. Always default the fax / printer to black and white printing. Make the users choose color from options if they need a color print out. Color ink cartridge replacements are very expensive when compared to black ink cartridge replacements. That applies to both inkjet and laser type printers.

The HP Officejet 8600 All-In-One Series is a good example of a great outgoing fax and email network appliance, but kind of expensive to print color print jobs.

GIVE IT TO ME STRAIGHT
We want Full Network functionality including network printing, network faxing, network scanning and scan to email. At the appliance (standing in front of it) we want to be able to copy, scan to computer, fax out, receive faxes and scan to email. I found all of this On Sale locally for $69!

Of course I set up both home and office Agents every day with these appliances. If you need one or just want some more information on what I can do for you give me a call. Its amazing how much money a small investment in IT can save you.

Hope this helps you to save money and buy more Virtual Tours!
Frank Colontonio
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