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• Color Printer: Laser vs Inkjet

  - by Mike

  I am about to buy a color printer. I had a B&W Laserjet printer in the past but since then I've used inkjets for decades. I need a printer that can deliver high quality as these photo inkjet printers, but I'm tired of paying for ink that costs $9,000 per gallon (1 gallon = 3.785 liters = 300 cartridges = $9,000). So, I was thinking about buying a color laser printer, but I'm not sure these printers can deliver the same quality and are worth the investment in terms of toner consumption. I remembered that my old Laserjet printer was able to print 1100 pages per toner cartridge. The inkjet printers I have can print 500 pages per cartridge. Price by price, 2 inkjet cartridges have more or less the same cost as one toner cartridge and in theory prints almost the same. I am not sure if this is true for color lasers. What can you guys tell me about quality, toner cost and cost per page for laser or inkjet printer? Is it worth the change? (Keep in mind that an inkjet printer costs $50 and a laser printer costs $200.) Thanks.

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• Share a Printer on Your Network from Vista or XP to Windows 7

  - by Mysticgeek

  The other day we looked at sharing a printer between Windows 7 machines, but you may only have one Windows 7 machine and the printer is connected to a Vista or XP computer. Today we show you how to share a printer from either Vista or XP to Windows 7. We previously showed you how to share files and printers between Windows 7 and XP. But what if you have a printer connected to an XP or Vista machine in another room, and you want to print to it from Windows 7? This guide will walk you through the process. Note: In these examples we’re using 32-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP on a basic home network. We are using an HP PSC 1500 printer, but keep in mind every printer is different so finding and installing the correct drivers will vary. Share a Printer from Vista To share the printer on a Vista machine click on Start and enter printers into the search box and hit Enter. Right-click on the printer you want to share and select Sharing from the context menu. Now in Printer Properties, select the Sharing tab, mark the box next to Share this printer, and give the printer a name. Make sure the name is something simple with no spaces then click Ok. Share a Printer from XP To share a printer from XP click on Start then select Printers and Faxes. In the Printers and Faxes window right-click on the printer to share and select Sharing. In the Printer Properties window select the Sharing tab and the radio button next to Share this printer and give it a short name with no spaces then click Ok. Add Printer to Windows 7 Now that we have the printer on Vista or XP set up to be shared, it’s time to add it to Windows 7. Open the Start Menu and click on Devices and Printers. In Devices and Printers click on Add a printer. Next click on Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer. Windows 7 will search for the printer on your network and once its been found click Next. The printer has been successfully added…click Next. Now you can set it as the default printer and send a test page to verify everything works. If everything is successful, close out of the add printer screens and you should be good to go.   Alternate Method If the method above doesn’t work, you’ll can try the following for either XP or Vista. In our example, when trying to add the printer connected to our XP machine, it wasn’t recognized automatically. If you’re search pulls up nothing then click on The printer that I want isn’t listed. In the Add Printer window under Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address click the radio button next to Select a shared printer by name. You can either type in the path to the printer or click on Browse to find it. In this instance we decided to browse to it and notice we have 5 computers found on the network. We want to be able to print to the XPMCE computer so we double-click on that. Type in the username and password for that computer… Now we see the printer and can select it. The path to the printer is put into the Select a shared printer by name field. Wait while Windows connects to the printer and installs it… It’s successfully added…click Next. Now you can set it as the default printer or not and print a test page to make sure everything works successfully. Now when we go back to Devices and Printers under Printers and Faxes, we see the HP printer on XPMCE. Conclusion Sharing a printer from one machine to another can sometimes be tricky, but the method we used here in our setup worked well. Since the printer we used is fairly new, there wasn’t a problem with locating any drivers for it. Windows 7 includes a lot of device drivers already so you may be surprised on what it’s able to install. Your results may vary depending on your type of printer, Windows version, and network setup. This should get you started configuring the machines on your network—hopefully with good results.  If you you have two Windows 7 computers, then sharing a printer or files is easy through the Homegroup feature. You can also share a printer between Windows 7 machines on the same network but not Homegroup. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Share a Printer Between Windows 7 Machines Not in the Same HomegroupShare Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XPHow To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and VistaEnable Mapping to \HostnameC$ Share on Windows 7 or VistaUse the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7 to Share Printers and Files TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Share a Printer on Your Network from Vista or XP to Windows 7

  - by Mysticgeek

  The other day we looked at sharing a printer between Windows 7 machines, but you may only have one Windows 7 machine and the printer is connected to a Vista or XP computer. Today we show you how to share a printer from either Vista or XP to Windows 7. We previously showed you how to share files and printers between Windows 7 and XP. But what if you have a printer connected to an XP or Vista machine in another room, and you want to print to it from Windows 7? This guide will walk you through the process. Note: In these examples we’re using 32-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, and XP on a basic home network. We are using an HP PSC 1500 printer, but keep in mind every printer is different so finding and installing the correct drivers will vary. Share a Printer from Vista To share the printer on a Vista machine click on Start and enter printers into the search box and hit Enter. Right-click on the printer you want to share and select Sharing from the context menu. Now in Printer Properties, select the Sharing tab, mark the box next to Share this printer, and give the printer a name. Make sure the name is something simple with no spaces then click Ok. Share a Printer from XP To share a printer from XP click on Start then select Printers and Faxes. In the Printers and Faxes window right-click on the printer to share and select Sharing. In the Printer Properties window select the Sharing tab and the radio button next to Share this printer and give it a short name with no spaces then click Ok. Add Printer to Windows 7 Now that we have the printer on Vista or XP set up to be shared, it’s time to add it to Windows 7. Open the Start Menu and click on Devices and Printers. In Devices and Printers click on Add a printer. Next click on Add a network, wireless or Bluetooth printer. Windows 7 will search for the printer on your network and once its been found click Next. The printer has been successfully added…click Next. Now you can set it as the default printer and send a test page to verify everything works. If everything is successful, close out of the add printer screens and you should be good to go.   Alternate Method If the method above doesn’t work, you’ll can try the following for either XP or Vista. In our example, when trying to add the printer connected to our XP machine, it wasn’t recognized automatically. If you’re search pulls up nothing then click on The printer that I want isn’t listed. In the Add Printer window under Find a printer by name or TCP/IP address click the radio button next to Select a shared printer by name. You can either type in the path to the printer or click on Browse to find it. In this instance we decided to browse to it and notice we have 5 computers found on the network. We want to be able to print to the XPMCE computer so we double-click on that. Type in the username and password for that computer… Now we see the printer and can select it. The path to the printer is put into the Select a shared printer by name field. Wait while Windows connects to the printer and installs it… It’s successfully added…click Next. Now you can set it as the default printer or not and print a test page to make sure everything works successfully. Now when we go back to Devices and Printers under Printers and Faxes, we see the HP printer on XPMCE. Conclusion Sharing a printer from one machine to another can sometimes be tricky, but the method we used here in our setup worked well. Since the printer we used is fairly new, there wasn’t a problem with locating any drivers for it. Windows 7 includes a lot of device drivers already so you may be surprised on what it’s able to install. Your results may vary depending on your type of printer, Windows version, and network setup. This should get you started configuring the machines on your network—hopefully with good results.  If you you have two Windows 7 computers, then sharing a printer or files is easy through the Homegroup feature. You can also share a printer between Windows 7 machines on the same network but not Homegroup. Similar Articles Productive Geek Tips Share a Printer Between Windows 7 Machines Not in the Same HomegroupShare Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XPHow To Share Files and Printers Between Windows 7 and VistaEnable Mapping to \HostnameC$ Share on Windows 7 or VistaUse the Homegroup Feature in Windows 7 to Share Printers and Files TouchFreeze Alternative in AutoHotkey The Icy Undertow Desktop Windows Home Server – Backup to LAN The Clear & Clean Desktop Use This Bookmarklet to Easily Get Albums Use AutoHotkey to Assign a Hotkey to a Specific Window Latest Software Reviews Tinyhacker Random Tips Revo Uninstaller Pro Registry Mechanic 9 for Windows PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010 PCmover Professional Enable Check Box Selection in Windows 7 OnlineOCR – Free OCR Service Betting on the Blind Side, a Vanity Fair article 30 Minimal Logo Designs that Say More with Less LEGO Digital Designer – Free Create a Personal Website Quickly using Flavors.me

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• Wireless printer going offline upon entering power save mode

  - by Regmi

  I recently bought a printer, Samsung ML1865W, a wireless laser printer. It works very well, wirelessly until after a while, it goes to power save mode when the printer goes offline. I then cannot connect to the printer (pinging the ip and various ports associated with it do not give any response) until I power cycle the printer. I have checked my wireless settings and my router, I have installed the printer software in WinXP, Win2000 and in Mac and the printer behaves just the same. Any ideas if the printer hardware itself is broken or that its something on my network/application side that's the culprit. If you own the printer, have you had any trouble like that at any time?

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• Printer sharing problem (win7 / WinXP): Canon pixma USB printer

  - by Rabarberski

  For a friend, I am trying to share a USB Canon pixma ip3000 printer between two computers in his home network. But I can't get it to work due tot a Canon driver problem. The printer is connected to the Windows 7 (64 bit) computer, and we would like to be able to print from a Windows XP computer. 'Normally' it should be no problem to use Windows printer sharing, however, because one machine is 32-bit and the other is 64-bit, installing an extra driver is required. T he driver provided by canon (here) is described as a 'Canon Inkjet Printer Driver Add-On Module'. The problem is that the .inf file contained in the .exe file isn't accepted as a driver when prompted by the Printer Sharing Wizard, I suspect because it is an add-on driver (whatever that may be). I've connected and installed the printer locally on the XP machine first (which works), so that the XP machine would already know the driver when using it as a network printer, but that doesn't work; the wizard still wants a driver file. Anybody suggestions how to get this working? Maybe there is some sort of generic driver (would be OK even with limited functionality)?

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• Server 2003 Remote Desktop loses its virtual printer image of the local printer

  - by Charles Hart

  Server 2003 Remote Desktop provides service to stores served by several ISPs. The server loses its virtual printer image of the local printer (as seen from the remote store site) and a copy of the original local printer appears on the local computer with a different driver without notice. Specifically: A remote desktop session is opened on a local computer that has a Brother HL2140 USB printer connected and the associated software installed with a correct driver shown under the “advanced” button. The server has the same Brother software and driver. An application that is running on the server attempts to print on the local printer connected to the local computer running Vista Pro or XP Pro. Either it works correctly (Good) or it does not print (Bad) or it prints on another Local Printer connected to another local computer logged into the server (Bad and Odd). When it doesn’t print (or prints somewhere else) we ask the customer to look for the (virtual) printer using the Remote desktop view of the server and the printer is gone. Then we ask the customer to look at the printers folder in the local computer. There are several possibilities: The printer is there, but the driver is mysteriously changed in the drop down to MDX something; we have the customer select the other (proper) Brother driver, and all is well again, as now after the change, the virtual printer in the server (which now matches the local printer) appears again, and so printing can resume. A “copy” of the printer mysteriously appears in the local printer’s folder and after we delete it the virtual printer in the server appears again and so printing can resume. Note that in both case 1 and 2, the server sometimes sends the print job elsewhere, to some other local computer. Meanwhile in the log file, endless errors are reported and the server eventually crashes, sometimes twice a day. I’m puzzled what changes the local printer driver and I’m puzzled what loads the copy 2 or copy 3 of the printer in the local printer folder. This entire description randomly occurs on any of 40+ local computers in eight different locations in different ISPs, all sharing one Domain.

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• Adding a Printer to my Print Server Failing

  - by Rudi Kershaw

  So, on the Windows Server page I read the following. Step 4: Add Network Printers Automatically Print Management (Printmanagement.msc) can automatically detect all the printers that are located on the same subnet as the computer on which you are running Print Management, install the appropriate printer drivers, set up the queues, and share the printers. To automatically add network printers to a printer server Open the Administrative Tools folder, and then double-click Print Management. In the Printer Management tree, right-click the appropriate server, and then click Add Printer. On the Printer Installation page of the Network Printer Installation Wizard, click Search the network for printers, and then click Next. If prompted, specify which driver to install for the printer. So, I have got to this point, made sure the printer (Canon MP620) is on and correctly plugged into the network. However, when I click "Search the network for printers", the wizard doesn't find it. Now, I can't get any further. Is there anything I could be doing wrong? How should I proceed moving forwards?

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• Cant add network printer with system-config-printer package

  - by Erick David Ruiz Coronel

  Hello im new here and I dont know if im doing it right but I hope yes. I have a printer conected to a windows 8 machine, also I had ubuntu 13.04 and it worked fine when I printed from linux to windows but when I upgraded to 13.10 my printer didnt worked, I removed it thinking that would fix it but when I tryed to add the printer again I couldnt, I reinstalled cups and the system-config-printer-gnome package but didnt worked. Here is the terminal log : erick@Tauro:~$ system-config-printer Caught non-fatal exception. Traceback: File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/probe_printer.py", line 255, in _do_find fn () File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/probe_printer.py", line 367, in _probe_hplip stderr=null) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 709, in init errread, errwrite) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1326, in _execute_child raise child_exception OSError: [Errno 2] No existe el archivo o el directorio Continuing anyway.. Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/newprinter.py", line 912, in on_btnNPForward_clicked self.nextNPTab() File "/usr/share/system-config-printer/newprinter.py", line 1064, in nextNPTab stderr=file("/dev/null")) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 709, in init errread, errwrite) File "/usr/lib/python2.7/subprocess.py", line 1326, in _execute_child raise child_exception OSError: [Errno 2] No existe el archivo o el directorio Any suggestion please? C:

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• Windows printing: printer works locally, but over network it can't find driver

  - by JudahGabriel

  A friend has a Epson Stylus RX500 printer. She wants to share it between her WinXP desktop and her Win7 laptop. The printer is connected direct to her WinXP desktop, and she can print fine from there. But the Win7 laptop can't print -- it can see the shared printer on the network, but it can't find a driver for it. (And looking on the web, I don't see any Win7 drivers for it.) However, if I connect the printer directly to the Win7 laptop, it works, it can print. This suggests that there is a driver for it, but for some reason, it can't find a driver when connecting to the printer over the network. My question is: if a printer works when connected directly to the machine, should it still work over the local network?

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• What to look for in a good cheap color laser printer?

  - by torbengb

  My old color inkjet is giving up, and I'm considering laser to replace it. There are several good questions about color laser printers, but none of them summarize the pro's and con's. So here goes: I am looking to buy a color printer for home use, mostly for photos (at least medium-quality) and also for low-volume b/w text. Duplex would be neat but not a must. One aspect per answer, please: What aspects should I consider, what should I look for, what should I avoid in a home color laser printer? I'll make this a community wiki because there won't be one single definite answer. I'll post a few ideas of my own but I'm hoping to get many useful insights.

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• Using Zebra LP 2844-Z over the network

  - by Jason Kealey

  Hello, I am looking for a network-based label printer. I am looking at this Zebra LP-2844-Z printer. Unfortunately, it does not come with a network interface like the lower-end LP 2824 Plus. The ZebraNet 10/100 Print Server is both expensive for what it does (~$600) and only seems to support wireless networking, not wired. I prefer wired for reliability. Questions: Can I use a cheaper off-the-shelf print server to turn the LP-2844Z to a network printer. Would I get any trouble communicating with the printer via its own programming language or via OPOS? (instead of the Windows driver) Are cheaper print servers reliable? Would I be better to get another printer model that has it built in directly to avoid having issues due to the print server? What other printer would you recommend?

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• Driverless printer sharing on Windows.

  - by MiffTheFox

  I have a printer hooked up to a computer running Windows XP. It prints fine from that computer, but I'd like to set up other computers (running Vista and 7) to print from it as well. I tried setting up printer sharing, but it wouldn't work because the client computers needed to install the print driver as well. (The driver itself has been discontinued and there's no version for Vista or 7.) Is there some (hopefully free) software I can install to, say, add a virtual printer that sends the data to a host computer to print it, rather then having to directly access the printer over the network via the Windows printer sharing model?

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• Network printer - Print direct or via shared printer on Server?

  - by NickC

  It has occurred to me that a workstation can connect to a printer in two ways: 1). Printing directly to the IP of the printer with the print driver installed locally. 2). Printing to a \Server\Printer1 share with the print queue residing on the server. Question is which way is preferred? I would assume that printing directly to a network printer rather than going through the server would be the most efficient from the point of view of network traffic. On the other hand I guess a server printer share would be easier to manage with the correct driver automatically being downloaded to the workstations. Also what about using GPP (Server2012) to install this printer on the workstations, does that require any specific way?

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• Windows refuses to believe printer is online unless I delete and re-add it

  - by Marcin

  I have a Canon MP560. It is online, in the sense that (a) I can connect to its internal web server; and (b) if I delete the printer in windows (windows 7), and reinstall it, windows will recognise that the printer is online, and talk to it. In all other cases, the windows and mac computers (purchased last week, running whatever is the latest and greatest mac os) in my household will simply not recognise that the printer is online. The printer is statically configured to use the same IP address, so that's not an issue. Because the printer works just fine with windows after delete and re-add, I assume that the issue with the mac is that I haven't installed whatever drivers Macs need to talk to Canon printers over a network.

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• LASER x Deskjet Printer

  - by Mike

  I am about to buy a color printer. I had a b&W laserjet printer in the past but since then I use deskjet for decades. I need a printer that can deliver high quality as these photo deskjet printers but I am tired of paying ink that costs $9,000 per gallon of ink (1 gallon = 3.785 liters = 300 cartridges = $9,000). So, I was pondering about buying a color laser, but I am not sure if these printers can deliver the same quality and worth the investment in terms of toner consumption. I remembered that my old laserjet printer was able to print 1100 pages per toner cartridge. The deskjet printers I have can print 500 pages per cartridge. Price by price, 2 deskjet cartridges have more or less the same cost as one toner cartridge and in theory prints almost the same. I am not sure if this is true for color lasers. What you guys can tell me about quality, toner cost and cost per page using laser or deskjet. Does it worths the change? Remember that a deskjet printer costs $50 and a laser printer costs $200. thanks.

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• Loading Properties with Spring (via System Properties)

  - by gabe

  My problem is as follows: I have server.properties for different environments. The path to those properties is provided trough a system property called propertyPath. How can I instruct my applicationContext.xml to load the properties with the given propertyPath system property without some ugly MethodInvokingBean which calls System.getProperty(''); My applicationContext.xml <bean id="systemPropertyConfigurer" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"> <property name="systemPropertiesModeName" value="SYSTEM_PROPERTIES_MODE_OVERRIDE"/> <property name="placeholderPrefix" value="sys{"/> <property name="properties"> <props> <prop key="propertyPath">/default/path/to/server.properties</prop> </props> </property> </bean> <bean id="propertyResource" class="org.springframework.core.io.FileSystemResource" dependency-check="all" depends-on="systemPropertyConfigurer"> <constructor-arg value="sys{propertyPath}"/> </bean> <bean id="serviceProperties" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertiesFactoryBean"> <property name="location" ref="propertyResource"/> </bean> <bean id="propertyConfigurer" class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.PropertyPlaceholderConfigurer"> <property name="location" ref="propertyResource"/> <property name="placeholderPrefix" value="prop{"/> <property name="ignoreUnresolvablePlaceholders" value="true"/> <property name="ignoreResourceNotFound" value="false"/> </bean> <bean id="dataSource" class="org.springframework.jndi.JndiObjectFactoryBean"> <property name="jndiName" value="prop{datasource.name}"/> </bean> with this configuration the propertyResource alsways complains about java.io.FileNotFoundException: sys{propertyPath} (The system cannot find the file specified) Any suggestions? ;-) Thanks gabe

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• Shared printer stops working on clients but not host computer

  - by Tony

  I have a Brother MFC-7420 USB all-in-one laser printer. It is plugin via USB to my Windows 7 x64 machine. I have it shared to a few users on my home network. My wife's laptop running Vista x64 can normally print fine to the printer. However it seems that every day or two, when she pushes print on a something it just sits in her laptop's print queue and never makes it to my desktop. The only thing that seems to fix this is if she restarts her laptop. Not a big deal but this problem is sort of annoying. I don't know if this affects but the laptop is put into hibernate at night and I turn my desktop off at night. Does anyone know why this happens and if there is something easy to do to fix the problem besides restart the computer? EDIT: I was thinking that maybe my wife's laptop loses its connection to the printer. Is there a way to reset a connection to a shared printer? Or maybe reauth with the printer?

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• Connecting a network printer via a Thecus N2100 - works in Vista, not in Windows 7

  - by Jon Skeet

  I have a Lexmark E250d printer attached to a Thecus N2100 NAS. On Windows Vista I've managed to configure this using an "Internet" printer port with the URL of http://thecus:631/printers/usb-printer. I can add a printer in a similar way in Windows 7, but it never manages to print the test page. If I go to "Configure Port" in Vista, it just has "Security Options" - on Windows 7 it's asking about Raw mode vs LPR mode etc. On Vista I'm using an E250d-specific driver from Lexmark; on Windows 7 there's a Microsoft E250d driver, or a Universal PCL XL driver from Lexmark... I wouldn't expect this different to be related to the problem, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. (Lexmark doesn't have a Windows 7 E250d-specific driver as far as I can see.) Any suggestions? I was thinking of upgrading my main laptop from Vista to Windows 7, but I'd really like to get this sorted first... EDIT: If I connect to http://thecus:631/printers/usb-printer via Chrome while capturing with Wireshark, I get this response: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:47:23 GMT Connection: Keep-Alive Keep-Alive: timeout=60 Content-Language: C Transfer-Encoding: chunked Content-Type: text/html;charset=iso-8859-1 0 No idea what that's meant to be doing... EDIT: On further consultation, this would appear to be the Internet Printing Protocol which is layered on HTTP. Printing a test page successfully from Vista posts to that URL. Will attempt the same on Windows 7...

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• Generating Thermal Printer (Zebra Printer) Sized PDFs for FedEx Labels

  - by Michael Hart

  Background I own a company which does a lot of FedEx Ground shipping. We have a 3rd party fulfillment center, which stores some of our inventory and at our request ships it. Zebra/Thermal printers are the most cost effective shipping label printers available and our 3rd party fulfillment center has one. I want to generate the labels locally then e-mail the 3rd party fulfillment center a PDF of the labels which they can then print out on their printer. Problem The trouble is, I can't seem to figure out how to print these 4" x 6" labels to a PDF, as FedEx (both ship manager and fedex.com) uses javascript to detect what printer I have. Question What's a clever way to send my 3rd party fulfillment center a PDF (or equivalent) of our 4" x 6" zebra thermal printer labels so they can print them out without re-entering the data?

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• HTG Explains: Why is Printer Ink So Expensive?

  - by Chris Hoffman

  Printer ink is expensive, more expensive per drop than fine champagne or even human blood. If you haven’t gone paperless, you’ll notice that you’re paying a lot for new ink cartridges — more than seems reasonable. Purchasing the cheapest inkjet printer and buying official ink cartridge replacements is the most expensive thing you can do. There are ways to save money on ink if you must continue to print documents. Cheap Printers, Expensive Ink Ink jet printers are often very cheap. That’s because they’re sold at cost, or even at a loss — the manufacturer either makes no profit from the printer itself or loses money. The manufacturer will make most of its money from the printer cartridges you buy later. Even if the company does make a bit of money from each printer sold, it makes a much larger profit margin on ink. Rather than selling you a printer that may be rather expensive, they want to sell you a cheap printer and make money on an ongoing basis by providing expensive printer ink. It’s been compared to the razor model — sell a razor cheaply and mark up the razor blades. Rather than making a one-time profit on the razor, you’ll make continuing profit as the customer keeps buying razor blade replacements — or ink, in this case. Many printer manufacturers go out of their way to make it difficult for you to use unofficial ink cartridges, building microchips into their official ink cartridges. If you use an unofficial cartridge or refill an official cartridge, the printer may refuse to use it. Lexmark once argued in court that unofficial microchips that enable third-party ink cartridges would violate their copyright and Lexmark has argued that creating an unofficial microchip to bypass this restriction on third-party ink would violate Lexmark’s copyright and be illegal under the US DMCA. Luckily, they lost this argument. What Printer Companies Say Printer companies have put forth their own arguments in the past, attempting to justify the high cost of official ink cartridges and microchips that block any competition. In a Computer World story from 2010, HP argued that they spend a billion dollars each year on “ink research and development.” They point out that printer ink “must be formulated to withstand heating to 300 degrees, vaporization, and being squirted at 30 miles per hour, at a rate of 36,000 drops per second, through a nozzle one third the size of a human hair. After all that it must dry almost instantly on the paper.” They also argue that printers have become more efficient and use less ink to print, while third-party cartridges are less reliable. Companies that use microchips in their ink cartridges argue that only the microchip has the ability to enforce an expiration date, preventing consumers from using old ink cartridges. There’s something to all these arguments, sure — but they don’t seem to justify the sky-high cost of printer ink or the restriction on using third-party or refilled cartridges. Saving Money on Printing Ultimately, the price of something is what people are willing to pay and printer companies have found that most consumers are willing to pay this much for ink cartridge replacements. Try not to fall for it: Don’t buy the cheapest inkjet printer. Consider your needs when buying a printer and do some research. You’ll save more money in the long run. Consider these basic tips to save money on printing: Buy Refilled Cartridges: Refilled cartridges from third parties are generally much cheaper. Printer companies warn us away from these, but they often work very well. Refill Your Own Cartridges: You can get do-it-yourself kits for refilling your own printer ink cartridges, but this can be messy. Your printer may refuse to accept a refilled cartridge if the cartridge contains a microchip. Switch to a Laser Printer: Laser printers use toner, not ink cartridges. If you print a lot of black and white documents, a laser printer can be cheaper. Buy XL Cartridges: If you are buying official printer ink cartridges, spend more money each time. The cheapest ink cartridges won’t contain much ink at all, while larger “XL” ink cartridges will contain much more ink for only a bit more money. It’s often cheaper to buy in bulk. Avoid Printers With Tri-Color Ink Cartridges: If you’re printing color documents, you’ll want to get a printer that uses separate ink cartridges for all its colors. For example, let’s say your printer has a “Color” cartridge that contains blue, green, and red ink. If you print a lot of blue documents and use up all your blue ink, the Color cartridge will refuse to function — now all you can do is throw away your cartridge and buy a new one, even if the green and red ink chambers are full. If you had a printer with separate color cartridges, you’d just have to replace the blue cartridge. If you’ll be buying official ink cartridges, be sure to compare the cost of cartridges when buying a printer. The cheapest printer may be more expensive in the long run. Of course, you’ll save the most money if you stop printing entirely and go paperless, keeping digital copies of your documents instead of paper ones. Image Credit: Cliva Darra on Flickr     

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• What is needed for a networked home printer?

  - by Jay

  I've seen this question: Home network printer recommendations but I think I'm asking something more basic. I'm not really familiar with networked printers or how they work or what they do really. What I'd like is to have a printer that is accessible to anyone connected to my home network, without having to plug into the printer itself. An alternative setup might to be to have a printer that is always hooked up to one computer, like a desktop, that is almost always on and allows other computers connected on the network to print to it as well. I believe the first option is called a networked printer and the second is printer sharing. But again I'm new to this so I don't really know the details or if I'm using the correct terminology. I was wondering if someone might be able to shed some light on this and let me know what is needed for either of these setup. Thanks.

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• Network Printer or Share Printer on Server?

  - by Joeme

  Hi, Small office, <10 users. USB printer which also has a network port. Is it better to share the printer by plugging the usb into the sevrer, and do a windows share, or use the built in network port? We are using the built in network port at the moment, but don't have control to delete jobs in the queue that get stuck. Thanks, Joe

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• Windows 7, Printer is unavailable until PC reboot

  - by Cjs

  We are having a problem that I haven't seen before and can find no answers to online. A desktop running Windows 7 is unable to print using network printers. When the user tries, no matter what printer it is, he get's the following message when using Microsoft Office applications: "Current printer is unavailable. Select another printer." When the end user uses Outlook we get the message: "Printing is not available. There are no printers installed. You can select and configure a printer in Windows Control Panel." Now here is the confusing part, if we reboot the pc it works fine for a little while and then goes back to the same old same old. The printers are working fine for every other user as well so I believe it is the user's machine. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Edit: I'd like to add in that some people were having luck disabling snmp for the printers. Restarting the print spooler doesn't seem to do anything.

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• Samsung printer (ML-1640) margin problem

  - by Rytis

  I just got a new laser printer, Samsung ML-1640, and it has once again confirmed my experience that Samsung printers suck badly. The printer prints fine, except that the top margin is set at random, usually very small, cutting text on the top of page off. I tried updating firmware, getting new drivers, but nothing helped. I tried changing paper types, and it seemed that with the paper set as "plain" it was OK, but I just tried printing again after letting the printer rest for the night, and wasted 6 pages until I managed to print 2 boarding passes... Is there anything else I could try to resolve the issue?

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• Samsung printer (ML-1640) margin problem

  - by Rytis

  I just got a new laser printer, Samsung ML-1640, and it has once again confirmed my experience that Samsung printers suck badly. The printer prints fine, except that the top margin is set at random, usually very small, cutting text on the top of page off. I tried updating firmware, getting new drivers, but nothing helped. I tried changing paper types, and it seemed that with the paper set as "plain" it was OK, but I just tried printing again after letting the printer rest for the night, and wasted 6 pages until I managed to print 2 boarding passes... Is there anything else I could try to resolve the issue?

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