I bought the HL-2170W from Amazon at the beginning of 2008. I found it very easy to configure for both wired and wireless networks, although I use mine on a wired connection out of convenience. I print mostly plain text, and the quality is very good.
I have but two complaints:
First, the paper comes out slightly curled, but this is a fact of life for a printer this size.
Second, Brother has programmed the printer such that when its thinks the toner is empty, it stops working. This happened to me when I was printing some important documents. I did some internet searches and examined the toner cartridge. There is a clear plastic circle at each end of the toner cartridge. The printer shines a light through to see how full the toner is. Simply cover one of them with a piece of opaque tape, and the printer will think that the toner is full. I've already gotten 1500+ pages out of the starter toner that was "empty" at 983, with no difference in printed quality. Brother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces
Recently I bought a Brother All-In-One Inkjet and have been very happy with it. Since it had all the controls on the printer itself, I was able to set up the wireless connection quickly and without any problem. Plus, all the other features worked well. I needed a laser printer to replace my very old NEC. Based on my experience with the Brother Inkjet I decided to buy this Brother 2170W.
The Brother laser printer is very small, yet holds 250 pages which is far more than my old one. It wakes up in less than 10 seconds then prints pages lightening fast. The print quality is sharp and clear. I have the printer in my office and connected it directly to my PC with the USB cable. However, I also have a laptop about 10 feet away that I wanted to setup wireless to the laser printer. Well, that is where the problems began.
I tried for several hours to connect the laser printer to my laptop and never could get it right. I was able to connect wirelessly directly between the printer and laptop without going through the router. However, doing it this way I could not be on the internet and printer at the same time. Also, the connection would keep dropping. Try as I may, I could not connect the printer through the router like my other Brother Inkjet. I am convinced that I am simply doing some little something wrong. Therefore, I can not blame the printer for something that is my fault. Since I do have the printer wired to the other printer in the office and that printer is connected to the router, then I can still access the laser printer through the other computer.
I am still giving the Brother 2170W printer high marks because, except for the connection problems, it is an excellent printer.
UPDATE: I was trying to setup the printer wirelessly, without plugging the cable in. Bad idea! I finally decided to wire the printer to the router as recommended in the manual. After setting it up I unplugged the wired connection and now the printer works wirelessly from both of my computers. The whole thing took less than 3 minutes. Lesson for today: Read the manual and do what it Recommends.
It would benefit most people to have a laser printer in addition to their inkjet printer. And this is why. Keep track of just how many documents and letters you print that do not require color. If you print more than ten percent in black and white then you can save a lot of money on ink by using a laser printer. Here are some figures to consider. The cost of toner (ink) for a laser printer is higher than inkjet, but a laser can print many more pages. The cost per page on a laser printer can be as low as 3 cents. Whereas, the cost of ink for an inkjet can be 11 cents or more per page, and that cost can be ten times more for photos. Therefore, if you only print a few things that do not require color then you may only save ten to twenty percent on ink. However, if you do a lot of black and white printing then you could save fifty to seventy percent on ink using a laser printer. And if you decide to buy a laser, then this Brother is one of the best because of the speed and print quality.
ANOTHER UPDATE: After using this printer for several months I must give it 5 stars. It has worked all this time with no problems at all and I love it. However, I still give the overall rating 4 stars because of the install problem. I even contacted Brother several times and followed their directions on how to set up the printer without using a cable. Both Brother and myself finally gave up because it just would not work unless I used a cable, even though Brother said it would. Brother never did figure out why it wouldn't work that way. But, it doesn't matter. When I want to change my WiFi key, I just use a cable.
I've been buying Brother laser printers for several years now - first the HL-1240, and then the HL-1440. Both were used in my home network via the Windows printer sharing function, which means that the computer to which the printer is attached must be up and running in order to print. The 1440 recently started malfunctioning, and rather than deal with its problems I decided to get something new that I could connect directly to the network.
I went looking for the HL-2070n, but these are no longer stocked in local stores, and I wanted a printer quick. Instead I found this model and the larger, more expensive HL-5250dn. After playing with both of them for a few minutes, I felt that the 5250 was too noisy and clunky sounding, and kind of big. It's probably a good printer, but I went instead for the quieter and less obtrusive HL-2170w.
The wireless capability is a nice feature, but not really important to me right now, since the printer sits only three feet from my Linksys WRT54G router and I don't need to move it around the house. So even though I'm able to use the easy wireless setup, I went with a wired network connection instead. Setup on my three computers was a breeze. I followed the easy instructions and everything worked as expected. If I try the wireless installation later, I fully expect it to go just as well.
Now that it's in place, the printer seems to be doing what it should. Output is fast, paper is not badly curled, and quality looks fine. The printer driver also has the advanced features I've been accustomed to with my earlier printers. My only minor gripe is that I don't like the minimalist control panel that consists of just three LEDs and one big button. Since my earlier printers had the same kind of thing, I know I'll have to keep referring to the user manual in order to perform routine control panel functions and interpret any unusual alerts.
It'll take a while to know whether or not the printer has any serious shortcomings, but I'm more than satisifed so far. Considering the low price, the hassle-free installation, and the results I'm seeing, I'll give it five stars. - Home Office - Brother - Network Laser Printer - Wireless Printer'
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