Samsung ML 2550 (printer, B/W, laser)

Summary: I did many hours of comparative research to find a putatively reliable, quality laser b/w printer at a price of not more than $300. The Samsung ML-2550 met my needs and even had "duplex" capability, a term that is used differently in the printer world than in telecommunications! In the printer world it means the printer can print on both sides of a sheet of paper. I ordered the printer and only a few days later it arrived safely and worked just fine. That is, until about the third print job when I got a printed error message "Internal Error - False," whatever that meant. Over the course of the next week the same error occurred on the average of about every fifth print job, and it could only be corrected by rebooting the PC or uninstalling and reinstalling the printer driver. Hours of research on the web yielded nothing, Samsung's website proving to be essentially useless. I even downloaded Samsung's printer troubleshooter, which provided a lovely test page but nothing else. Visions of packing up the printer and returning it were certainly looking more likely. Then, of all things, I tried calling Samsung. Within seconds (gasp!) I was in touch with a technician whose first question after I described the symptoms was, "Are you using the parallel port connection?" I was indeed. He suggested I try the USB port instead. So out I went to buy a $25 USB cable, installed it and, wonders of wonders, the error messages have not reappeared in over ten days now. So my overall rating for the printer is "5" but with the warning that it must be connected via the USB port. The duplex function, which is curious to watch because it involves paper coming out of the machine and then being drawn back in for second-side printing, works just fine. Also, if you calculate the cost-per-page for this printer it is not expensive though the cartridge cost itself is high. I recommend it.