Canon Pixma MP830

Pros: Compact size, quiet, duplex adf and duplex printing, borderless printing, more reliable then HP

Cons: No networking capability, but I solved that ! Uses ink heavily.

Summary: I read the negative reviews and found some consistency. I will either agree or disagree with them.

I will also show you how to make this a network printer that will work as good or better then most network printers out there.

#1 complaint is ink usage. This is a problem with all inkjet printers. Lexmark for instance produced ink that will evaporate over one moneth even if the printer is not used. Typical IBM scam (Lexmark was born off IBM). Ink jet printers are made at a lose, meaning the consumer pays less then the actual cost of manufacturing the printer. The company makes money off the ink cartidges. That explains why these printers are dirt cheap.

#2 FAX functionality. I disagree. Worked perfectly for me. Sending and receiving faxes was fast and clear. However, the lack of duplexing FAXes is a problem, but most printers cannt do this anyway.

#3 Noise - The printer is quiet. I could barely hear it 20 feet away.

#4 Dependability - MUCH MUCH MUCH better then the HPs!!!! 3 out of the 4 HP printers I bought in the last 3 years were broken out of the box! One worked, but had significant driver problems. This is my second Canon printer in 3 years and both has worked reliably.

#5 Print quality - Its good for a inkjet printer. Keep in mind printing photo on plain paper is not good! Use glossly paper.

#6 Speed - The speed is a typical inkjet printer. Scanning and printing takes time. I also have a Samsung Color Laser printer the size of a small fridge and of course a inkjet will not look as good or be as fast as one of these giants. Be realistic. This is a low cost solution for a office.

Overall - This was my final choice for a low cost inkjet multi printer. I have given up on HP until they get their act together. 3 out of 4 printers being broken out of the box and the 1 printer that worked having severe driver problems was the last straw.
Why did I buy this instead of a Lexmark, Epson or other companies? I needed these features and Canon was the ONLY solution
1 - duplex adf and duplex printing
2 - borderless printing
3 - small size and low profile (used in the hall of where I live)
4 - I had to stay away from HP as stated above.

Why did I give it a 3?
Lets just say I am a hard critic and the other printers scored even lower then a 3.
I especially felt that the use of color ink to produce black print on duplex printing was a IBM type scam to use up ink. I don't like to see this sort of behavior from Japanese companies, after all if foreign companies start copying corporate american tactics where would comsumers have left to go to find good products. This is my message to Japan, "stay honest" or we'll dump you as we did the Dodge and Oldsmobile.





How to network a mp830.
It is easy.
1 - now a days people have old desktops and laptops lying about the house doing nothing. Find any Windows 2000 or Windows XP computer.
2 - setup the printer with this computer as would normally be done. Remember to network the computer to your local area network. It doesn;t matter if you use the wifi or ethernet, but ethernet is a lot faster and much more reliable.
3 - after setup, right click on the printer in the printers folder of the control panel and enable sharing. This will allow all the computers on the network to see and share this printer.
4 - Canon should have created a folder called "mp navigator" in the Documents folder. Right click on this and go into the sharing and security option. Enable sharing. This will enable all the computers on your network to see the files that were scanned by the MP830.

Go to one of your networked computers and set it up to use the MP830. Follow the instructions below.

1 - Go to the computer with the mp830 physically connected to it (we'll call this the print server) and get the "full computer name". It is easy, just right click on the "my computer" icon and right click the "computer name" tab. For instance my computer's name is "VAIO", because I am using a old SONY laptop running XP. You can change the name if it is not unique on the network.

2 - Go to any of the other computers on your network and set it up to use the mp830. First, run the CD and install the software and drivers. When asked to select the port the printer is connected to just pick lpt1 or any port, it doesn't matter.

3 - Go to windows explorer and type "\
ame_of_your_computer", type the name of the computer you got earlier above in place of name_of_your_computer.

4 - Assuming you have the same user name and password as the server computer connected physically to the mp830 you should have access to everything you see in the explorer window. You should see the mp830, mp830 fax and the navigator folder.

5 - Right click on the mp830 folder and choose connect. Go through the short wizard.

6 - Right click on the mp830 fax icon and choose connect. Go through the wizard.

7 - Right click on the navigator folder and choose to create a alias for your desktop.

8 - Optional, go to Printer/Faxes folder in the control panel. Right click on the mp830 printer and set it as default.

Many of the above steps can be modified if you know how Windows works. I am trying to keep it simple.

Now you can use the 830's print, scan and fax capability from any computer on your network. Multiple people can send jobs to the printer at the same time and the print server will just queue it in order it was received.

Keep in mind the 830 can ot save a fax as a file. Faxes are only stored locally in the 830 and the only way to see it is by printing it. To digitize a fax to a file you have to print it and then scan it.
Yeah, it would have been great if faxes could be saved in the print server.
But what can one expect for $250!?