| Brand: | Brother | ||
| Average Rating |
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The HL- W is a network monochrome laser printer that is ideal for home or home office printer sharing It features network connectivity via Ethernet and wireless interfaces a fast print speed of up to ppm HQ resolution up to x dpi for high-quality output and quick processing with MB memory The HL- W provides flexible paper handling via an enclosed -sheet capacity tray and a manual by-pass slot for printing envelopes and letterhead It also offers a Toner Save mode to extend toner life and wide compatibility with support for Windows and Mac and PCL emulation more info
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November 14th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Ease of setup.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I read so many reviews about what a hard time the wireless setup is. Well, I just set up two desktops and two laptops in under 30 minutes. Here is how to do it. 1. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS IN THE MANUAL STEP BY STEP FOR EACH COMPUTER. DO THE EXACT SAME THING FOR EACH COMPUTER. 2. Print a test page before going to the next computer wirelessly. If that is good then continue exactly the same. Simple. I moved the printer out of the room where the router is just to see if it would lag or something and it didn’t make any difference. This is a wonderful printer, the pages are not curled at all. It’s less noisy than an ink jet. The product is so impressive to someone who was sick and tired of the messy ink jets and the high cost. I just ordered an extra toner cartridge (the big one 360) for $47, $67 at the big box stores. WOW, I can print and print and print and print….
November 16th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Nice printer, but started with Ethernet disabled (solution)
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I had some problems setting this printer up initially because the wired ethernet port was disabled in the configuration.
DIAGNOSING: The symptom was that when I printed a configuration page (3 presses on the button within 2 seconds) I was getting an auto-assigned ip in the 169.254.x.x range, and when the printer was turned on it would show a network connection (on the network switch) for a few seconds, then turn it off. Another indication is that when you print out the configuration pages you should get one network settings page for each interface that’s enabled, with the “node type” at the top showing either “Ethernet” or “802.11b/g”. If you only get one of these sheets, that’s the only network interface that’s enabled.
SOLUTION: The solution was to use my laptop to connect to the printer wirelessly in “ad-hoc” mode. After my computer auto-assigned its own 169.254.x.x address I was able to use a browser to connect to the printer, go to the Network Configuration page (login: admin, password: access), go to the Configure Interface link and enable the Ethernet port (interface setting “Auto” just in case I needed to get back in wirelessly). After I confirmed ethernet access, I configured it for a static IP address and changed the network configuration to ethernet-only.
November 16th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
No Brainer for Set-up
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The directions were easy to follow. I set this printer up as a home office network printer. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to set-up. From the time I opened the box until I was printing took about 15 minutes. Print quality is great as well as the print speed. Can’t beat the price either!
November 17th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Solid printer for the money
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The printer was fairly easy to install, but not trivial. My 13 year old son took about 40 minutes to get it up and running with a few mis-starts. Once we figured it out, the install went fine. Printer is fast, warms up quickly, and has great print quality. The wireless feature is really cool, print from any computer in the house with just a CD ROM install – no windows networking hassles. We have on computer that’s not working with the printer, it’s a Vista that’s having other problems. Haven’t gotten around to trying to fix that yet.
November 19th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Brother 2170W a great buy
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I recently purchased the Brother 2170W from Tiger Direct through Amazon. I purchased it because I was tired of paying $50+ for inkjet ink every couple of months. I am very pleased with the printer. It was easy to setup as a wireless printer (I connected it to my router via cable for setup as recommended). I can print from any computer in my house and it prints very fast. The only drawback is that when they start printing, laser printers are power hungry and the printer caused my computer to shutdown when it saw the power dip. Once I connected the printer to a different outlet, everything was fine. I would highly recommend this printer.
November 20th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Brother 2170W Review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very satisfactory purchase. Printer is compact and easy to use. The print is sharp and clear. I would recommend it for those who need just a monochrome laser printer. Free shipping from Amazon was expeditious.
November 21st, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Nice little printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this for grad school because I am always printing out articles and my ink jet is just too slow and pricy for heavy printing. Setup on my wireless was a breeze. I hooked it into my wireless router with a LAN Cable and followed the directions for setting up wireless. Turned on my network broadcast on my Linksys router and the printer showed up. The installation disk is compatible with Windows 7 Ultimate and Home Premium which is what my 2 laptops are running.
Printing was quick and quiet. I read some reviews about it having bad graphics quality but I did not notice anything too bad about it. I printed articles that had world maps and regional maps on it and I could read them with no problem. Overall I could not be happier. I was expecting the setup to be a bit stressful but I would say that it was up and running on my network in about a half an hour from opening the box to completion.
November 22nd, 2009 at 5:43 am
Power hungry and challenging to configure, but great B&W text quality and cost per page.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
To set up this printer for wireless use, SKIP THE PRINTED MANUAL. Go straight to the Brother Online Solutions Center Support FAQ for the HL-2170W and select the top-ranked FAQ: Wireless Setup Instructions. This will take you to a PDF version of the wireless setup instructions, which is more detailed and accurate than the printed manual. I recommend following the instructions for setting up wireless via temporary use of a network cable. Note: the PDF instructions are 36 pages long(!), and are still somewhat poorly organized. They may require some patience, and perhaps a Microsoft A+ certification for Windows.
In my case, to install the HL-2170W for wireless use in Windows XP, I had to manually reset the printer to factory defaults (two different ways), install the printer software & drivers, manually reboot my system (it doesn’t prompt to reboot automatically), manually add the TCP/IP printer port for the printer, and tell the Add/Remove Printer wizard to use separately downloaded WHQL-certified drivers. The Windows installer does almost nothing, and the process is about as far from plug-and-play as you can get. It took me many failed attempts (about 2 hours of trial and error) before I found the downloadable PDF instructions.
Once you manage to get the printer working, you should find it relatively easy to use and excellent quality. I recently purchased and configured a Brother Color Inkjet wireless printer (MFC-495CW), which was also tricky to set up for wireless use. It’s worth noting that this printer is significantly more power hungry than its inkjet sibling. My Brother MFC-495CW wireless inkjet idles at between 1 and 2 watts (according to my Kill-a-watt), and never climbs over 30W while in use. The HL-2170W idles at a steady 5 watts, and spikes to 1000+ watts (three zeroes, no joke) while starting up or printing. Consequently, I would recommend leaving the printer turned off, unless it is actively in use.
November 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Easy To Use With Mac OSX Leopard and Snow Leopard
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Following the in-box provided directions I had this printer connected and operating wirelessly in 10 minutes. It worked first time on my protected wireless network (Airport) with the Mac I used to set it up and my second Mac needed no set-up whatsoever other than adding the printer in System Preferences. Excellent printer for the price. Compact and light – easy to move around as needed. The toner is expensive but then all are regardless of brand.
November 29th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Price and Features ideal for a family to own it
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I feel for a family to own such a printer with Networking capability is gr8. Print quality is good. As the cost of laser printer comes down further will eliminate the choice of ink jet printer. For School going kids projects you need a laser printer to be cost effective and this printer will fill the space.
November 29th, 2009 at 8:49 am
great printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was worried about the setup, mainly becuse I’m not very computer literate. However, if you just follow the steps, there was no problems. I now have three laptops that we can print documents from without being restricted to a cable. great for the home office.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:33 am
Great for students who have to print out a lot of handouts
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I love this printer! I wish I had gotten it sooner, it would have saved me a lot of money on ink as well as buying credits to print at my university. My favorite feature is the Manual Duplex printing option to print out double-sided pages, it makes duplex printing so easy and painless, especially for powerpoint handouts. Another great feature is the ability to load a bunch of 4×6 notecards into the size-adjustable tray. It’s a really great investment, I highly recommend this printer for its quality, versatility, price and ease of use.
Props to the reviewer who suggested putting opaque tape over the translucent ends of the toner cartridge to extend the life of the starter cartridge. Thanks
December 1st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Great little wireless network printer.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great printer, the output is very good and the sheets don’t curl too much.
Setup was easy (especially if you read the manuls first)
Just plug it into the router as recommended for the initial setup. Then you can use the web page to administer it.
It looks like it was fairly well made and has great features (holds half a reem).
I’ll update after a year of use.
December 2nd, 2009 at 2:16 pm
A good basic printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This printer does the job a a very low cost. It’s a little noisy, but a great buy.
December 4th, 2009 at 1:10 am
Garbage with archic software, and zero support
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I had this product for one year. Setup wireless took a couple of hours and I am a technical user.
After one year I changed the cartridge with a Brther manuctured product. I want to be clear that I did not use the cheap immiation products. I paid for an authorzied product becasue I don’t want hassles.
The printer stopped printing. Just stopped printing.
Tried to get support. Found a phone number and was told to take to a service vendor in my neighborhood (15 miles away).
So, support costs 35 bucks and you have to drive to an “authorized dealer”.
I bought the unit for its low cost of ownership and reliablity. Now I am stuck with a new cartrigde and a useless machine.
Bother should really update their software delivery and diagnsotics. Other manufacturers provide chat, forums and yes even phone support. I will never buy a product from Brother with thier zero support policy.
Stay with a vendor who can support you like HP.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:59 am
Hard to setup
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I tried to setup the wireless connection in this printer.It’s hard to connected to the router and the network.I’ve spent three days to connect to the wireless network to recognize the printer,but in wired Network was no problem.In the other hand ,the quality was quite good.Cause i rated it 3 stars.
December 8th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Great laser printer, used amazon reviews for setup
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Firstly, thanks to all the great reviewers here on Amazon who posted detailed instructions on wireless setup. I used your instructions to setup the printer on my wireless network. That being said, the wireless setup is the only thing keeping me from giving this printer 5 stars. The directions that came with the printer were not very clear, and following them word for word, I was not successful. However, with the help of some exceptional Amazon reviews, everything worked out great; thanks again!
Although setting up the printer on my network was at first difficult, installing drivers on each of the computers in my home was extremely simple– just pop in the disk, install wireless drivers, the computer automatically finds the printer, and done. The wireless printing itself is fabulous. I can print from any laptop in the home (I often print from around 100-150 feet away), and it prints instantly (no lag due to distance).
Also, one of my concerns before buying this printer was whether or not I would be able to print from both my laptops and PCs. This is because my laptops connect wirelessly to my router, while my PCs connect via Ethernet cables. The laser printer can only be run in one mode (either wireless, or connected directly to one computer via USB cable). Nevertheless, I can print from both PCs (and all the laptops of course) because they utilize the wireless router to connect wirelessly to the printer (again, no lag). (Conclusion: even though my PCs don’t have wireless cards, they can connect to the printer while it is in wireless mode through an Ethernet connection to my router).
Print quality itself is great. There is a very noticeable difference in quality/crispness of text between this and my previous inkjet. I have my laser printer set on 600dpi and toner save is on. That being said, my starter cartridge (supposed to run around 800 pages) has put out over 1,600 pages so far and it is still going with no visible decrease in print quality. (Although the printer automatically shuts off after passing a certain number of pages, you can bypass this by covering the sensor on the toner cartridge–there are directions for how to do this in another review here on Amazon titled “Great printer, but programmed to rip you off in toner”). I print almost exclusively letter-sized pages of double-spaced size 12 font. Occasionally, I print full-page images which print as expected at 600dpi. I haven’t had the need to print anything at 1200dpi yet.
The printer is not too loud, although it would be nice if it was just a bit quieter.
Overall, this is one of the best purchases I have ever made (purchased about 8 months ago). It is an amazing value for the price; I recommend it to anyone searching for a good home printer (both parents, a high school junior, and a 4th grader use this printer almost constantly at our home).
December 10th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Great Printer!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Love this thing. It was easy to setup, fantastic quality b&w. Much less hassle and better quality than an ink-jet. I would’ve done this years ago if the price had been this good. Highly recommended!
December 10th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Well done Brother..Awesome printer…A+++
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
So much better than the other Dell, HP, Samsung printers out there. This one is a breeze to setup on wireless. Took me 10-15 mins tops. Followed instructions in the manual, used the cable to setup, installed using the CD and the rest is history. I now have 3 computers all connected through wireless. The speed is phenomenal. I covered one lens port as one awesome reviewer suggested so it thinks the cartridge is full. Worked great. Speed is great. Prints excellent quality in black and very economical. However, I have a small quiver about the price. Can buy it for less than hundred shipping included on the web. Other than that, its a great functional, easy to setup, well designed practical printer. Good job Brother…
December 12th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Good quality black and white printer
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This black and white laser printer was extremely easy to set up and puts out a quality product. I purchased it to print out my textbooks for my online classes. It does a superior job without wasting ‘ink’. However it should be noted that when printing a volume of material, the laser gets very hot. Large jobs should be broken up into several smaller ones. Also when printing on both sides of a page, cheap paper tends to to stick together on the reverse pages probably because of the heat. I used a better quality paper for two sided projects and the problem seemed to be mitigated – especially when I let the paper cool and fanned it before printing reverse pages.
After saying this, however, I would buy this printer again in a minute. The quality is great, especially for the price. The last color printer I had ate ink like a kid eating candy and had two cartridges to replace amounting to $70.00 for both. The cartridge for the Brother costs about $30.00 and lasts a very long time.
December 12th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Not Mac Compatible (OS X 10.5.8)
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Well as usual I can not find a laser printer that will work with my Macbook. I used to have use an HP-1012, but at some point it became unfriendly with my Macbook, since then I have been on a quest to replace it.
Encouraged by reviews on Amazon claiming this works with Mac and seeing on the box the manufacturer even claims there is an install for Mac I assumed my quest was ending. Not so! I spent the entire evening getting the darn thing to work wirelessly and print a test page which it did, but when attempting to print any pdf documents I get the following error (failed opening raster file). Well, it’s been 2 days of uninstalling drivers, reinstalling drivers, trying gutenprint drives, using usb instead of wireless and nothing works. No response from Brother either.
Conclusion: Apple is annoying, HP is annoying, Brother is annoying…
Anyone know of a laser printer for home use that actually does work with a Mac?
December 14th, 2009 at 4:20 am
Wireless feature is hard to setup on Mac
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The enclosed software is so crappy and dated that you can’t even use the CD to install/configure wireless on OSX 10.6 without installing Rosetta. And no, an updated version is not available online.
However, setup the wireless on Windows 7, using the same disc took only 2 min.
A Brother tradition: Poor software/documentation, excellent hardware.
This printer comes with tons of un-advertised feature. Such as(cut from one of the many menus):
——–
Web Based Management
(Web Server)
Telnet
SNMP Advanced Setting
LPD
Raw Port
IPP Advanced Setting
Web Services Advanced Setting
POP3/SMTP Advanced Setting
FTP
TFTP
mDNS Advanced Setting
LLMNR
LLTD
———
That’s right, You can telnet and ftp to the printer. How cool is that!
You can have the printer email you error reports such as tray door had been opened for n times or minuets, remote printing over the internet, generate a CSV file of the maintenance record…, and whole bunch of other neat stuff.
Or you can plug in an USB cable and print, I guess.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Best printer i ever have
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
i love this printer it is what i need it i am so happy the fact the i don’t need to buy a new printer every time the ink will run out because ink is so expensive i will just buy a new printer great printer
December 15th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Wireless Setup not Easy
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The wireless setup for this printer using Mac OS X 10.6 is not possible by following the on screen instructions. It asks you to write down about 8 of the advanced wireless configuration parameters for your Mac wireless config so you can restore them when the setup is completed. Some of them don’t exist on the Mac. Then it asks you to change your Mac’s wireless configuration in ways your IT dept would not be happy with. Some of the parameters it asks you to change don’t exist on the Mac. After 2 hours with 3 experienced IT techs, we gave up and returned the printer.
December 16th, 2009 at 11:43 pm
great printer
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
we got tired of buying refills for the ink jet, this is so fast and wonderful print. i think this will really save us money tooBrother HL-2170W 23ppm Laser Printer with Wireless and Wired Network Interfaces
December 18th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
very nice printer
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I got this printer because my HP 1100 finally died. I mainly print envelopes, though I do print regular pages too. Setup was extremely easy. I use the wired nic; just plugged it in and it got a DHCP address. It prints fairly quickly and clearly. My only complaint (small one) is the page curl after printing. All in all a good value for the price.
December 19th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Great Value
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Have had it in service for about three weeks and so far we love it. For the money (I paid $89 with free ship for new unit)I can’t see how one could beat it. I haven’t seen any curl in my pages as suggested by one reviewer…
However, setting up the wireless is another issue. I’ve been unable to get it to work, but it might just be my ineptness with such things. A wired network setup was a breeze and that’s how we’re using it in my house.
Great printer…recommend it highly…if the price is right.
JRM – Columbus Ohio
December 19th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Some problems, btu so far ok.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The set up for this printer was a breeze and so far I’ve only had a few messed up print jobs. Hopefully it will not become a chronic problem. The traditional remedy of turn the printer off and then back on and try again seems to be working on the occasions when problems arise.
December 20th, 2009 at 2:48 am
I’ve been setting up the printer for four hours now…
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’m working with Vista and after reading the reviews here, will try to install without the Brother software tomorrow. So far though, I have been working for four hours to no avail. The network shows the printer as being there, the printer shows itself as being ready, but the control panel shows it as being offline and nothing will print. I have called Brother support and Linksys support and neither have a clue what the problem is (which makes sense if it is a Vista problem). But, the setup issues are enough to make me want to throw this thing out the window and completely regret my purchase.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Great Inexpensive Laser Printer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Just bought this printer in November and was very pleased with the price and quality. I refuse to buy ink-jet printers and this one was a bargain. Installation was easy on a wireless network for both a Vista laptop and an XP Desktop. Print quality is very good.
Saw an earlier review on the short duration for the toner cartridge and appreciated the advice to cover the window on the cartridge to make it last.
For the money, its highly recommended.