Recommendations for "All-in-One" device?

[Danny Pansters]

On Saturday 19 March 2005 13:29, Brian J. McGovern wrote:
> I'm currently in the market for an "All-in-One" device for the home
> network, mostly for the fax functionality (it'll be replacing an Canon
> scanner and Okidata 810e laser printer). Before anyone suggests their
> favorite FreeBSD Fax modem/app, I'll let it be known that I've been told
> that the expectation is that we'll have a "normal" looking/working fax
> machine for the house ;)
>
> I've searched the mailing lists for "All-in-One", and tried searches on
> printers, scanners, copiers, and faxes individually with no real good hits.
>
> I'm somewhat curious about the HPs, but wanted to get people's experiences
> with different devices, and what works/doesn't work with FreeBSD.

A bit late, but I remembered seeing this question when I was just about to 
start setting up our Officejet replacement: a HP photosmart 2610 all-in-one.

We're using it as a network printer/scanner now, it's not connected through 
USB to one box but it can be. It has stand alone fax and scan/copy 
capability. Setup was easy: Install the hpoj and hpijs ports, and cups and 
sane. I used the cups web interface (and the info provided with hpoj or from 
linuxprinting) to set it up (as a client this time, not as a server which it 
was before when the old OfficeJet was connected to this box with a parralel 
cable). Url/Device is a socket: without hpoj/hpijs, with hpoj its a ptal 
device. In the Driver section you should be able to pick your HP model. That 
should be all.

With KDE I can now print to it (as network printer via ptal), scan from it 
with Kooka (via ptal via gphoto), and I'm sure faxing will also work. 
Stand-alone you can just use the flatbed scanner for input, and the printer 
tray for output.

This is an inkjet, with laserjet printing you may not need or want hpijs but I 
think you probably would anyway. It looks like an officejet only smaller and 
a bit slicker. It also supports CF and other cards (from cameras), the ptal 
driver (and the windows version) should present those as local scsi disks, 
but I haven't really sorted that out yet. The printing/scanning quality is 
great. The hpijs and hpoj come from HP BTW. 

The thing cost us ~ 340 Euro's, which would be ~ 450 USD. I wanted a network 
capable printer (it has its own console but also a web interface), it's just 
easier to use in a network. If it lasts as long as the officejet (I think ~ 7 
years) its worth the buck I guess.

HTH, 

Dan