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| Product Reviews from Amazon.com (Rating System 1 to 5) |
| Review | Rating | Last Updated | Smooth as silk so far
Probably like you, I wanted to have a wireless printer so I wouldn't have to listen to my wife complain any more about printing from her laptop instead of waiting for me to get off my desktop. On top of all the other normal nagging, I figured this was one thing I could actually do something about... To make matters worse, my desktop is a Mac and her laptop is a Wintel. We have a wireless network in the house with a Linksys router (802.11g). I considered a linksys wireless print server, but they got very bad reviews.
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<br />This particular printer only had 1 reivew, but it was highly positive, so I ordered it. It came in just a day or two. When I took it out of the box I was impressed with its modern styling, as was my wife- score 1 for me. At first I tried to set it up using my Mac for wireless connection through the router, but the setup manual is out-of-date with the actual software, so I couldn't get that to work. Note that I was not using Airport, but a direct Ethernet connection from mac to Router. Instead, I followed the manual's instructions for setting it up from her Wintel wireless connected to the network and with the printer temporarily connected by Ethernet. Along the way I ignored the threats about needing to disable my firewall, opting to keep everything going. Despite that there were no problems whatsoever using this setup route. The final step is to unplug the Ethernet cable and go wireless.
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<br />After a quick test to confirm printing from both the Wintel and the Mac, I called my wife in for a test run. She easily printed out a document and admired the printer again. Now I can return to my normal life confident that I've served some useful purpose in my marriage lately :) | 5 | 813 days ago | Nice, but perhaps not worth the money.
I now have had about a month's experience with the HP Deskjet 6980. Overall I would say that it has done what I expected of it, but I'm now sure that it has been worth the cost above that of numerous other printers. I paid about $150 and it is easy to find good printers for less than $100.
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<br />I am running OX 10.4.5 on an iMac G5. Setup of the printer was very straightforward, except for the wireless feature. I never have been able to get it to connect wirelessly. The instruction manual doesn't have much in common with the real world of OS 10.4.5.
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<br />I found that printing two-sided was almost impossible - a big disadvantage to me. I tried the (inconvenient) trick of printing odd pages, flipping the output sheets, replacing them in the feed hopper and then printing the even pages. This is very problematical for a job with numerous pages or for a job with an odd number of pages. My solution was to throw another $70 or so at the problem and buy the two-sided printing attachment (Auto-duplex unit).
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<br />The two-sided printing attachment was trivial to install - it took less than 5 minutes start to finish. This device works very well, but it is slow because it has a built-in delay to allow the ink on the first side of the paper to dry before printing the second. Using two full pages of ordinary text in Microsoft Word, printing two single-sided pages took 25 seconds. Printing the two pages two-sided on one sheet took 1 minute 5 seconds. So it is convenient, but you can't be in a hurry.
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<br />From time to time, I print strips of labels. So far I haven't worked out all the details of getting the 6980 to do this very well. It appears that 24" is the longest form that the printer will handle and this printer is much slower than my old Epson C86. The C86 will print 36" strips. So I'll be keeping the Epson, it looks like.
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<br />Would I buy this product again? Maybe. It was expensive and performs well, but I'm not sure that it is doing t | 4 | 797 days ago | Painful installation
Considering how long and difficult it was to set up and install this printer, it better be the best device ever invented! I have installed hard drives and loaded operating systems in less time with fewer headaches than setting up this printer.
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<br />I wanted this printer to work on my network which is wired and wireless, with a PC and a MAC. According to all my research, this was do-able. I did get it all to work, but it was a painful ordeal that took two days.
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<br />The documentation is terrible. It comes with about six manuals and pamphlets, and not one of them accurately represents any of the true set-up instructions, screen shots or procedures. With enough trial and error, you eventually figure out what works and what doesn't. You cannot allow any program of any type to run in the background while you are installing the software. Nothing. If you have automatic updates scheduled that you've forgotten about, they will crash the install. If you aren't disconnected from the Internet, you will crash the install. If you breathe wrong, you will crash the install. And crashing the install will require at least two re-boots to remove the software and start over. Even after you get the software installed, if it isn't configured EXACTLY EXACTLY EXACTLY right, it won't work, and no diagnostic will tell you what you did wrong. The only way to fix it is to un-install and start over.
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<br />OK, point made. My other complaint is that there is no output "catch tray" for printed copies. They just kind of fall out onto the desk or whatever. Dumb design.
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<br />The buttons on the front of the printer are not explained anywhere in the manuals that come with the printer. The only way to figure them out is to go online and look them up in the online documentation. Even that documentation is sorely lacking. It goes into great detail about the difference in the types of wireless frequencies, but doesn't tell you nearly enough about how to configure the communic | 3 | 796 days ago | frustration
I am in the process of returning the 2nd one of these for the same reason I returned the first. I could not ,in spite of several hours spent online and/or and on the phone with HP techs, get the thing to connect wirelessly to either of 2 HP laptops. I probably have something like 16 hours invested. I should have given up long ago, but I am stubborn.
<br />I wish I knew what the problem was so I could inform future buyers. | 1 | 796 days ago | Just what mom needed...
Great little printer! Mom is set up with a wireless router connected to the cable modem, and spends her time on the laptop computer in the living room. Since this printer came with an ethernet connection, I plugged it into the router and in no time at all she was up and printing. It is so fast, she prints documents off before she can make it to the office to pick them up! It's very simple and straightforward, so she really enjoys having it to print webpages, pics and emails. | 4 | 781 days ago | Nice printer!
I couldn't tell you what to chalk it up to, but I had none of the installation woes of some of the other users of this or the previous wi-fi model, the Deskjet 6840. Maybe it's that I wasn't connecting it to a full wireless network/router per se? Using the setup for the ad hoc wi-fi connection between just my laptop (ThinkPad, if that's relevant) and the printer, the instructions in the included setup guide worked flawlessly (and as another user noted, I didn't even have to turn off the firewall). Installation took no longer than my CD drive copying the files from the driver disc.
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<br />Printing wirelessly is pretty handy; a little slower than a wired connection, but the difference is almost negligible, and a full 8x10 photo print didn't seem like it took more than a minute or two. Print quality's about par for the course for the cheaper HP printers these days (this being HP's low-priced wi-fi printer, I guess) - it doesn't *WOW* you exactly, but images are nice and crisp, comparing favorably to my old DeskJet 940, not too grainy at all. I do, however, shudder to think 1. how little ink must be in these tiny ink cartridges (Vivera 96 and 97) and 2. how much replacements of these tiny cartridges will probably cost.
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<br />One oddity I did encounter in installation, though, was registering for product support. It kept trying to point me to an HP URL that apparently isn't there, giving me an error a few times until it gave up trying to connect, and suggested I visit the HP support site and register manually. Other than that, though, I've encountered no problems, and gotten pretty much exactly what I wanted: a fairly inexpensive printer that I can print to wirelessly, printing text documents and the occasional 8x10 photo of reasonably sharp quality. Overall, I'd recommend it.
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<br />(Update 6/8/06)
<br />It's still working pretty nicely, but I figured I should note that when I close my laptop having been wirelessly connected to the printer and | 4 | 781 days ago | Good printer, trouble with wireless
I also have had some issues with setting this up on a wireless network (using a Linksys router). I have one Windows 2000 and two WinXP home computers. I'd like to suggest to other reviewers that it might be helpful to include your OS and wireless equipment brands and models, especially those who had no problems.
<br />Also, please specify whether you used the "Easy Button", the USB port, the ethernet cable option or the direct USB option to setup your wireless network. Thanks. | 3 | 781 days ago | Very Nice Printer
The printer itself is great! Setting it up for a single computer is very simple. Like a lot of people I also wanted to set up a wireless network connection to add this printer.If you understand how to setup and deploy a network you should not have any problems at all. After two days I finally got it.The problems I had was with my routers internal settings and the windows security and printer sharing settings. If you have this printer connected to your desktop and you just want to be able to print from your laptop you can save yourself a lot of headaches by just using the bluetooth option, it works really great. | 4 | 781 days ago | Love this Wireless printer!
I am very pleased with this printer, was so easy to set up, prints really good and hardly makes any noise. | 5 | 781 days ago |
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