Am I better off getting a wired or wireless printer?

[BIG RED]

I am in need of a new printer seeing as our HP OfficeJet K60 had to put down its impressive 12 year struggle of being a surprisingly long-lasting machine. Going back into this market makes me want to be particularly careful because in my opinion, printer problems can only be. . . an utter nightmare. They are God-forsaken demons that no human being should have to torment with. My main concern now is well. . . networking! There are plenty of nifty things printers can do these days, but I need to be sure I have a printer which can be networked reliably. My current setup:

1 desktop, 3 laptops, all running Windows 7 (some 32, some 64 bit)

I need to be able to network the printer to all PCs. My first set of initial questions are:

1. Let's assume I have a printer that only has wired connections (Ethernet port) available. Are there ways for me to avoid using Windows Workgroup to share this printer? Shouldn't I be able to connect this printer right into my router using an Ethernet cable and all my PCs should be able to connect to it wirelessly? Are there ways of doing this without using a print server?

2. What are the advantages of having a wireless printer as opposed to a wired printer? Let's assume that I get a wired printer to work as proposed in my first question. What features would the wireless printer have that the wired printer would not?

Any help for these questions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[linnemeyerhere]

I've gone with a combo of both wired and wireless. Our household has two desktops and three laptops and I run a wired set up for my desktop and laptop while on my desk via a usb switch but the other desktop and all laptops can print scan and work wirelessly with no loss of features or speed.
http://biz.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1154395&CatId=21
This is my new HP printer and it's outstanding and expandable. Wired or wireless and regularly sold for 169.00 - 175.00 its a great value and highly recommended.

 

[BIG RED]

okay and by this, you mean you are using the same printer for both wired and wireless setup?

 

[chev65]

Most of the printers that were designed for Windows 7 can handle both wired and wireless connections equally well.

You should have no problems accessing a wired printer from your wireless machines, I use the cannon MX870 wired now but was using it wirelessly, works well either way.

USB connected printers are not something I would consider to be reliable so you are best off using a networked printer.

 

[BIG RED]

okay but by wired networked, does it necessarily have to be using windows workgroup? would i be able to avoid using workgroup as well as having to by a separate print server?

 

[chev65]

okay but by wired networked, does it necessarily have to be using windows workgroup? would i be able to avoid using workgroup as well as having to by a separate print server?

You still need to have either a workgroup or a Homegroup set up in order for the machines on your network to communicate with the printer.

 

[Zepher]

I have an epson workforce 610 hooked to the network wirelessly and all the desktops are wired and have no issue printing or scanning with it.
I chose wireless since I just stuck it in a spare room and plugged in power.

As long as the printer is setup on the same ip range if your network, all machines wired and wireless can access it.

Yesterday I was at a clients house and hey have an HP office jet pro 8500 and it is hooked up wireless.
All of thier machines are wireless, xp and win 7, and all you do is run the HP driver and it finds the printer on the network, you select it and the driver instals and you are good to go.

 

[BIG RED]

okay, i've decided to settle for a printer that is wireless, but also has wired capabilities in case i need to go that route. thanks for all the input everyone.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Options are good!

 

[boohbah]

next thing you need to do is consider the replacement ink costs. i can recommend kodak printers the inks last and cost very little by comparison to other brands.

 

[BIG RED]

i actually chose a brother laserjet printer:

Newegg.com - brother MFC-7860DW MFC / All-In-One Up to 27 ppm Monochrome Wireless 802.11b/g Laser Printer

i needed an all-in-one printer (printer/fax/scanner/copier) as well as it being wireless. we've used a inkjet in the past, but a laserjet was more reasonable for our print load. i've also been told that brother has a pretty good reputation for having long-lasting printers. the price seems steep right now, but i got it on sale about a week ago for $180