Dell Laser Printer 1815dn (and a note on network scanning / PIN requirement) #

I have setup several Dell Laser Printer 1815dn units, and am insanely impressed with these low-priced ($399! UPDATE: The price just changed to $499 on May 26.), high-performance machines. This snippet from a PCMag review sums things up nicely:
"In addition to printing, scanning to and faxing from a PC over a network, the multitalented 1815dn also works as a standalone fax machine and copier. The machine is a digital sender too, letting you scan and e-mail without a PC. Most AIOs with digital sending that I've seen up to now have been aimed primarily at large offices. In particular, they didn't work with most ISPs and required you to have your own corporate-style e-mail server to connect to. By contrast, the 1815dn operates with standard ISPs, as I confirmed by testing it with the Verizon DSL home Internet service. An even nicer surprise was the 1815dn's ability to turn faxes into e-mails. It accomplishes this bit of magic by converting the fax image into either a PDF or TIFF file and then sending it off as an e-mail attachment. Better still, you can forward incoming faxes, outgoing faxes, or both."
Another review from Computer Shopper:
"Dell's Multifunction Laser Printer 1815dn is based around a fast laser printer. It can make black-and-white prints and copies, and can scan, but not print, in colour. It has a standard network interface and a duplexer that allows it to print on both sides of a sheet of paper. Its 50-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) is useful for making unattended copies or faxes of long documents... The 1815dn is a fast, well-specified MFP that's easy to set up. It uses only a single consumable and has low running costs, making it an ideal multifunction peripheral for a moderately busy office."

The 1815dn makes a great alternative to HP's Digital Senders, which cost many times more and do far less.

For those who plan on using the 1815dn's network scanning function: it is not mentioned anywhere (not even online at the moment), but you can bypass the need for a PIN by entering 0000 when prompted during the software installation. Doing so will return the following message: "You just entered '0000' for a PIN. Network Scanner will not ask for a PIN when you login to the scanner."

/misc | May 23, 2007


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