- Multifunction office machine, prints, copies, scans, and faxes
- Up to 21 ppm printing and copying; up to 2,400 x 600 dpi print resolution
- 33.6 Kbps fax modem, 300 speed dial locations, up to 600-page memory
- Includes 50-sheet ADF; 32 MB memory, expandable to 160 MB
- Parallel, USB, and Ethernet interfaces; PC and Mac compatible
After doing a lot of research for multi-function printers I selected this printer and love it! I wanted a laser since it''s cheaper to maintain (no $$$ ink cartridges) and didn''t really need color (since I have a very nice photo printer for the rare times I want to print in color). I love the duplex mode (double side printing) to save paper and it''ll automatically print ''n'' pages to one physical page which is also handy. I have it networked between my computer and my husband''s so we both can use it. (DSL connection with separate Linksys router and DSL modem.)
All wasn''t 100% rosey at first.... I connected it via my network and it worked great but due to a problem using it while connected via VPN to my employer, I decided to use the USB connection (when I was on VPN I couldn''t see the printer). I got all features working fine except for the scanning (it wouldn''t scan at all). After reading so many bad reviews of Brother''s tech support I was leary to call them but after many reinstalls w/o luck, I finally called them. The support folks were GREAT!! I ended up calling twice; one for help uninstalling the network drivers and again for a scanning problem. The second call I was on the phone for almost an hour and they found a patch (from Scansoft) to my original VPN problem as well as a registry patch (from Microsoft) for the USB scanning problem. The fix for the uninstall problem was because I had to log in as Administrator not just be in the admin group (I''m running Win2k) so that''s why I couldn''t completely switch from network connection to USB (the network drivers were still partially installed). In both calls, the tech support folks were helpful, pleasant, and knowledgeable.
The only remaining problem is configuring the fax with an answering machine. The manual has a lot of info but their explanation of the features for the fax isn''t all that clear. Right now I don''t need the fax much so I''ll wait a bit and call tech support back again later.
I love this printer, I like that it has all the features I need in one nicely packaged unit, and for a change, I have good things to say about a company''s tech support. (Every company says customers are number one, but only a tiny % actually mean it.)
Other reviewers have complained about the included scanning software (Paperport 8.0 SE from Scansoft) but so far so good, it works ok for me. I haven''t tried the OCR feature though but supposedly it''ll let me scan pure-text documents for later edits (like in Word) as well as let me search for docments by providing words inside of the document (not just file name which isn''t too useful).
I ended up purchasing this printer at PCuniverse (free shipping and no sales tax) for the same price listed here. The reviews of the MFC 8840 printers in Amazon were a great help in selecting which printer to purchase.
Buy Brother MFC-8840DN Network Multifunction Laser Printer Now
i bought this unit hoping it would replace my separate fax machine, printer & copier. for the most part i''m very impressed. the print quality is very good the fax machine is excellent and because it''s a flatbed scanner, it''s very easy to use it a photocopier as well. i''m have a mostly mac network and the printeing is fine from both os 9.2 and os 10.3 as well as win xp. the install software is a little barbaric in that it doesn''t really let you know what it''s installing or give you the option to install just some of the components, the software install directions were all but worthless, but anyone with some mac experience will figure it out. the installer worked ok and left a text file log of where it put things. one nice thing is that you don''t have to use the brother printing extension (driver). it works fine with the standard apple laserwriter extention. however the brother drivers might be a little faster and they had some more printer options. also, under os x, it does support rendezvous for printing which makes network setup a snap!
my major gripes are that it doesn''t support network scanning via ethernet for the mac ( i think it does on pc). you have to run a separate usb cable. annoying, my biggest gripe is that the scanning twain driver is really lame. i couldn''t get it to work under os 9. it does work in os x, but it doesn''t have a descreen option. even though the scan quality is excellent, you will be stuck with a moire pattern on anything that is halftone like books, magazines and newspapers! unacceptable. if brother put a little more software effort into the mac side of things they would have a killer product for that market. but as it stands now, you have to run a separate cable for scanning and buy something like the extensis descreen (intelliscan $99) photoshop plugin to fix the moire problem. i''m under the impression that the pc software is more developed, but i haven;''t tested it for anything except network printing which works fine.
Read Best Reviews of Brother MFC-8840DN Network Multifunction Laser Printer Here
I would give this device 6 stars if I could!! The Brother 8840-DN scans documents to PDFs at a rate comparable to the much more expensive Xerox Documate at nearly half the price. Plus you get a lightning fast copying machine, a fast fax, a network printer and a flatbed scanner. What an amazing product!!! I did a good deal of research prior to purchasing this machine, and almost cancelled the order based on some last minute that I read. (Luckily I changed my mind.) PC world said it scanned documents rediculously slowly, taking 33 seconds to at 100 dpi. This turned out to be absolutely NOT true!!! I managed to get through a stack of fifty documents at 300dpi in less than 120 seconds, and that includes creating the pdfs. (I am running an AMD64 3000+ with 1 GB of ram). The print quality is about average for a laser printerit is nothing compared to the ultra-crisp text of the Minolta Color laser Engine (I also own a Minolta Magicolor 2350EN Color laser) but for less than half the price, I have no complaints. The network connectability is an added bonus. I can scan and even fax from my computer (without printing a hardcopy first) -all remotely. If you purchase this item, make sure to upgrade to the max 160 Mb of RAM (128 Mb DIMM available from crucial for 50 bucks) as this speeds things up even more.
I would recommend the Brother 8840DN to anyone looking for a well built and designed MFC device, and would take all the unjustified negative comments with a grain of salt.
Enjoy --
Want Brother MFC-8840DN Network Multifunction Laser Printer Discount?
Pro:
Fast copies and printing
Good image quality (though perhaps not quite up to standalone copy machine quality)
Good scanning ability
Con:
Paper tends to curl after going through impression
Unwieldy manual feed handler (awkward to change between letter size and envelope)
On 30th day, began printing black splotches at regular intervals--apparently from a drum in the process; I hadn''t handled the drum, so this was apparently caused by the machine itself
Gets confused when multiple functions run concurrently
Annoying buzzers (e.g. when you open paper tray to put paper in)
High toner consumption
I am quite impressed with the MFC-8840DN.
It''s loaded with useful features, and they all work.
The product is solidly designed, and there was obviously a lot of thought put into the mechanical design and control panel. The printed user manual is very good too.
The multipurpose tray is quite handy for keeping a few mailing envelopes or CD labels ready for printing at a moment''s notice.
The duplexer has no problem doing two-sided printing, and there are options for straight through paper feeding and output.
The document feeder works well, and the software also handles using the flatbed scanner conveniently. If you don''t use the document feeder, it prompts you for each page to be scanned on the flatbed.
I''m not using the fax at the moment, but that too has a multitude of useful features. If you do a lot of faxing, or have special fax applications this is worth looking at. You can do everything from fax relaying, broadcasting, and storing, to emailing faxes automatically to wherever you happen to be.
The network and software setup is in a separate manual, and may be a little intimidating, but everything works as advertised once you get it set up. If you want to use the scan buttons on the control panel, you will need to open some ports in the Windows Firewall. You can only register one computer to use the control panel scan buttons. The PC software scanning does work from multiple computers. You can buy a license if you need to have multiple computers appear in the control panel''s scan button menu.
I ran into one annoying problem, but it isn''t a big one.
There''s a web browser interface that you can use to change the configuration. It sometimes freezes, and at that point I had to power cycle it to be able to use the web browser to configure it again. I don''t expect to be changing the configuration a lot, and the problem happens infrequently.
This product supports an amazing number of network protocols, which makes it very useful for networks with a mixture of Apple, Windows, Unix, and other computers. About the only protocol it doesn''t support is NETBIOS over IPX/SPX. That''s a pretty unusual combination, but I did happen to be using it. I changed my configuration to NETBIOS over TCP/IP, and that is supported. NETWARE is supported with IPX/SPX protocol.
You can connect this to a 15 amp circuit, but don''t be surprised if it dims the lights when you turn the power on. It''s probably better to connect this to a 20 amp or 30 amp circuit. I had to relocate the printer because it was causing my UPS to detect a line voltage drop. That''s really a problem with the UPS being too sensitive, but it''s something to keep in mind if you have everything connected to the same circuit.
