Samsung ML 2151N Laser Printer

This Items is NEW and Ships in 1-2 Business Days

Samsung's ML-2151N is a network-ready laser printer designed for small workgroups, offering PostScript 3 and more. Print speeds are as fast as 21 ppm (10 ppm duplex), while a 1,200 x 1,200 dpi maximum print resolution ensures that images are true to life and that text is easy to read. A wide variety of connectivity options are provided, including hi-speed USB 2.0, 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet, parallel port, and an optional 802.11b wireless LAN. A 500-sheet paper cassette (100 sheet bypass) is provided, as is a 250-sheet output tray.

The ML-2151N is PC and Mac compatible and supports Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, Mac OS classic, OS X 10, 10.2, Linux Red Hat, Caldera, Debian, Mandrake, Slackware, TurboLinux, and SuSE operating systems. Other features include automatic duplexing, a 16 MB standard memory (upgradeable to 144 MB), and a standard 10/100 Base-TX Ethernet network card.

1 Price versus features
At the under $600.00 range, this is an unbeatable 21 ppm network printer. Contrary to the previous review the manual does tell you how to setup networking on the printer via the control panel. It also explains how to setup clients to print to it. My problem with the manual is that it isn't clearly layed out and the instructions I refer to are located in three sperate sections many pages apart. It's a long read at 233 pages too. Other than that, this is an amazing product for the price. I had mine up and running in about five minutes. Kudos to Samsung for good engineering, but the need to work out a "quick install" guide.

2 NOT for graphics!
I bought this laser because it had good reviews. I wanted to use it to "proof" black and white photos before sending them to the printing press. All images output from the ML-2151N have horizontal banding (faint lines) across them. I called Samsung tech-support and was told "that's just the way the printer is" "you'll have to take it back" when I asked what printer would work for me he recommended a color laser. Text is fast and great. Also use the double sided printing.

3 Great printer. But zero instructions for network install.
This is an amazing deal! Holds 500 sheets. Duplex (two sided) printing. Windows and Mac. Prints quickly. High quality. Can automatically print two pages on one. My only minor complaint is that it is a bit noisier than I expected when printing. But this is minor, because it is completely silent when at rest.

The only problem is getting it installed. I imagine that hooking up a parallel or USB cable will be easy. But if you wanted to do that, you'd buy the cheaper 2150 model. If you pay extra for the "N" model, you want to hook it up via an ethernet cable so any computer on your network can print to it. Good luck. I am reasonable facile (but hardly an expert) with network terminology and configuration (I know what TCPIP and DHCP and IP mean), and it took me several hours. I still am not sure why it started working, and really don't know enough to troubleshoot future problems. I suspect I'll be spending more time in the future repeating these steps.

Samsung provides zero help in installing on the network. The network manual has only two pages (in each language). And that tells you how to insert a CD and run the installation program. But then what? How to configure the network? TCPIP? They offer a printer driver, plus two network utilities, each with several options. What do they mean? Which should you use? Which gets installed first? Is it important to reboot? How to troubleshoot? You are on your own. Not a word about this in any of the manuals. Zero guidance on the web site. This is a very new printer, but Samsung's site also offers zero guidance for earlier N printer models.

Only buy this printer if you are very familiar with network configuration, or can get someone else to do it for you. Even then, expect to spend several frustrating hours fussing with settings.

Note the problem is not that the manual is badly translated. There simply is no explanation, zero, of how to configure the printer on the network. And the problem is not that my system is unusual. In fact, it is quite standard: computers running Windows XP home edition connected via Cat5 cables to a Linksys router.

UPDATE: The problem is that dynamic assignment of IP address (DHCP) although the default, appears to be completely useless. Every time you turn on the printer, it gets a new IP address from your router (which does the DHCP assignments). But the computer still prints to the prior IP address so nothing works. You need to assign the printer a static IP address using one of the provided programs, and then tell the driver what that address is. Then it just works.