Canon IP4000 or 4000R ?

[allherfaces]

Hi, new user here; very impressive sight. After research here and elsewhere, I've decided that Canon is better route than HP or Epson for an inkjet printer. I already have an older HP laserjet B/W running off my desktop. I am buying a laptop and want capability to print photos and other arty stuff, so am getting an inkjet for that. Staples and Circuit City are now offering the IP4000 for $99; my question is whether it's worth more money to get the 4000R (need to check prices, but have seen it at $249). We will be getting a router and trying to network everything, with help from professional, if needed. Are the prints and the printing costs comparable on the two machines? Any advice on will be appreciated; I am new to the inkjet world and admit these printers frighten me after working with b/w HP lasers for 10 years.

 

[zakezuke]

my question is whether it's worth more money to get the 4000R (need to check prices, but have seen it at $249). We will be getting a router and trying to network everything, with help from professional, if needed. Are the prints and the printing costs comparable on the two machines? Any advice on will be appreciated; I am new to the inkjet world and admit these printers frighten me after working with b/w HP lasers for 10 years.

Near as i'm aware the ip4000R is just the ip4000 with wireless onboard. Generally speaking on printers you spend an extra $100 for wireless onboard. What you get for that $100 extra is wireless that is guaranteed to work rather than using a WiFi pigtail which acts as sort of a middleman between your PC and your printer that works is most cases.

It's up to you whether you want to spend the extra money on the ip4000R, or buy a router with printer support, or go with a pigtail.

 

[Osage]

Dear Allherfaces,

I think you are correct that Canon is the best choice. Its my understanding that the only difference between a canon ip4000 and 4000r is the networking ability of the printer. (btw I bought a ip4000 )

Its a shamefull fact that Canon does not do a good job with supporting printer sharing
or giving a user technical support.

I do know that in my case I was able, with zero help from a professional, to set up simple printer sharing of the ip4000 and have it work and continue to work. My net work set up is two xp home computers with network interface cards connected with a crossover cable. When you get into routers and more than two computers, printer sharing with a given printer becomes a more complex problem so I would ask a professional first. But in that latter situation, the ip4000r is supposed to be the Canon answer. Is that worth an extra $150, I for one think not.

Hold on, flash update, I see another post on the same type problem only a few days back. I should note I use static ip addressing on my network; microsoft knowledgebase kb 309642. And come to think of it, I have seen others do have problems with printer sharing using xp home and dynamic ip addessing.

For reasons I am not sure of, I have seen some maintain dynamic ip addressing has advantages for networking. For me, I see only advantages for static ip addressing so I invite any to answer. But bottom line for me, I can share a Canon printer without a network dohickis over my network no problem.

 

[kenban]

When you are trying to share a printer its a lot easier to use a static IP address. There should be no need to assign a static address to any computer other then the computer with a shared resource. Other computers should then have the location of the printer set to the IP address of the computer the printer is attached to instead of the name of the computer.

I can't think of any advantage to using a dynamic IP address over a static IP address off the top of my head but I am sure one exists.

 

[zakezuke]

When you are trying to share a printer its a lot easier to use a static IP address. There should be no need to assign a static address to any computer other then the computer with a shared resource. Other computers should then have the location of the printer set to the IP address of the computer the printer is attached to instead of the name of the computer.

I can't think of any advantage to using a dynamic IP address over a static IP address off the top of my head but I am sure one exists.

A printer that gets assigned a dynamic ip but has a consistent netbios name can be easier to find if you migrate. I've seen the charming techs setup printers on bridged internet connections to a static IP only to loose track of the printer when changing their network configuration to one which doesn't allow any jackarse to print on their network printers from anywhere on the planet.