Wireless Printer Help

JaysonFour

So my old wired printer was assassinated by the cats last night, and now I'm looking to upgrade to something a bit more recent and nicer. My family has brought up the idea that we ought to buy a wireless printer, because they'd love the opportunity to print right from their iPhones. I'm kind of iffy on that- I don't know how hard it is to secure them and everything; and I'd rather prefer a wired printer that I can just connect to my computer (I really don't want to leave an opening on the home network to let people in and maybe at my PC).

Are wireless printers safe, and are there any that are good values for the price? We'd love one that can get plenty out of the ink cartridges it takes, and we're looking at spending a max of about $150 on it as far as a budget.

davidsdurions

I don’t know about your security questions, but just wanted to point out that not any printer will work with your iPhones unless you have them hooked up to an Apple print server. There are some models of printer that do have it built in, but I’m not sure about the cost/quality on them.

So it’s just another added cost for that specific use case with Apple products that you have to take into consideration.

JaysonFour

Okay, that's really helpful. I'll do a little research on that, and see what I would need.

Nobody

We've used an HP series printer for a few years now. Iphones can print just fine to them over the wireless network.

There was an exploit discovered in August where a malicious file sent to one could force remote code executions, but a firmware update was released that should resolve it.

mRahmani

My printer recommendation is to buy a used corporate laser printer.

1) They're cheap, usually you can find them on Craigslist for $100 or less
2) Laser cartridges are way cheaper than ink over time
3) They have Ethernet built in. Connect it to your router and share to everything

Shadowfire

davidsdurions wrote: »

I don’t know about your security questions, but just wanted to point out that not any printer will work with your iPhones unless you have them hooked up to an Apple print server. There are some models of printer that do have it built in, but I’m not sure about the cost/quality on them.

So it’s just another added cost for that specific use case with Apple products that you have to take into consideration.

The vast majority of consumer printers sold today have AirPrint and Google Cloud Print built in. Chances are whatever you buy will work fine.

As for security, there's always a risk. You balance that with convenience. Mostly, if you have an HP printer, disable wireless direct. Otherwise you're probably fine.