[olug] Linux-friendly hardware question - stand-alone FAX machine

Rob Townley rob.townley at gmail.com
Tue Jun 29 19:37:56 UTC 2010


On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Dan Linder <dan at linder.org> wrote:
> I'm needing to purchase a stand-alone FAX machine for my home office.  I'm
> currently looking at the Brother MFC-295CN since it also doubles (in
> Windows) as a networked scanner and printer.  (Roughly $70 @ Amazon)
>
> Before I go plunking down the money, anyone have any other suggestions for a
> FAX machine that also doubles as a network printer and scanner that is Linux
> friendly?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Dan
>
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Oh Brother!  Do you value your sanity?

i have NOT used the following printer, but have wasted a couple of
complete months of my life with Brother over the years.  Same goes for
HP, but at least their commercial products lasted a very very long
time.  The following HP specifically supports Linux, is networkable,
probably has a longer duty cycle, and all drivers are probably
built-in to most distributions.

HP part: CB867A#B1H   UPC: 8 84962 53552 3
http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/product/product_detail/CB867A%2523B1H
The HP shoppoing specifications specifically delineate Linux as supported.
$99 from shopping.hp.com  HP Officejet 4500 All-in-One Printer

i think this is the same product from newegg, but newegg does not
specifically mention Linux!
$65 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828115633



Network scanning often is not worth the effort.  Most manufacturers
seem to make it so that you have to get a really high end scanner to
do this well in a workgroup.  But maybe things have changed.
Most only allow to send faxes from the pc, not receive.  Hylafax
allows you to receive an electronic version of what was faxed in.


HP drivers are often builtin or you need to install hplip hpijs.
After yum install xsane and probably some other packages, a very cheap
HP officejet 5510 AIO was scanning even though the ink was out.  No cd
required!



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