Brother Printer MFCL2740DW Wireless Monochrome Printer with Scanner, Copier & Fax (Certified Refurbished)

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I bought this printer for a small office environment. I wanted the printer to be a standalone network printer. Everything worked great until I wanted to use the scan-to-email function. While this printer does have scan-to-email, its not what I expected. In order to use the scan-to email function thats included with this printer, the machine uses the email program on your PC and opens an email on your PC with the scan as an attachment. Its not what most office workers are accustomed to. Most office workers will be accustomed to going to a machine, scanning a document and having the machine email the document to them. It doesnt have built-in outgoing email UNLESS YOU DOWNLOAD THE INTERNET FAX UTILITY FROM THE BROTHER WEBSITE. You need to go to the support page for the model MFC-L2740DW printer and download the "Internet FAX* / Scan to E-mail Server/ Fax to Server*/ LDAP* Install Tool". Once you do that your machine will have a new icon and you can scan to email like most users are accustomed to. The website for the download is http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadend.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfcl2740dw_us_eu_as&os=93&dlid=dlf004627_000&flang=4&type3=78

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When this printer first arrived i was delighted with it because wireless setup was so easy. As others have mentioned the scanner cocked the paper about 5 degrees, but i could live with that. Then, after about two weeks every time i tried to print i got a printer offline response. nothing in any of the instructions said what to do to bring it back on line. the only thing that seemed to work was unplugging it from power and causing it to restart itself. Then that stopped working. Tried the builtin troubleshooting application, which came back with a useless message that it had failed. Tried reinstalling the software. It recommends a usb connection during wireless setup, which had worked the first time. This time when the installation said to remove the usb cord the installation froze. the only option was to cancel. searched the Brother web page. found another troubleshooter that didnt work. Tried the advanced setup, which doesnt use the usb. Appeared to be working, but after completion the PC couldnt see the printer. finally called Brother and spent about an hour on the phone with a tech. We downloaded setup software from the web page to be sure it was the latest. Setup froze at the same place it had stopped with the CD. Reset printer back to factory defaults and tried setup again with the same result. Fortunately I had this experience while it was still within the return period.

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After many months of ownership, Im upping the rating another star. The printer has proven itself in many ways-- including daily use in printing and copying, wireless printing from Macs, iPhones, and iPads, printing double-sided copies from the Mac or iPads, copying multi-page documents via the document feeder (much smoother and consistent operation than other printers weve had), solid scanning (even wirelessly), handling address label sheets, and even envelope feeding. Those qualities, and getting used to the printers idiosyncracies have turned it into a solid buy. PREVIOUS REVIEWS Raised the rating a star after finding a solution to the envelope issue (see below). Also, the document feeder is sturdy and closes, unlike many printers where things are exposed and collect dust. Also, added additional observations in response to a request for an update (see comments). That includes a solution to the problem where the printer wont print multiple copies of a Word document (update the printer driver--you can download it for free from the Brother support site). Alas, one other thing… the printing is not that dark! I discovered this today when I noticed that the documents seemed a bit on the faint side. [NOTE; "on the faint side"--not "faint" per se. Its usable, just not as dark as other lasers weve had or the Brother inkjet we also use.] I had happened to print the exact same page earlier in the day on a Brother inkjet (475) and that was *dark*, crisp and much easier to look at. Not sure what is going on. The cartridge still has a fair amount of ink in it. I even upped the settings to 1200 dpi, increased print density well above the default, selected text, etc. No dice. While slightly better, still not dark; still not as good as the 475s output. Ill report back on this if I figure out whats going on... Still not as dark with a generic cartridge, even with higher DPI settings and toner saver mode turned off. May just try a genuine Brother toner cartridge at some point. ----------------------- Overall, this seems a good printer, but also has a set of disappointments. Were veteran Brother printer users (as well as having had HP, Canon, and Epson). We bought this to replace a venerable Brother DCP-7020, which, like Timex watches, just keeps ticking, or like the Energizer Bunny, just keeps going! :-) However, the 7020 is not wireless and when its toner expired, we figured it was time to get a new AirPrint-capable, multifunction device instead. Hence, our purchase of the 2740. By the way, whats with Brothers naming conventions? DCP, MFC, 2540, 2700, 2720, 2740, etc. They also have far too many printers that barely differ. You go to their website and look at a feature comparison and they are virtually indistinguishable! Its a nightmare as a consumer trying to figure out which one to buy! We did figure out that DCP stands for Digital Copier Printer-- i.e., without fax capabilities; while MFC = Multifunction Center and includes fax. PROS OF THE 2740 1. Wireless set up was easy. Brother must have listened to the complaints because there is a fold out sheet of set up directions included. You do have to download the latest Brother drivers and software. Tip: On the Brother website, you have to click on "Search" even if it is already showing you your OS. Also, in the installing process, when the screen with the additional software shows up, click on each to install, even though it looks as if you should click on Next! 2. AirPrint from iPhones and iPads works like a charm. 3. Printing and copying are fast. 4. Controls are intuitive. 5. 250-page paper tray--although actual capacity needs to be determined--its often less and one never should fill the tray to the top or you rich paper jams. 6. Inexpensive generic toner cartridges ( as low as $15) with good reputations are available, so operating costs should be excellent. 7. Wonderfully knows to not print black borders around pages when copying! Thats great when copying pages from books. UPDATE: TURNS OUT TO HAVE BEEN A FLUKE! Have not had luck in latest copies. 8. Turns on very quickly--i.e., when power is completely OFF (i.e., not in standby, but from when it has been shut off). CONS OF THE 2740 1. Printer is loud-- its noisy both on wake from sleep and during printing. This is true even in quiet mode. No doubt those in busy offices or noisy homes-- or, those who attended too many ear-damaging rock concerts when young :-) -- will find it OK. Note: Clearly, people vary in their hearing sensitivity, so this judgment will vary by person, but if you are someone who has good hearing or is sensitive to noise, you will likely find this printer on the noisy side when in operation--its definitely louder than some older Brother printers. Its probably something one can get used to. Its silent when sleeping. Note: I just printed wirelessly from the living room to the upstairs bedroom and its loud enough that I could hear the printer! Thats actually good, though, as it let me know that the print job took! 2. -----> DISCOVERED A FIX FOR THIS ISSUE. READ ON! Envelope printing is a convoluted, unfriendly, inefficient mess. Unlike older Brother printers where you could simply put an envelope in the front open feeder-- and out it would come--this printer requires opening up front and back trays and 15 or so total steps! Here are the problems with that. To use the straight-through path requires opening up the back output tray-- however, if, as most of us do, your printer is up against the wall, that requires moving the printer out. But then, you also have to poke around and find the envelope levers well inside, which are not visible unless you rotate the printer to gain access! (Even if you have room to lower the tray in the back, the printed envelope still will shoot out hitting the wall!). But now the printer has to be re-rotated to lower the front envelope *input* tray--which dismally takes only ONE envelope at a time! After printing, you need to go through the whole rigamarole in reverse order because those envelope levers in the back need to be raised back to their usual up position. Its doubtful that one will want to print envelopes much given all that. Id much rather live with the slightly curled envelopes of the older printers than go through all of that. (Perhaps envelopes will work with the regular output path...) OK, TESTED THE REGULAR PATH! It works like a charm. Just feed in the envelope from the front and let it print normally. Theres but a slight bend to the envelope--far less than on the 7020. So, one can ignore the straight-through, 15-step song-and-dance! (Note: You can open the front feeder in a jiffy; the front sliders can be already set for envelopes; and youre off to the races.) 3. Copying from magazines or books has a major gotcha! If the rest of the magazine or book hangs down (which is almost always the case), the copy "button" in the touch screen is covered up. There is no physical copy or start button on the far right of the machine as there was in the older Brother multifunctions. The older design is MUCH better. Here you have to lift the pages to get to the button and that makes it harder to keep the page (or hold down the book) in place to be copied. Making things worse, the numbers are touch-pressure sensitive (they are not physical buttons) and, when a page of the mag or book brushes against a number, it is all too easy to inadvertently raise the number of copies to 12 or 16 or 19! Today, when I tested this to double-check it, the copy # ended up at 33! Given how fast these modern printers print, youre liable to end up with gobs of extra copies you dont want. Yes, the solution is to always monitor the number thats been set, but one may forget, especially when all you want to do is make a quick one-page copy. Brother should change the sensitivity of the numbers on the touch panel-- and add a Print/Copy button on the lower far right side of the printer. 4. The Home icon button pulses when the printer is sleep mode! Thats a distraction. There is no option to turn that off. (The pulsing icon is not needed because one knows the printer is on because the Wi-fi icon is lit up.) Oddly, at times it goes off completely, then mysteriously starts pulsing again (that hasnt happened for a while). 5. The touch screen intermittently lights up even when in sleep mode! Not a major complaint; just weird. That also hasnt happened for a while. 6. Wireless printing takes time--the printer is a slow riser from its naps! :-) We have a Brother inkjet that is definitely faster. No doubt this is related to warming up the laser fuser for printing, but its worth noting. 7. The printer stinks, especially when printing! It reeked enough that we opened up our study windows even though the temperature was 10 degrees outside! Several days later and it still stinks on printing. 8. How long will the touch screen last? Thats a concern and a gamble, whereas the sometimes hard to read LCD screens have a long reliability history. BOTTOM LINE Were on the fence about returning it. Can we get used to these irritants and deficiencies? Or, to quote Tina Fey, are they "deal breakers"? Will any other printer solve them? Or, as is likely, will they have their own miserable trade-offs?! UPDATE AND CONCLUSION We kept it and really like it! Its plusses well outweigh the minuses, glitches, and oddities.

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Ive been using this MFC-L2740DW printer now for 6 mos. I thought it was a follow-on, or an improvement for the MFC7840 that I had been using for about 5 years. It is a completely different printer. The menus couldnt be more unrelated. The deep sleep mode is a problem. You can extend the time that it will not sleep up to about an hour, but then....you got it. Deep sleep cannot be turned off (per the Brother service tech that I contacted.) It is supposed to wake up when you send it a print job or when you tap on the control screen--that doesnt always work, and I have installed the latest firmware. Ive printed from wireless, USB and finally last week converted to ethernet communications with it. Ive updated the installation each time. My big complaint: It prints when it decides it wants to. I sent it a print job and it printed it 12 hours later!! No error messages, no faults, etc. The normal print routine is for it to print out a couple of pages, then go quiet, then after 3 or 4 minutes, it turns back on, prints the next couple of pages, then go quiet again. I found the "spooler" setting in the setup menu (that is on by default) and turned that off, thinking that it would then immediatey print when I sent it a print job, but NO, it does not. It does fax well, although even that has issues. When you set up your fax menu, you cannot permanently select "fine" for the quality. You must reselect it every time you send a fax because it defaults to "standard" resolution with every fax you send. All in all, Im fed up with this little monster. Ive spent waaay toooo much time trying to get this POJ to work. Id return it to Amazon in a heartbeat if I could.

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The network adapter is junk. This leads to constant "drops" from your network, exaggerated in Mac OSX. The printer would be great if it stayed connected. Simply put: this is a USB printer, not a network printer/scanner. If you need a MFC for use over a network (wired, wireless, etc) THIS IS NOT THE PRINTER YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. -- and yes, Im a highly competent network engineer/user.

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I purchased this to replace an inkjet multifunction printer for my home office. I ordered this model based on my experience with a Brother printer in the office, and because it was the lowest priced model to have a duplex scanner with ADF. So far, so good. Only two negatives so far: 1) Unlike my printer in the office, this model doesnt let you add a 2nd paper tray; I use the one in the office for legal paper and automatically switch between that and letter. 2) My old HP inkjet would scan to e-mail. This model can scan to FTP but not e-mail, as far as I can figure out anyway. Also, the dunce who posted a 1-star review because they thought this was a color printer should learn to read; Im not sure why they need a printer at all.

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I used to have an Epson GT-1500 scanner for office use. After serving me 4 years, it becomes incompatible with the latest Widows 10 update. I dont know whether its Epsons fault or Microsofts. Anyways, I decided to buy a new scanner. One function that the GT-1500 lacks is the automatic 1-pass 2-sided scanning. I scan and digitize as many paperwork as I could, so this is a critical and convenient function to have. Thats one of the reasons I chose this Brother all-in-one machine. Since 99% of the time I scan my documents into B&W in PDF, I first tested this function after I set up the machine. Using the default settings for B&W scanning, the initial results were disappointing to say the least. The quality is nowhere near the the scan quality with the GT-1500. I actually requested a return. Then I decided to play more with the settings. It turns out that to get satisfactory results, one has to tweak the settings a lot. At the end, I found out that the best setting for B&W scanning that works for me is to adjust image quality by dialing down both the brightness and contrast all the way to the lowest at -50%! Turn on "remove bleeding" as well and set the level to lowest. In Saving setting, set the PDF quality to the highest, and turn on Compression if you want to save file size. Another disappointment is that two more important features are missing: one is to quickly scan and preview the document then crop the area to scan; the other one is to enhance colors of different channels of red, blue, and green. I thought functions like these are pretty basic but they are missing on this machine. Anyways, using the above settings, I am able to get similar scan qualities as with my GT-1500. On the positive side, I like it that I can set up scan workflow and add it as a button on the home screen. And also the 1-pass 2-sided scanning/copying really speeds things up, although occasionally light smearing or ghosting happens. Scan resolution could be up to 1200x1200, so its useful in case I need to super fine details. Printing and copying work as expected, nothing too exciting here. Didnt test the fax function. Who still uses fax these days anyways? All in all, this is an OK machine for the price of $189+tax that I paid. No scan preview means I will have to crop the document in Acrobat, and no color enhance mode only adds small inconvenience at times since I only need that occasionally. Ive only had it for a few days so I cant really talk about how reliable it will be in the years to come and how good the customer support of Brother is. After thinking carefully about it, I decided to cancel the return and keep it instead. I still have a month to change my mind though, in case it went south!

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In some ways I love this product. Set up is very easy, prints look good, and scans work very, very well. Im very pleased with the Automatic Document Feeder, in particular. I can just drop in 30 corrected tests, press the "scan" button, and automatically get a folder full of high-quality two-sided scans. That said, I HATE that I cant use it as a replacement to my 2340, which is a standard Brother printer. With this printer, if you print more than 20 or 30 pages, whether its one long document or a short document printed many times, it will say that its out of memory, and cancel the print job in the middle. Keep in mind, this is just printing word files, not complicated graphs or pictures. Even if there was a way to fix that, the paper tray is not large enough to physically fit much more. Totally stupid design, and I cant recommend it for general use for that reason.

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We had to return this days after opening it. After the painful and extremely time-consuming process of getting it to even communicate with the computer, we could never get it to scan properly. The scans resembled something seen in a fun-house mirror. After much effort to resolve this, we eventually gave up. This was our first Brother printer and we will not be buying another. We have never had difficulty like this with any previous printer.

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Im very disappointed in this Brother Model, I CANNOT PRINT a full PRINT job without getting the "OUT OF MEMORY" Error message. The wireless is always asleep per day. Spending my time looking aimlessly for troubleshooting via brother online, book etc and NOTHING for my situation. Very frustrating and total waste of my days!! Will NOT PURCHASE ANOTHER BROTHER!!! This is my 4th one by the way.

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