The Yellow Streak
- Comment
SUMMARY OF SETUP TIPS FOR GOOGLE CLOUD PRINT AND SCAN TO EMAIL: 1. Download and update the Firmware to get Google Cloud Print to work (a must for Google Cloud Print) 2. When Setting up Scan to Email - Use multiple browser tabs for the links from the User Manual; the Remote UI; and search for email account settings. Information you need will be scattered and this will help you cross reference/go back and forth. Port settings could be touchy. 2a. If you are going to use GMAIL for Scan to Email - the secret sauce is to alter your gmail account settings to enable access for less secure apps. Hence - better to create a new gmail account just for the printer. 3. If the user is having difficulty with fingers on the touch screen - use a pencil eraser instead of a finger I bought this based on two requirements - ability for me to print to it remotely (from 1000 miles away) and the ability to scan to email. This printer replaces a cheap Epson inkjet multi-function unit (XP420, I believe) that I picked up as a throwaway but discovered that it has those capabilities, but ink management (i.e. drying out and replacement) had become problematic. For $159 - this fit the bill. For the Canon, printing remotely is accomplished by using Google Cloud Print. Scanning to Email is self explanatory. Why do I need this? I help my 88 and 84 year old in-laws who are technology-challenged and live 1000 miles away. When they have a question about something in the mail, I have them scan it to me. I also have them scan bills they receive. Likewise, I find it much easier to give them guidance/instructs on paper. After spending two hours on the phone changing an ink cartridge with my father in-law, it was time to scrap the $50 Epson ink jet in favor of a laser printer. After much research on the few low cost machines with these capabilities from HP, Brother, Samsung, etc... I determined Canon was the way to go. I already have a MF212 at home and have been very happy with its reliability. I give the printer 5 stars as it is plug and play. For me - I opted to plug it directly into the router, instead of connecting via wireless, because it sits 10 feet away from the router. It makes the connection to the router stable/reliable and reduces the potential need for me to have a loooong customer support call with my in-laws over connectivity. Once I installed the driver and software package onto my laptop, I was up and printing and scanning to my laptop over wifi. So - if you can connect the printer to the router via Ethernet cable and only need it to print locally, scan only to your computer or fax - setup is simple. BUT - DO GO to the Canon support webpage for this printer and download the updated drivers, software and manual. MOST IMPORTANTLY - DOWNLOAD and UPDATE the FIRMWARE! Its easy to do - and just takes a few minutes to complete. This MUST BE DONE to be able TO SETUP GOOGLE CLOUD PRINT. TO SET UP SCAN to EMAIL: This was the most challenging due to the scattering of info needed and number of webpages you have to use. The biggest variable that makes it time consuming is that your choice of email account/provider will affect the settings required. And there are far too many providers with their own settings to document. Certainly GMAIL, OUTLOOK and a few others could have been documented... but alas. No. Much time was spent on trial-and-error with ports and eventually, I stumbled upon the secret sauce for gmail - which turned out to be a setting on the email account... not a printer setting. For simplicity, I created a new GMAIL account for this purpose. The printer needs an email account to send from. I could have used one of mine, but I feel it is cleaner to use a fresh/dedicated account... and as it turned out - it is safer to create a new account as you have to enable less secure apps to that account. Be prepared to open multiple browser tabs to keep your sanity. The User Manual will have multiple links to different areas of the manual which you will need to open and refer to, but you will find it much easier to refer to prior pages with all pages open. You will also be opening the Remote UI (user interface) - also another tab - where you will be entering the printers settings. You will need a tab to do a google search for email settings for the email account you are going to use with the printer. You will be bouncing back and forth from different pages..or you can always print the pages! So - when you are about to click on a link... right click and open the link in a new tab. Having to close the Remote UI for some settings to take can also be very frustrating. Open the user manual that you downloaded from the Canon support webpage. In the manual, go to the NETWORK section, then CONFIGURING SCAN SETTINGS/SENDING EMAIL/EMAIL CONFIGURATION SETTINGS RIGHT CLICK on Starting Remote UI and select Open Link in New Tab so you can go back and forth between the two tabs. After starting the remote UI, go back to the configuring e-mail settings tab Open another tab in your browser and search for your email settings; in my case for gmail, I searched smtp port settings for gmail Follow the setting instructs using the info you just searched for as a guide. THE SECRET SAUCE IF USING GMAIL for the printer: login to the gmail account from your browser (Chrome).... mail[dot]google[dot]com. Then go to Settings > Accounts and Import > Other Google Account settings. Under Signing in, enable access for less secure apps. Just read your screen carefully - its a bit obscure to spot on the screen. Once that was done - it started working! Once you save the settings - only way to know if it worked is to send yourself a test scan. I highly recommend setting up yourself as a recipient address to speed up repeated testing. It took me the better part of an hour searching for answers - but patience and eye drops from opening many search results eventually pieced the puzzle together. The gmail secret sauce was at the bottom of my screen that I just happened to see, when I was searching for alternative port numbers. Im now receiving scans, and printing remotely. I truly love it. The documentation path for setting up scan to email could be better, but weak due to the design choice of Canon to not provide a cloud service to consumers. Epson and HP, provide a cloud service like epsonconnect where you set up an email account with them for the printer... this means I can print to it directly by sending an email to the printers epsonconnect email address or receive a scan from the printer via that same email address. Because Canon does not provide this cloud service to consumers, a whole level of intricacy is introduced. I can live with that in my situation as I was able to figure it out. But I cant speak for outlook email, enterprise accounts, etc... The printer has been care free - wake up from power saver mode has not failed once. I have had problems in the past with my HP printer where it did not wake up when I printed remotely. This is a critical issue for me as my in laws could not remember to power cycle the previous printer (Epson) in an attempt to maintain the print heads. Laser is great as I do not print there daily... plus, many more pages come out of a toner cartridge. I have used 3rd party toner with my Canon at home and will try that with this model. Very cost effective. For my in-laws, I created a custom button on the touch screen on the very first/home screen - so all he does is touch the home button to wake up the printer - touch/gently press on the custom button with my name on it, hit start and off we go with the scan to email! BTW... he was having problems with his finger presses on the touch screen being detected. Solution: use a pencil eraser instead of fingertip. I plan to buy another to replace my dumber Canon MF212 that I use at home - cant scan to email. Google Cloud Print works great. Fax capability is still welcome... some transactions/documentation require a fax and not an email. Because I got it running exactly the way I want - this printer gets five stars.