Originally Posted By: tanstaafl.
Originally Posted By: jmwking
I like my Brother MFC-7840W
Reading the 1-star reviews at Amazon on the MFC-7840DW (the 7840W is no longer available), I see a common complaint about all the different Brother All-In-One models: Setting up wireless is difficult, and about twice a week it will lose its wireless connection and you have to do a complete reinstall of the wireless setup.

Also, this particular model does not seem to be Macintosh friendly, lacking USB drivers and having other Apple compatibility problems.

And nobody seems pleased with Brother's technical support, hours-long wait times and generally unable to solve problems.

I'll talk to my friend some more and see if she really needs all those functions. Maybe just a printer and a standalone fax machine is all she needs. That would make things a lot easier.

tanstaafl.

I recently recommended and installed a Brother MFC-9340CDW for a neighbour.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/manualtop.aspx?c=ca&lang=en&prod=mfc9340cdw_all

It is a rather large unit, but it provided the features they wanted and a configuration I was willing to support.

Software installation was reasonable, as such things go. They have a MacBook Air 2014 model, a Toshiba POS laptop, and two iPhones. All can print directly to the printer.

My experience with WiFi capable printers has led me to NOT enable the WiFi in the printer itself. If I can, I disable the WiFi feature entirely in the printer, rather than just ignoring it. I prefer to use wired Ethernet to connect the printer to the network router. This cuts down on the number of 'things' for which the WiFi must behave. If there is a WiFi problem the diagnostics are confined to the main router (or access point) and in the connected computer, not in the printer itself.

Diagnosing WiFi troubles in a printer tend to cause my head to hurt, so I don't go there if I can avoid it.