หลายเดือนก่อน printer หนึ่งของผมไป wonk แทนที่จะซื้อ cheap replacement ที่ slurps ink มากกว่าวามพายุ opted for costlier solution using Dr. Evil's favorite technology - laser but then here comes the hotstepper went really avantgarde
Xerox familiar name in world of machines that go whirrr and dish out papers full of text however more common business environment than homes ordinary folks buying Xerox printer for home use might be overkill but willing risk ~USD200 for this experiment and given nice penguin logo on box thought what the hell let's try it Xerox B215 at your service
The thing goes print
Over years used quite a few printers various vendors notably Lexmark and HP never Xerox until now degree OS compatibility varied greatly Linux Lexmark worked with non-native HP printers go figure HP usually offered decent driver support but also get overload software tools features don't necessarily need primarily in Windows that is curious to see what Xerox would do given official Linux badge indeed mostly interested in actually printer interface configuration defaults security things like that and how these capabilities scale across different platforms
Anyway printer looks serious business get double-sided printing manual and auto feed trays single- and multi-page scan functionality touch-based interface similar typical office setting USB and Wireless connectivity device weighs solid 11.5 kg that's 17 middle-sized kittens imperial units but first the interface
Printer configuration
As always before did any printing whatsoever went through system configuration as outlined in Wireless printer security guide most printers (any device really) designed pre-configured for common user means fairly lax and open settings default passwords or none at all and every conceivable protocol turned on makes easier usage but not necessarily smarter or safer usage
Must also take into consideration Software Law of UI Design more capable device is uglier its interface is in this regard Xerox B215 comes as ugly as can be with 1996-era styling makes you want to poke photons out of your eyes with a spoon but hey it's a good thing
As expected ugliness turned into plethora of good functionality can access printer interface via HTTP or HTTPS (self-signed certificate) admin password actually device serial non-trivial combo numbers letters so far so good on main page big notice about device telemetry and diagnostics informing you that you need to turn this off if don't want printing activities anonymously reported to mothership this thing called SMART eSolutions Setup turned this off
Wireless setup worked fine no problems in fact Xerox B215 comes with HUGE variety of tools and options can easily spend good two hours configuring everything goes way beyond simple home stuff but then most features not enabled by default or if they are defaults fairly secure even firmware up to date and can disable upgrades if you like quite impressive
Drivers, Windows and Linux
Turned out more adventurous than expected there's a driver bundle for Windows includes printing and scanning tools however in Windows 10 only drivers installed correctly utilities would not tried compatibility mode as far back as Windows XP while this did sort of help get installers to run they never finished successfully BTW no such utilities for Linux
No scanning from computer then luckily able to configure Scan to Network option in interface can actually print to NFS, CIFS or Samba shares credentials and all which is quite nice printer will generate PDF file on remote shares not prettiest setup but works reliably
Back to printing drivers feel rudimentary for example in Windows no option to print current page only (can specify range so if type page number of current page get it) and some advanced settings little convoluted but able to print without problems
In Linux mixed success official logo notwithstanding in some distros able to print without issues in others like say Mint 20 Ulyana printer auto-detected auto-configured but then didn't really print correctly would default to manual feed for some reason not sure why
สรุป
Xerox B215 looks like rather useful machine printing quality good device responds quickly once warms up so many options and possibilities easily entertain yourself for hours without compromising on your security or control can even padlock small touch screen if you like starter toner ought to be good for about 1,500 pages and think will turn out decent investment
Never really intended to do a review of a printer per se but since got this beast thought might as well share findings focusing primarily on setup part happy that Xerox opted for nerdier approach drivers can be more refined though to say nothing of printing software for Windows that feels like last-minute outsourced afterthought anyway here we are if considering something robust for bit more heavy-duty use and value ability to configure printer smartly without any of that common-user nonsense Xerox B215 is a practical, powerful, and a wee expensive toy we're done
Cheers.
