HP 6500 OfficeJet Wireless Network Printer

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great print quality, easy scans, good copies and faxes.

Cons: Can't autodect from the network & install drivers.  Ink is EXPENSIVE.

The Bottom Line: 
Great printer if you can get past the expensive ink.

Author's Review
We bought this HP 6500 OfficeJet Wireless Network Printer to replace our other printer because we wanted to go wireless and put the printer in a cabinet in the kitchen near the laptop computers (instead of having to go upstairs to the other computer to get print outs).   This printer works great for the job.

This printer has Exactly what we wanted it for.

* Wireless printing
* Occasional Wireless scanning
* Occasional copying
* Occasional faxing

Setup:
Setup was easy.   You can hook it up for printing using USB cable, Network Cat-5 cable, or wireless (WIFI).  For wireless, it even supports WEP encryption for connection via your encrypted wireless router.    Setup is easy as running the included software application and answering a few questions.

For wireless it was pretty simple.  The printer is seen easily via the wireless connection and gets an IP address via the DHCP server that is part of your wireless router equipment.

My only complaint about the setup is that it's not seen on the network as a network printer and easily "click to add" like from Microsoft Print Servers where it automatically downloads drivers in  a few quick moments.    So if you have a friend come over that wants to print with their laptop, you have to go through the whole setup procedure installing from the CDROM for every computer on the network, etc.

Ink Configuration and Usage:
Ink is set up in 4 different ink cartridges.  One Black one Cyan, one Magenta, and one Yellow.   Be warned... Ink for this system is EXPENSIVE and doesn't seem to last long.    I've found the best places to buy as a "multi-pack" from Amazon resellers.

Printing:
Printing is easy and works like any printer.   Sometimes it seems the printer has to 'wake up' and might take a few seconds to calibrate the print heads or something.     Print quality is top notch.    Even on cheap paper.

Photo Printing:
The printer has card slots for SD cards and other type cards on the front and you can print photo's directly from.   However, the printer doesn't have a LCD screen for previewing the pictures, so it makes it hard to print select pictures.    Because of that reason, I don't use the Photo Printing option because I have another printer that supports this.   In my opinion, this is a poor design feature that other competing printers already have.

Faxing:
Faxing works just like any other fax machine.   Put the paper in, punch in the number and hit send.

Receiving faxes is also just like any normal fax machine.  However at home most people don't have a dedicated fax line.   So for this you can turn auto-answer to off and manually answer so it doesn't pick up the line automatically anytime someone calls.    Or it also support "selective ring" so that you can get a second number with a different ring pattern and have it pick up only on that number with the selectiv ring.  This option has worked great with me.    You'll need to remember to set it to pick up before your answering machine though.

Copying:
Copying supports both black and white and colored copies and has a seperate button for each.  I like the separate button feature because that way I can copy something just in black without wasting color ink.

Scanning:
Wireless scanning was the second item that I wanted in a new printer after wireless printing.   After you have the software installed, scanning is simple.  You simple put what you want to scan on the auto-feeder or glass and press Scan and select your output method.   The scanner will scan it as a JPEG, PDF, WORD Doc, etc.    It puts new scans automatically in a folder called "SCANS" on your computer in your "My Documents".

If you have multiple computers on the network setup, you simply choose which computer you want the scan sent to.   It's that simple.

Scan speed is decent, but not something that you'd want to do "commercial document scanning" with for several hours a day.  There are much better solutions you can purchase for that.

Being able to scan documents directly to a PDF file is one of the best features of the scanner because you can attach them via email and send them off quickly.

Auto-Feeder:
There is an auto-sheet-feeder on the top of the system that will allow you to feed in multiple sheets for copying, scanning, or faxing.

Duplexing unit:
Note that you can order this with a duplexing unit or add one later.  While this is a neat feature, I don't use it much as I don't have a need for it.   However, expect a short pause with each duplex as it has to let the ink dry on the paper before it can roll it back through and flip it over.
Concerns:
The only issues I've had are sometimes the printer is kidna noisy, the Ink and having to reload the drivers..  

The noise isn't much of an issue since I keep it in a cabinet. 
 
The ink is expensive.  If I knew how much I'd be spending on it, I might not recommend this printer.   Figure all the ink cartridges will run you $45 to $69 for a set.  

We've had a few times that the computer just couldn't communicate with the printer.  The only solution was to remove and re-install the software.   It was pretty simple, but should have a better reset option.

Summary:
Even though the ink is expensive, I'm still very happy with this printer system.   I think I'd buy it again.   It's a great printing option for wireless laptops.