To me it is a personal preference with probably no down side with either option.

I do not turn my computer or printer off yet these day I print less than once a week. It has become a habit I have fallen into.

Wow, once a week, have you considered a pencil and paper : )

In fact one of the reasons I bought the laser printer (really low cost these days, the Canon looks to be a unit built to sell for at least twice what I paid - and it came with glossy printed documentation - another sign of being an older unit design) is the ink jet was troublesome, and I think part of that was due to low usage, ink drying in the cartridges. The old Epsom inkjet was about 10 years old anyway.

Not looking for an answer to this reply, owbist, as always I appreciate your knowledge... and I think I will turn the printer off at night and it may just stay off for days before the next print job anyway. I turn the computers off at night to reduce Internet exposure as well as reduce energy usage.

I don't print much anymore either and when my last printer quit I bought the cheapest HP that I could find for $69. It works as well as any other that I have had. Mainly I print off PC information to use later if necessary. I have always turned the printer off even when I used it often.

I have a older Canon model (>6 years old now). Mine doesn't have a power switch, the only way to turn it off is to unplug it. The power consumption in sleep mode is negligible, as you mention, so that's the same as "off" as far as I'm concerned. Does yours have a switch?

When sleeping, I presume everything is off but the sentinel circuit, so there would be no "wear and tear" consequence of leaving alone.

Concerning your internet exposure comment, if you have the Windows firewall turned on and a good security program running, you have effectively no internet exposure with a turned on PC as far as I know. An alternative for your PC is to activate the "sleep or hibernate after so many minutes" function in Windows. That works similarly to what's described for your Canon printer.

Yes, my Canon has a power switch and I just used it to turn it off. Next test: will it turn back on : )

The discussion about seldom printing made me think: "Why would I buy another laser" it was my plan to replace my Lexmark Inkjet, but my wife's came up first as her Epsom was being difficult in my last attempt to use 3rd party cartridges. I have the cartridge reset device which I have to use if I "re-ink" an old cartridge. I have used the same source for cartridges and the Epsom software always recognized that I wasn't using their cartridges, but it always allowed me to say "use anyway"... not this last time.

Back to the subject, I should be able to use my wife's laser. Even though it doesn't have WiFI or even Ethernet, all my PCs are connected to my home network, problem is W7 doesn't work with XP networking.. last time I tried anyway.

Side question, is there an easy way to access our Canon laser from my W7 and W8 machines connected to my router via WiFI.. the XP machine that "owns" the laser is an XP and is connected to the home network by Ethernet.

"problem is W7 doesn't work with XP networking.. last time I tried anyway. "

See links

ItâÂÂs important to use the same workgroup name for all of the computers on your network. This makes it possible for computers running different versions of Windows to detect and access each other. Remember that the default workgroup name is not the same in all versions of Windows.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/networking-home-computers-running-different-windows#networking-home-computers-running-different-windows=windows-vista

And:

Share Files and Printers between Windows 7 and XP

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/share-files-and-printers-between-windows-7-and-xp/

Joe

Thanks Joe, looks easy enough now that I've been told.

These question are obviously to be found by searching, something I don't do as often as I should. That said I'll use your good tip to see if I can also find W8 to XP Printer : )

You're welcome, Searching is key. It's all been done before..

I like this link,

From a search,

http://kemovitra.blogspot.com/2013/03/setting-up-windows-8-and-xp-for-file.html

Jerry,

I don't think leaving it on makes a difference on way or the other in terms of longevity. If it has a true power switch, then turning it off may make a difference in case of a power surge.

A few years back I was living alone and decided to turn everything off and/or unplug it to see what difference it made in the electric bill. I want to say that one CRT TV, DVD player, stereo, PC, scanner, printer, etc. reduced the monthly electric bill by just under $3.

I'd like to hear more about your printer. It's $99 on Amazon and seems to get good reviews. I've been thinking about some kind of all-in-one and the price is certainly right!

I got it from Amazon at $99, and a good price... but the Canon toner/drum cost almost as much. It comes with a starter toner/drum and I suspect with our low use we'll see it last for 6 months or a year..time will tell. Third party toner/drum run well under $50, and I'll guess they work well from what I have read.

This printer looks the part of what was shown in the advertisement in Amazon, designed to sell for something like $400, best I can recall. It doesn't have a Fax, so not quite "all in one" in my book. My need for a Fax is minimal, but not yet zero... then too I have an inkjet with a fax.

I am in the process of trying to connect my W7 and W8 notebooks to the Canon via my home network.. so I will likely leave both the host computer (an XP) and printer on until bed time so the printer can be used by other computers in the house.

My experience is minimal, but I am impressed and "love" the two sided printing.

"..designed to sell for something like $400, best I can recall.."

Most entry level and above business machines have document feeders, so I think it's safe to assume this was intended for home use. And with many different sellers offering the unit at $100 and up to $150, I'd say that the price you paid is what it was "designed to sell for".

No matter, it's a good value for light use. But there's no reason to liken this to winning the lottery. I think you paid a fair price for what you got, no more and no less.

Gee, I sorry if I was feeling "too good" about my purchase. But, I say if you haven't put your hands on one your experience with his machine is less than mine.

At least you have spared me from someone buying one of these because "Jerry said" is worth $400. My reference to that number is what I recall reading in the add, recalling how much these machines costs just a couple of years ago. This machine came without any reference to Windows 8, has the good old fashioned glossy documentation makes me think it was "designed for" sale in a higher priced market..

If one has a home network and want to share a printer, they might be happier (at an additional cost of at least $50) if the printer is accessed off of Ethernet or WiFi.

On the W8, I moved forward first on my W8 notebook to access that printer. With the great help from this site I used the information to set the printer as "shared" on the XP host computer. I then followed the directions to use the W8 Control Panel to open the network (hey, this was all looking familiar) and bingo there I found my XP machine and thus the Printer. I doubled clicked the Canon printer and W8 started to look for a driver.... I'll estimate 3 or 4 minutes later I got a failure to find a driver. The next step upon this type failure indicated to try to install the printer in W8 (W7 really specified) and that failed too. I went to the Canon web site and downloaded a driver for W8.

Now ready I went back to the W8 Control Panel and opened the network and this time I couldn't find even the XP machine, never mind the printer. It was after 11 PM by that time so I decided to try again in the morning -yet to be accomplished.

But, before bed I decided to look at the DVD that came with the printer. it has no indication of what OS systems it supported, but I put it in the W8 and loaded both the driver and the software to operate the scanner (which by the way is a low resolution color scanner.. low resolution for B&W too, not a picture quality scanner which is the case for all home machines I have owned). I'm yet to try again to gain access from the W8 and W7 computers.

Now on my second cup of coffee, and will try to access the XP machine when I get energetic enough to go to the other room and turn it on.

Hi jerry nj,

Could be off tract but one of my forum friends wrote an article, see if it sheds any light. I'd put another pot of coffee on for sure.

There maybe some useful information for you...take what you need leave the rest :)

Here is a link that might be useful: help2go

Zep516, thanks that was it the work group name for the existing home network used by the XP machine (used to be XP machines).

My W8 laptop is the one I use most of the time as it is lives under my couch seat in the living room, where I watch TV. TV is usually too slow to really watch so I also blog and learn using the W8 machine.

I had, as mentioned, already loaded the driver for the Canon printer using the DVD that came with the Printer. So when I tried to connect to the printer (which I could "see" this time) W8 had no trouble finding the driver. I then when to my email via browser and opened your email, and sent it to the laser printer.. When I walked into the study, there sat my print request I next went to printers in the Control Panel and set the XP hosted printer as my "default" printer so I will not have to pick it out next time. The W8 notebook has nothing connected to it other than the WiFI

Next, I need to make the connection to the laser for my W7 "work" notebook that sits in the basement in my "office" and has its own inkjet printer... and Fax. This should be a "snap" but... earlier today tried to load the Canon driver using the DVD and the W7 machine had trouble reading the DVD, so I couldn't load the driver. I have to check out the Plug in DVD player. The W7 machine is my business/travel machine and is a Toshiba 11.5" screen with no DVD. It is more like a large Netbook than a Laptop.

My business needs are going to zero as I settle into retirement, but I may still make the move to a Tablet. When I do travel for any reason I like/need to access email. I know a smart phone will handle that but I prefer a computer and even the low end Tablets appear to be computers.

Mission accomplished and while this is a side-line to the subject I will post this just to bring that side line to a conclusion with no unresolved issues.

I now have both my W7 and W8 computers, using WiFi into my home network to reach my XP machine, able to print on the subject laser printer hosted by the XP machine, which itself is connected via Ethernet.

The last problem I had was reading in the laser printer driver from the provided DVD. My W7 machine uses an outboard DVD player and it seems that has to be connected to a dedicated USP. Once I moved the DVD from a 4-port USB expander to a dedicated USB port W7 was able to load the needed driver.

Well, one thing still unresolved, neither W7 nor W8 was able to find the laser print driver via the web. This may not be common to all printers and may indiicate the printer I have has less than up-front support (old model) from Canon.

Plug and play isn't perfect, an unfound driver is nothing more than that. Drivers for popular products like Canon's are easily found on the respective manufacturers' website. It takes just a few minutes, as you may have already experienced yourself.

I always shut my printer/scanner combo off and also I do a proper shut down of all of my PC's I have 4 online. there is no reasonable explanation for leaving any devices on. excluding a cell phone if it's your only phone.

This post was edited by Aputernut on Thu, Sep 25, 14 at 14:48

I have a funny story about using third party toner cartridges. I have an HP LaserJetP1006 and it's been a workhorse for a long time. I print the plant labels for our local Arboretum and have never had any problem with ink running or changing on the labels....until last summer when I ordered from a different place. Within a couple of weeks many of the labels looked like this.............

Problems with 3rd party and DiY refills of ink cartridges is what led me to buy the Laser Jet that was the subject of this thread.

Mine remains on mainly because it is the home printer and as it doesn't have a WiFi or Ethernet interface, the only way I can get a print form one of my laptop/notebook computers in any reasonable amount of time is to leave the host PC and the Printer on .. usually forget to even turn off at bed time.

I suppose quality could have deteriorated Jerry, but I thought I would let you know that my 1990's HP4ml and then HP6p have remained on since those mid 90's with the exception of power company failures which are frequent for the last nine years.