Color Inkjet Fax, Copier and Answering Machine BRTFAX1940CN

Comment: I have been using my Brother IntelliFax 1940cn for almost a year now and I am very pleased with it. As others have mentioned in their reviews, there is NO Installation Disk packaged with this printer. You're forced to download them from Brother's web site and it is not immediately apparent which drivers/applications you need. I am using this as a shared network device and and it works great as both a printer and Fax. One of the reviewers here mentioned a problem with the drivers in Windows XP. I don't know what they're referring to because mine works great with Windows XP. The documentation is very detailed and does a good job explaining the advanced features of this printer/Fax. I give it 4 stars because of the burden placed on the consumer to figure out on their own which drivers/applications they need to download from Brother's web site instead of just including an installation disk like almost every other computer hardware manufacturer does.

Comment: We wanted an all-in-one machine that does fax and has answering system, and this was one of the few in the market. Shouldn't have bothered. Reasons: 1) Abismal voice quality on the phone and phone message. A phone message is particularly bad, you cannot understand a thing. 2) Fax is SLOW-- don't trust whatever they say on the box or in the manual. 3) For some unknown reason, the answering machine cuts off people calling on certain cell phones. Either they are cut off in the middle of the message, or they hear one ring, and the phone hangs up on them. 4) The ink jet cartridge goes out very quickly. 5) Very flimsy plastic tray, part of it broke off only after a few weeks' use. Overall, very poor quality that the Japanese company should be ashamed of. After only 6 months, I am looking for a replacement, but I haven't a clue where to look. Certainly not Brother's machines.

Comment: Compared to others, this looked like a really good fax machine, features, price, etc. It had decent reviews.
However, I have now had 2 units sent to me with the same problem-
the phone on-hook/off-hook mechanism is defective.
Perhaps this machine doesnt survive shipping well...
On the plus side, Amazon has been helpful, I am now returning
this 2nd unit.

Comment: I bought this machine solely for simple faxing. I was attracted by the fact that it is network ready. I read the first review before buying this machine. I did not buy brother's optional hardware to connect the machine to my network (200.00 is alot to make this machine network ready). I bought Buffalo's ethernet adapter, and I connected this machine and my Dell desktop to the ethernet adapter. The fax was working on my network in 1 hour as a printer and fax machine. However, in order for the fax/printer machine to work you will need to download all of the drivers and firmware update from the Brother's site. I downloaded all necessary software to my desktop, and two laptops in under an hour, and the brother's machine was network ready within 1 hour.
Furthermore, I bought the fax for it's distictive ring feature. I have two numbers that ring to the same line. One is for faxes and the other is for voice calls. Also, I have the fax machine set to store faxes instead of printing them to conserve on paper and so I can weed out the junk faxes. I only gave the product three stars because there is no disc included.

Comment: Overall, I am pleased with this fax machine/printer. I am not sure why Brother does not send a disc with it; it would make it so much easier to use. I haven't been able to scan yet, as the manual refers me to the disc, and there is no disc. The print quality is good. The fax works with our distinctive ring tone, which is what we were mainly looking for. The phone doesn't sound great, if you get too close to the receiver there is an echo but, all-in-all, it is a pretty good little machine.