Nice Robust Network Scanning

[corndog]

Hello all,

One of the things I find outstanding on my small network is a network scanning solution. On our big Sharp at the office I can load 200 pages into the ADF and a while later have a 400page (double-side scanning) full colour PDF file emailed to me. It's that simple.

But of course, the Sharp is tens of thousands of dollars. Is there anything that provides this level of capability or something like it (maybe just a scanner with network jack) for the small network budget?

I have a Brother Black and White network MFP currently, which does colour scans. But it relies on software running on the receiving PC, which is, to put it mildly, quite clunky and unreliable. I'm lucky to hit 10 pages without a snafu.

Anyone know of a better solution?

Thanks so much

 

[scotty]

I did some research for a client about about a year ago for about the same product (relatively inexpensive network scanner). Mostly what I found was a couple HP scanners for around $800 - $1200. Wasn't really able to find anything much cheaper that ran off the network entirely. Most HP All-In-One's that have a built in NIC also tend to have the ability to scan to the network, but the support for this is usually pretty crappy/painful in their sub $1000 products. For the odd scan here and there it's okay, but for heavy duty scanning, the software is painful, slow, and buggy. Basically, nothing terribly fitting for under $1000.

If there's any possibility that it can be hooked up to a PC, there's some good options. I've had good success with Fujitsu's ScanSnap line of products, largely because the software is really simple and stable, and doesn't need interaction. I've installed dozens of S500 units (via. USB to a PC) and you can set the software to scan to a network drive. The nice thing is that they're really fast and don't require any active interaction on the device, so it's fairly 'autonomous'. If you can bear with the scanner being on a PC (albeit no interaction needed on said PC), this is a fairly good option. For one client, I actually dedicated an old crappy laptop with a wireless card for this pupose, simply because of physical location limitations. Ended up working out really well.

That's my $.02.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

From my experience in the small network budget area....similar to Scotty above....nada. Unfortunately the only ones I've seen work well on the network are bigger budget items, Kyocera and Canon standing above the crowd in my experience.