These printers were (are) a dime-a-dozen and can be found on the cheap (~$40). I happened to come across a couple of these printers (still New-In-Box) and hung them off a couple computers. They are simple, no-frills, monochrome laser printers that I have found to do a decent job, although there is a reportedly a bug in the spooler when dealing with large PDF files. Read the other reviews and forums for the details. The purpose of this "review" is to possibly save others from the headache I first had with these printers when trying to access them across a LAN as a printer share under Windows Vista (64). I had the same headache that many others have faced (google reveals many forums on this subject, "Laserjet 1020 will only print test pages over a LAN") getting this printer to work by "connecting" to it as a printer share. However, I finally did get it to work wonderfully over a network. Install the printer on the host (local) machine and share as you normally would, however on the client (remote) machine(s):
- Do NOT install any drivers. Vista already has built-in HP drivers for this printer that will work fine.
- Do NOT "connect" to this printer as you normally would for a network printer share.
(I.e., navigating to \\HOSTNAME\PRINTERNAME, right-clicking, and selecting "connect".)
Instead:
- Go to Control Panel --> Printers (or Start --> Printers)
- Select "Add a Printer" in the top menu
- Select "Add a Local Printer"
(Bear with me, this will become network printer)
- Select "Create a New Port"
- Select "Local Port"
(Continue bearing with me, this will become a network printer)
- Select "Next"
- A dialogue box will appear for you to "Enter A Port Name"
- Enter the absolute network path to the printer, i.e., \\HOSTNAME\PRINTERNAME
- Select "OK"
- A dialogue box will appear having you select the printer from a list of pre-installed drivers in Vista, choose HP on left and Laserjet 1020 on right.
Don't worry, this will be a proprietary HP driver for the Laserjet 1020 under Vista and not just a Microsoft basic printer driver.
You will have full functionality and options.
- The printer should now be in your list of printers and working over the network.
(Test it out by printing a test page, printing from a web browser, word processor, etc.)
A nice advantage to installing the printer in this manner is that since the printer is "local" (although using remote port), you will have full control over all the print options in the driver. A printer icon will also appear in your system tray when you print as well. Double clicking it shows the printer que, just the same as if the printer truly was local.
Only small caveat with this method is that since the drivers are really "attached" to the port, the remote printer is always going to appear online and "Ready" even if it is turned off.
Works fine with Linux (all distros, all arch) as well. Download and build the drivers from source.
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Get more detail about HP LaserJet 1020 Printer (Q5911A#ABA).
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