If you are in the market for printer that is perfectly suited for a small office or home office, printing principally letters, forms, e-mails, or other letter-sized black-and-white documents, this review may of particular interest. When laser printers first became available they were quite costly (in the thousands of dollars) as well as being large, heavy, and expensive to operate. That is no longer the case, but which one is now the "best buy?"

You can go to Best Buy (no pun intended), or simply look in the Sunday newspaper and you will see many varieties of printers-- principally laser and inkjet, multifunction and single-purpose -- available with a staggering array of features and prices. As mentioned earlier, if you operate a home office or a small office (or even a medium-size office) and have a frequent need for printing high-quality black-and-white output, the best solution is a dedicated laser printer, not an inkjet printer. So which one should you buy? At the BestStuff.com and Best Magazine offices we do a lot of printing. Over the past few years we have tested many printers, and we think we have a good answer for you; it is the Brother HL-5340D laser printer.

We recommend this printer for a number of reasons. The price is right, the print quality itself is great, and the print output is very fast (up to 32 pages a minute), AND they just never break down. In fact, one of the older Brother printers that we've used for about four years has never even had a paper jam--- which is amazing!

For those of you who are interested in more detail, here goes:

• Fast results. Operating at print speeds of up to 32 pages per minute, this printer is ideal for a busy office.
• Outstanding print quality. The HL-5340D delivers up to 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution so that all of your printed materials are high resolution and look their best.
• Easily print two-sided documents. Produce professional-looking two-sided documents, brochures and booklets using the automatic duplex printing feature. This feature can help reduce your paper use and save money.
• Versatile paper handling. An adjustable 250-sheet capacity paper tray easily handles letter or legal size paper and a 50-sheet capacity multi-purpose tray is for printing letterhead and custom paper sizes. You may also add up to two optional paper trays for additional capacity.
• Straight-Through Paper Path. A convenient fold-down, 50-sheet capacity multi-purpose tray and rear paper exit provide a straight-through paper path for printing envelopes, thicker media and custom paper sizes.
• Maximum compatibility. Offering PCL6 and BR-Script3 (PostScript3) emulations, the HL-5340D can support virtually any office or graphics application.

We have been testing this printer for about six months, and just like its predecessors, it has yet to disappoint in any way. Most amazingly this printer lists for only about $200, but is frequently available on sale for little as $159 at places such as Best Buy (online only) and your neighborhood Office Superstore. This printer is the perfect blend of price, performance, and reliability… and that is about as good as it gets.

John Lentz

If you are in the market for printer that is perfectly suited for a small office or home office, printing principally letters, forms, e-mails, or other letter-sized black-and-white documents, this review may of particular interest. When laser printers first became available they were quite costly (in the thousands of dollars) as well as being large, heavy, and expensive to operate. That is no longer the case, but which one is now the "best buy?"

You can go to Best Buy (no pun intended), or simply look in the Sunday newspaper and you will see many varieties of printers-- principally laser and inkjet, multifunction and single-purpose -- available with a staggering array of features and prices. As mentioned earlier, if you operate a home office or a small office (or even a medium-size office) and have a frequent need for printing high-quality black-and-white output, the best solution is a dedicated laser printer, not an inkjet printer. So which one should you buy? At the BestStuff.com and Best Magazine offices we do a lot of printing. Over the past few years we have tested many printers, and we think we have a good answer for you; it is the Brother HL-5340D laser printer.

We recommend this printer for a number of reasons. The price is right, the print quality itself is great, and the print output is very fast (up to 32 pages a minute), AND they just never break down. In fact, one of the older Brother printers that we've used for about four years has never even had a paper jam--- which is amazing!

For those of you who are interested in more detail, here goes:

• Fast results. Operating at print speeds of up to 32 pages per minute, this printer is ideal for a busy office.
• Outstanding print quality. The HL-5340D delivers up to 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution so that all of your printed materials are high resolution and look their best.
• Easily print two-sided documents. Produce professional-looking two-sided documents, brochures and booklets using the automatic duplex printing feature. This feature can help reduce your paper use and save money.
• Versatile paper handling. An adjustable 250-sheet capacity paper tray easily handles letter or legal size paper and a 50-sheet capacity multi-purpose tray is for printing letterhead and custom paper sizes. You may also add up to two optional paper trays for additional capacity.
• Straight-Through Paper Path. A convenient fold-down, 50-sheet capacity multi-purpose tray and rear paper exit provide a straight-through paper path for printing envelopes, thicker media and custom paper sizes.
• Maximum compatibility. Offering PCL6 and BR-Script3 (PostScript3) emulations, the HL-5340D can support virtually any office or graphics application.

We have been testing this printer for about six months, and just like its predecessors, it has yet to disappoint in any way. Most amazingly this printer lists for only about $200, but is frequently available on sale for little as $159 at places such as Best Buy (online only) and your neighborhood Office Superstore. This printer is the perfect blend of price, performance, and reliability… and that is about as good as it gets.

John Lentz

Windows only: LookInMyPC generates a complete report of what's going on in a computer—from hardware to software, and everything in between. After playing around with it, this writer wouldn't start troubleshooting a PC without it. I'm not kidding.

Whether you're a tech guru who knows your way around your computer better than the company that built it, or a novice just getting acquainted with your system, LookInMyPC is a free app you'll want to download and run at least once, even before you need its diagnostic help. It's like a big verbal X-Ray of your PC, detailing everything from the brand of network adapter you have to the number of user accounts on your system.

Everything that a LookInMyPC report generates can already be found in your computer's accessible files if you know where to look, but this utility makes it so much easier. Just open the system inspector and tick the boxes to select all or some of the more than 40 diagnostic checks you want it to perform. Seconds later, you'll have a long report outlining every detail LookInMyPC ferreted out for you. Stash it in a drawer with your computer's owner's manual for a fast and handy reference sheet the next time you need to know what brand sound card you have or what the specs are on your processor.

LookInMyPC is also a great tool for diagnosing computer issues, especially if you're troubleshooting an unfamiliar computer. Instead of spending time poking around your uncle's PC to figure out basic system information, just generate a general report with memory and operating system information, then get down to business. Once you have a feel for what issues you're trying to correct, you can generate more specific reports like Registry Run Entries or Firewall Info. LookInMyPC even gives you data on Windows updates, recent System Restores, and the default email client.

The utility won't make any changes to your system at all, no matter what issues it identifies. The reports open up in a browser window and many of the results—like system hardware vendors and application names—are hyperlinked so you can quickly Google-search things you don't recognize.

One really nice touch that's included in this app is the ability to generate a report that automatically turns itself into a ZIP file and emails it to the address of the user's choice. That's a huge help when you get a distress call from a relative who wants you to troubleshoot his computer remotely.

LookInMyPC is designed to work with Windows 2000, 2003, XP, and Vista, but we ran it on Windows 7 with no issues. Pair this app with screencasting webapp ShowMeWhatsWrong and you'll be the neighborhood PC go-to person in record time. What apps and tools are already in your troubleshooting toolkit? Know of a similar solution, like previously mentioned SIW? Tell us in the comments.

For folks who have yet to make the effort to backup their data and software on a computer or notebook, we'd strongly recommend you do so unless you really have no sentimental attachment to the digital files stored on either platform. If you're looking for a decent solution, the Rebit external USB backup drive ought to come in handy since it will automatically back up your files without even having to run a schedule or operate it manually. Nice to know the Rebit is also accompanied by a complete operating system restore as well just in case Murphy's Law happens. A 160GB Rebit external USB backup drive will retail for $149.95.

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