I assumed that laser printing would be the most cost effective way to print, since the toner cartridges can usually print thousands of pages and cost less than $100.

So lets look at laser printing and see how much one solution actually costs per page. The HP LaserJet P1006 costs about $99 and it prints 17 pages per minute.   The replacement toner cartridge is the $68 HP35A (CB435A),  and HP says it has a 1500 page yield.  So that comes out to costing us 4.5 cents per page  ($68 / 1500) .  Of course the big catch with this printer is that it can’t print color. 

For Color and some nice “All-In-One” features like scanning, fax and photocopying, the HP Photosmart C4480 All-in-One is a good value. Its only $99.  If you buy the HP 74XL  Inkjets, you can get your per page cost down to 4.6 cents. ($35/ 750)

OEM HP 74 (CB335WN) Black Ink Cartridge $15 for 200 pages. (7.5 cents a page)

OEM HP 74XL (CB336WN) Black Ink Cartridge $35 for 750 pages. (4.6 cents a page).

OEM HP 75 (CB337WN) Color Ink Cartridge $20 for 170 pages (11.7 cents a page)

OEM HP 75XL (CB338WN) Color Ink Cartridge $40 for 520 pages  (7.5 cents a page)

Ok so color printing is expensive part, which makes sense because those color cartridges are actually 3 ink tanks in one.

But the great thing about the HP 74/75 cartridges is that you can get them refilled at places like Cartridge World, or you can simply buy them refilled online at your favorite inkjet website. 

I was quoted around $20 for a refilled 74XL cartridge at Cartridge World — that brings the price down to 2.6 cents a page.

So let me summarize:  Look for a decent HP printer that takes the HP 74/75 cartridges, make sure to buy the large “XL” size cartridges, and you can get your combined average color & bw printing down to about 5 cents a page.

About a half an hour later I stumbled on the secret: You have to run the Lexmark “Wireless Setup” option on each machine that wants to print via wireless. This program is installed along with the printer drivers when you use the CD that comes with the printer. It’s amazing how long it can take to figure out simple things.  I’m posting this to save someone else the trouble.

There is one shortcut I figured out so you don’t have to install the CD on each machine.  When you run the Wireless Setup program it creates a virtual printer port that you use to connect to the printer via wireless.  Windows assumes this virtual port is a physical port, so once you have the printer connected to your machine via this magic port YOU can now share the printer out to everyone else on your network the nice windows way.  Other computers can browse to your machine and see the printer, like you would expect.  Im sure that slows down printing since your adding an extra hop, but it does make printing alot easier to setup.

I’m not sure what kept Lexmark from implementing a universal plug and play solution, this virtual port via wireless solution seems like a hack.