Brother Printers: 7 FAQs on WiFi Setup, Troubleshooting, Paper Types & Total Cost of Ownership

When I started managing office supplies in 2020, I thought all printers were basically the same. Three years and a few costly mistakes later, I learned that the real savings are in understanding how a machine fits your workflow – and how much it actually costs to run. Here are the questions I wish someone had answered before I bought our first Brother printer.

1. How do I connect my Brother printer to WiFi?

This is the first thing I get asked whenever we unbox a new Brother printer. The cleanest method: use the printer's touchscreen to go to Settings > Network > Wireless Setup. Choose your network and enter the password. If the printer doesn't have a screen, press the WiFi button (usually the one with the wireless icon) until the light blinks blue, then within two minutes press the WPS button on your router.

One gotcha: Brother printers support both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, but the initial setup works better on 2.4 GHz. If you're stuck, try switching your router's band temporarily. Also make sure your printer firmware is current – I once spent an hour troubleshooting before realizing an update was needed.

2. Common Brother printer troubleshooting tips that actually work

In my experience, 80% of the issues we see in a 60-person office fall into three buckets:

• Paper jams: Brother printers are tough, but they jam when paper isn't fanned. Always fan the stack before loading. If it jams repeatedly, check the rollers – a quick wipe with a lint-free cloth fixes most feed problems.
• Printer offline in Windows: This happens after Windows updates. Go to Devices and Printers, right-click your Brother printer, and select See what's printing. Then click Printer > Use Printer Online. If that fails, restart the Print Spooler service.
• Poor print quality on an inkjet: Run the built-in head cleaning cycle from the maintenance menu. I run it quarterly as preventive maintenance. Brother's inkjet printers (like the MFC-J series) have a purge function that clears dried ink – don't skip it.

If nothing works, Brother's support site has a live chat that saved me twice. They actually respond faster than most vendors I deal with.

3. Can I use laser paper in an inkjet printer?

Short answer: yes, but you probably shouldn't. Laser paper has a coating that helps toner fuse to the page; that same coating makes inkjet ink smear. I found out the hard way when I grabbed a ream of 24 lb laser paper for our Brother inkjet. The black ink looked fuzzy, and colors bled into each other.

Use inkjet-specific paper or a general multipurpose paper with 20 lb weight (75 gsm). The cost difference is maybe $1 per ream, which is nothing compared to wasting half a cartridge on bad prints. According to USPS business mail standards, standard copy paper is fine for everyday documents.

4. What is the Prestige DTF printer? Should I buy one instead of a Brother?

I had to look this up myself. The Prestige DTF printer is a direct-to-film printer used for heat-transfer printing on textiles – think custom T-shirts and tote bags. It's a specialty machine, not a general office printer. Brother's lineup doesn't include DTF printers, so comparing them directly doesn't make sense.

If your business needs both office printing and garment decoration, you'll still need a standard office printer. The Prestige DTF printer is $2,000+ and requires curing equipment. For the same money, you could buy two Brother laser printers (like the HL-L2370DW) and have change left for toner. My rule: pick the tool that fits the job. Don't try to make one machine do everything – that's how TCO blows up.

5. Are Brother printers good for small business? (Inkjet vs. laser)

We've run Brother printers for four years now, and I genuinely think they're a solid choice. The key is matching the technology to your workload:

• Brother laser printers – perfect for text-heavy document printing. Our HL-L2350DW has never jammed in 18 months. Toner cartridges last 1,200 pages for under $40. That’s a cost per page of about 3.3 cents – way better than inkjet for volume.
• Brother inkjet printers – better for mixed content (charts, photos). The MFC-J1010DW we use for floor plans costs about 2 cents per page with high-yield cartridges. But if you leave it unused for two weeks, the ink dries. We learned that the hard way when a project paused.

If your office prints mostly black-and-white documents, go laser. If you need color only occasionally, a low-cost inkjet is fine. But factor in the ink drying risk – that's a hidden cost few people mention.

6. What's the real total cost of owning a Brother printer?

When I first took over purchasing, I compared sticker prices only. Brother printers often cost $50–$100 more than similar models from other brands. I almost chose a cheaper competitor. Then I saw the TCO breakdown:

• Consumables: Brother's high-yield toner gives 3,000 pages vs. 1,000 for standard. That alone saves $60 per replacement.
• Reliability: In four years, I've had one service call. The repair took 20 minutes and cost $0 under warranty. The cheaper brand from my previous job needed three repairs in 18 months.
• Setup time: Brother's Wi-Fi setup wizard is brainless. I've set up 12 units for different departments – average time per unit: 8 minutes. That saved our IT guy about two hours.

Total cost over three years for a Brother laser printer: about $0.04 per page including the machine. The 'cheaper' competitor would have cost $0.055 per page because of more frequent cartridge changes and downtime. I don't have hard data industry-wide, but based on our 60+ orders, Brother's TCO beats the budget brands.

7. Can I use a Brother label maker with thermal labels? (P-touch question)

This wasn't in my original list of questions, but it came up when our warehouse manager asked. Brother's P-touch label makers use thermal transfer technology, which is different from direct thermal printers. You need special P-touch tape cartridges – not generic thermal labels. The cost per label is about $0.25 for standard sizes, which is pricey. But considering we stopped mis-shipping inventory after labeling everything, that $0.25 saved us hundreds in return shipping fees. Another example where the 'cheap' option (handwritten labels) was actually more expensive.

That's my experience. Your mileage might vary depending on print volume and office setup. But if you're on the fence about a Brother printer, I'd say go for it – just pick the right technology for your needs and keep an eye on the ongoing costs.