Brother MFC-7840W Multifunction Scanner Review

The Efact USA test labs recently got our hands on a Brother MFC-7840W Multifunction copier/scanner/printer/fax machine. Here is a quick rundown: 35-page input tray (we were actually able to fit up to about 60 pages) plus flatbed Single-sided scanning only No page size auto-detection At 200DPI In our tests, around 10 pages per minute black and white 200DPI (faster at lower DPI) Network scanning support (NOTE: we do NOT typically recommend network scanning for high-volume scanning needs) Monochrome laser printer, fax machine, and copier all built in Wireless networking support Pros: Price!  Much better than any other scanners at this price range. Much faster than a flatbed Also includes a flatbed Relatively easy setup Print, fax, and copy features Cons: Some problems with double-feeds Some problems with skew Not appropriate for high-volume scanning Lack of page size autodetect means it is inconvenient for people doing a lot of mixed-size scanning Single sided scanning means you will need to scan any double sided document twice Before we got ahold of the Brother MFC-7840W we maintained that most document-fed scanners below the ~$800 level were not worth purchasing, due to driver issues, jamming issues, double feeds, roller problems, maintenance problems, etc.  However, this little device may just fit a niche for the small office ...

Connecting a scanner to your PC: USB or SCSI?

Some scanners on the market offer two ways to connect to a personal computer: Either they can do so via USB or via SCSI. At My Efact, we overwhelmingly recommend the use of USB. The key here is availability: We believe that your scanner is less likely to be down for extended periods with USB instead of SCSI, for several reasons: Ease of maintenance: SCSI is hard to manage. One needs to know about archaic details such as SCSI IDs and proper termination. Some IT professionals may not be familiar enough with SCSI to get your scanner up and running quickly. That delay results in downtime. In contrast, USB is easy to manage. Every IT professional and most tech-savvy office employees can easily diagnose and correct USB problems. Scanner downtime is minimized. Availability: SCSI cables and SCSI terminators are hard to find and expensive. If you have a bad SCSI cable, be prepared for a trip to a far-away specialty store, or wait for UPS to deliver a new one. In contrast, USB cables can be found inexpensively at any office supply store; many offices even have USB cables on-hand. If you have a bad USB cable, spend a few minutes to hook ...

How My Efact’s Secure Email Helps With Compliance

A number of federal and state regulations (like the Massachusetts’ 201 CMR 17 or the FTC’s federal FACTA rules) have been making it clear that it is rapidly becoming unacceptable to send personal information over the Internet without encryption.   Luckily My Efact can help with our fully encrypted Secure Email solution.  Myefact is unique among secure mail systems because it gives you two ways to securely send a document. The first is through our My Efact portal. This allows you to send any efact document (along with a note) encrypted to any email address.  The recipient will see a link asking them to choose a password and security questions (for future logins), and then they will be allowed to see a list of all secure documents that have been sent to them, all encrypted via 128-bit SSL encryption in a web browser. A second way of sending encrypted mail is our Efact Email encrypted PDF mail system. Efact Email lets you send encrypted PDFs as attachments through Microsoft Outlook. Documents are encrypted using secure 128-bit RC4 encryption, and can be read by most modern versions ...

Case Study: Real Estate Conveyancer

Efact’s earliest customers were real estate conveyancers. The proper transfer of real estate entails a number of steps as called for by common law, mortgage holders, leinholders, municipalities, federal and state statutory law, and all related regulation. That means paperwork, and lots of it. My Efact replaces the countless filing cabinets and reams of paper with a cost-effective electronic solution. After scanning in the documents, they are safely archived and can be quickly retrieved for later viewing and emailing. Each document can also carry with it the equivalent of a “sticky note,” a quick note that appears along with the file information. This is handy to use for quick notes concerning this file for others in the office to review, such as “do not email this to the ex husband!” Some conveyancers take it one step further, by burning the homebuyer a copy of his closing documents onto a CD. My Efact offers black CDs with your logo and contact information pre-printed on them, a valuable marketing tool. My Efact makes it easy to burn documents directly to CD.