Home wireless gurus - networking a printer

[Sled Idaho]

I am no expert by any means, but can usually figure stuff out after some trial and error. This one has me stumped and I cannot find anything in the printer's documentation (which sucks) or on the internet that I haven't tried.

I have a D-link DI-624 wireless router. I am able to connect to the wireless anywhere in the house no problem. My Xerox Phaser 6130/N color laser printer is having issues "waking up".

The cable modem is connected to the router in the WAN port. The printer has an Ethernet port. I connected the printer to the LAN4 port with RJ45, because the location is better than if I connected it directly to the PC with USB...and the desktop PC is sometimes turned off. Here is the problem. I can only use the printer sometimes, and I can't get a typical set of circumstances when it starts working.

Here is another wrinkle. The wireless router sometimes has issues assigning an IP address to the desktop PC. I usually can get it to work if I unplug and plug the router back in, sometimes more than once. This seems to happen more than I would expect it to.

I use the DCHP server options to assign the printer a static client IP address - x.x.x.104 via the printer's MAC address. This is the same port that the printer is connected to in the printer properties. My DCHP range is 100-199, lease time is one week. The three laptops that also connect have no problems.

Am I missing something? I have WEP authentication set up, but since the printer is hard-wired to the router that shouldn't be an issue since the printer works sometimes, right?

Any additional tips from folks that have similar experience would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[modsledr]

You aren't missing anything....except a wireless print server...you cant use your WLAN or wireless router for your printer.

Do a search for "wireless print server" for detailed info.

Unfortunately, wireless print servers can be a pain to make work, as every printer company uses their own driver configuration and they are all different, so the print servers have to be compatable with a wide range of drivers.

I tried the server from Hawking, and it was not compatible with my brother multi function laser printer.

Good Luck.

 

[modsledr]

Sorry, I should have said your wireless modem isn't designed to network a printer, as you discovered.

 

[Ex-Member]

Actually, iv'e seen this problem a lot. Your problem is that you're going through two firewalls; one in the cable modem and the one in the wireless switch.

Move the cable between the cable modem and the wireless switch to one of the 4 switched ports rather than the WAN port.

Plug the printer into one of the 3 other switched ports.

From there, you're all on teh same network, and your only firewall/NAT is the one on the cable modem. Follow the directions in the printer's documentation for setting it up as a network printer (My bet would be "Add printer" in the control panels, choose "look for a network printer", then I think there's a "find all" button, it should come up in that list at the bottom of that window.... been a while since i've done that in windows)

I'm also willing to bet you've had issues going to some secure websites (I know a lot of military logins won't work when you're behind two firewalls like that); moving the cable modem to the switched ports rather than the WAN will fix that too.

Leave that WAN port on the wireless switch naked; fixes all kinds of problems as 99% of the cable/dsl/sat modems out there have a firewall/NAT built in already. You only want to use that port if the downlink off the modem puts you directly on your ISP's WAN.

 

[Ex-Member]

If you've tried all you can think of and still can't get it to work as a network printer, you can also set the printer up on a desktop computer that's on any time you want to use the printer and share the printer on that machine. Windows has the capability to do that. Add that shared printer on the other workstations on the LAN and print to it that way. The only caveat to that is the computer the printer's connected to has to be on and connected to the LAN to print to the printer from any machine.

 

[skidooer1]

I had an hp 3050 that did the same thing. fell a sleep and would not wake up to print. tried multiple external printservers from hp but none had the ability to wake the printer.I really doubt firewalls have anything to do with it since the printing is all internal on the lan side. Btw mule alot of cable modems will not have NAT.All the cable modems I have used plugged into one client will utilize the wan IP. if the ip address is static assigned, you have it setup the best way. Wep will not affect a hardwire connection. Personally I would see if there is any avalible firmware that might resolve the problem.

 

[bigfoot]

I just built a cheapo computer to use as a print server, loaded it with free linux software keep it on and connected the printer using the usb port, wakes up everytime and works well.

 

[Sled Idaho]

Thanks everyone for the help. In my further quest for the truth in our IT dept today, it appears that modsledr is correct - I need to add a print server. That sucks because that's another $50 minimum, which is just about what I paid under retail for the printer. Oh well. I may splurge and go with the Apple AirPort Extreme (BOING!)

Thanks again everyone.

 

[modsledr]

Thanks everyone for the help. In my further quest for the truth in our IT dept today, it appears that modsledr is correct - I need to add a print server. That sucks because that's another $50 minimum, which is just about what I paid under retail for the printer. Oh well. I may splurge and go with the Apple AirPort Extreme (BOING!)

Thanks again everyone.

What really sux is that there isn't a better option, considering the popularity of wireless networks for home use.

There are only a couple of wireless print servers, and none of them get good reviews.

good luck.

 

[skidooer1]

Thanks everyone for the help. In my further quest for the truth in our IT dept today, it appears that modsledr is correct - I need to add a print server. That sucks because that's another $50 minimum, which is just about what I paid under retail for the printer. Oh well. I may splurge and go with the Apple AirPort Extreme (BOING!)

Thanks again everyone.

was the onboard nic defected then?

 

[Ex-Member]

was the onboard nic defected then?

no kidding, that's strange... why put ethernet on it and not make it work?

Not like a print server is an overly complicated daemon....

 

[skidooer1]

one other thing, the printer isn't installed twice is it? maybe one is set for a local printer(usb) and one is a network printer? maybe verify the port settings on the printer properties to be sure.

 

[Sled Idaho]

Skidooer1,

Firmware is current on the router. Not sure what you mean by "onboard nic" - do you mean the Ethernet port on the printer? How do you test that? I am going to change out the RJ45 between the cable modem and the router for starters. I talked to one our company's IT guys yesterday and he mentioned that might be the reason I occasionally have trouble acquiring an IP address.


Mule,

I didn't mean to ignore your advice. I am going to try switching the cable modem to the LAN1 port and see what happens just for the hell of it. I mentioned this to the IT guys yesterday and they said that I will need a print server regardless.

I agree - why the extra LAN ports if you can't freaking use them. Like I said before I may splurge on the Apple Airport Extreme and sell the D-Link.

 

[skidooer1]

yes onboard nic= internal print server. I was also reffering to firmware of the printer. Best way to test it is when it is not printing, try to ping the ip address that you have staticly assigned to the printer. If you can't ping it restart the printer and see if you can. Not to mention it will only aquire an ip address if the printer is set to dhcp, and you dont want that because the ip could change if the printer gets shut off, router gets rebooted. I really think you have it setup correctly, its more than likely the wake on lan that isnt working. and there may be a setting like a powersaver mode that could be disabled to fix the issue. matt

 

[letitsnow]

I don't think you need to buy a print server but I could be wrong. I setup network printers as local printers all the time and have never had a problem. You should be able to go to a machine and add the printer as a local printer, create a tcp/ip port to connect to the printer and be good to go. At least this works with the HP printers we have at work. We actually had to take two of them off the print server because they would not wake up when installed through a print server. We set them up as local printers and have not had a problem since. Just a suggestion, not sure how you have the printer installed on your machine now.