HP PHotosmart 2710 - disastrous installation

If you have a router acting as access point and assigning ip addresses to your network nodes, your one is probably a network problem.

Since you are using two firewalls when you attempt to send a printjob over the wireless network there are strong possibilities that some components are being blocked when trying to associate the printer and its driver.

As first step I'd try disabling router and clients firewalls, leaving them disabled also after printer installation (if you haven't still tried it).

If it doesn't work, I'd try disabling DHCP function for the PSC 2170, assigning it a fixed ip address. You should look between router settings and check for address range (and subnet mask) being assigned to peripherals.
Choose an Ip address, set it as reserved on the router and configure the Psc 2170 with this addresss, disabling Dhcp (refer to Hp psc 2170 wireless network guide).
Then reinstalL the driver, everything should work correctly but if you have still problems you can change the printer port with this procedure:

Start -> Printer&Faxes -> Hp Psc2710 -> Properties -> Port tab -> Add a new port -> Standard Tcp/ip port

and insert here the Ip address you have reserved (and set) for your printer.

All the above operations should be performed while all firewalls are turned off, before reenabling them you should configure printer Ip address as trusted.
With Windows Xp Sp2 Firewall you should grant permission to all HP programs to communicate with printer Ip address (Windows Firewall -> Advanced tab -> Add a program - then set printer ip address with - Change scope -> Custom list).
For router firewall you should refer to its documentation.

To Mr Billisme, I am runnng Windwos XP Home edition.  I am probably a bit late to take it back after 5-6 weeks.  These people in computer shops seem to expect that, having purchased an item from them, you will use every waking hour and even normal sleeping time to get it working so, if all fails, you will bring the product back within a day or so.  I do not have that ldubious uxury.  

To newuser4: your ideas sound interesting.  I am not a computer expert thought.  By client firewall do you mean the firewall in my laptop itselt?  Is it easy to reserve an IP address on the router?  How do you do that?

I should be able to disable the DHCP function for the PSC 2170 since I still have all the documentation.  When I read the HP wireless network guide, though, which I have not done since the day I purchased the printer, I feel that I am missing a lot because of my lack of understanding of some of the terminology and the principles being referred to.  Anyway I shall drag the book out again and see how to do it, if I can understand it.  I should not be defeatist.

Thanks to both of you for your help and I shall try to implement the suggestions later this week.  My next three days are full.

Leon

Yes, when you install a network device you should turn off any firewall or you should add device Ip address to the trusted Ip list. A network device needs to use one or more ports to communicate with the host while the firewall usually refuses unknown connections.

Router settings and options are usually accessible through a web interface, there should be an option called "Dhcp server" and accessing it you should be able to find an option like "Reserved Ip addresses". Sometimes the same action can be performed setting the IP address range leased by the router if the management tool provides an option like "Excluded address range" or similar.

I tried giving a unique address to the printer.  That did not work.

I have tried operating on my other wireless network.  That did not work.

The idea of installing the printer on another computer is a good one.  I have time to do that this weekend.  The problem is that the computer I am tryhing to install it on is the computer I am using all the time in my business.  It is my lightest laptop and I drive and fly all over the place with it.  So I really need to get it going on this laptop.  But certainly if I can successfully install it on my other laptop which is semi-retired that will be a very strong indication that the problem lies in my main laptop.

I had another session with HP India; this time a very helpful fellow called Vinnie.  His suggestions did not help but he said he would go away and think about it.  He came back yesterday with the following:

Try the following steps and call back .

Step1. Download the patch from this link but do not run this
          http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?dlc=en&lc=en&os=228&product=420428&lang=en&cc=us&softwareitem=oj-31675-1.

Step2. Try the install via ethernet only. if that works then there is something happening with
           wireless.

Step3. If the ethernet works then just change the connection to wireless. This should be done by selecting add a device and chose wireless for connection type.
           Adding a device should be done with the cd inside the computer.  PLEASE run the patch (Step1) before adding a device.

So this weekend I shall try both installing it on another computer and also what Vinnie has suggested.

Leon

I tried the Hewlett Packard person's suggestions above; they did not work.

I tried Nobus' suggestion of installing it on another computer - this was my Dell Inspiron.  It worked perfectly on the same wireless network using Windwos XP as the OS. A complete instalolation resulted.

Although the Dell Inspiron is still a pretty powerful machine it weighs about four times as much as my Latitude.  Hence I still want to fully install the printer on the Latitude.

So it is something different about the Latitude that is preventing full installation.  How can I find out what that is?