Hello, All...
Am trying to troubleshoot printing issue for a neighbor. Don't have the PC or printer in front of me now, so pls. forgive in advance, if I forget to give any necessary info. Should be able to get anything I'm missing.
- They have an 802.11g wireless network (Linksys router), and an HP C7180 All-in-one printer.
- The laptop "LAPTOP" can access the wireless network and can access the internet.
- The printer is connected to a desktop machine "OFFICE" via USB. The Desktop is connected to the Router.
- The desktop machine "OFFICE" does not appear to have remote access configured. (I did not change this, but suspect it might need to have this so I can share the printer..? )
- The laptop initally had the printer set up under "printers" area, but was appearing "offline".
- If you right mouse-clicked on the printer icon, and chose "use printer online". No checkmark appeared next to it, nor, did menu change to "use printer offline".. so it appeared to have NO effect whatsoever.
- In addition, the description under the printer icon had the number "3". (As if there were three docs in queue) I deleted the printer, but it did not go away. I rebooted the machine. Then, it came back up and said "Deleting - Offiline".. but the count was now down to "2". I deleted a single print job that was sitting in there, and eventually, after stopping & starting spooler with "net stop spooler / net start spooler commands, was able to remove the printer from the list.
- When I checked the original port configuration (before I deleted the printer), it appeared to be a virtual USB port.. and when I tried to configure it, the system would not let me.
- I was logged in with a user that had full admin rights.
- In one attempt to install the printer, I was unable to "browse" the printer.. it did not show up in the network list.
- I finally re-intstalled it by choosing local printer, unchecking auto-detect, and setting up a TCP/IP port. I used the IP address of the printer, used the default port it assigned, "IP_192.186.1.101" and left default port 9100 and RAW settings.
- The printer shows up in the printer list, appears "READY", but when I print to it, it just gives the error that "This document failed to print... " No other reason or explanation is given.
I am able to ping the printer ip address from the LAPTOP. I am also able to open a browser window, type in http://192.186.1.101 and it opens the printer configuration pages, so the laptop can see the printer. but it just won't print.
The user had windows firewall turned on, and also Trend Micro's PC-Cillin 2006 - which had a personal firewall on. I turned off both of these as part of the printer testing, but made no difference.
Printer network config page shows
Network status Ready,
Active Conn. type: Wireless
URL: http:192.168.1.101
Hostname HPE852D6
mDNS: Photosmart C7100 series [E852D7]
802.11 Wireless:
Hardware address: (lists MAC address)
IP address: 192.168.1.101
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Configuration source: DHCP
DNS server (lists IP for DNS server)
Wireless Status: Connected
Communication Mode: Infrastructure
Network Name (SSID) (Lists network name)
Signal Strength: 5
Channel 6
Auth. Type: Open System
Encryption 128-bit WEP
Access point HW address (lists address)
Total packets transmitted 170
Total Packets received: 7316
- Printer also has bluetooth, but we're not using that, and light next to Bluetooth indicator on printer is not lit. 802.11g light on printer is lit.
Questions:
1. Should I be able to print to this printer from the laptop without having to go through the hard-wired desktop as a print server? (My suspicion is no, that we would have to enable file & print sharing on this machine, but maybe I'm wrong)
2. Should I be configuring the new port as TCP/IP ? (with 9100 / RAW) ?
3. Should I be configuring the new port as a virtual USB port again? if so, how do I do this? This choice was not there when I went to add a new printer port.
4. Is there any other firewall or security setting that I might be able to open? Do I need to do anything on the router configuration itself??
Thanks in advance for anyone who wants to help tackle this one.
If there is any other info that would be helpful, pls. let me know.
- D
by: turbo12Posted on 2008-07-20 at 15:58:10ID: 22047313
Yes, you'll need to turn on File & Print Sharing. Then go in and make all important folders Private or Not Shared. Then just share the Printer on the Desktop Machine.
NOTE: You won't be able to use the printer when the Desktop is off.
I use Virtual USB unless my whole network is Windows 2000 and below. You don't need to add a printer port (unless you deleted the Virtual USB ports) - Windows should do this for you automatically.
Many times, you'll find that you get everything setup just right and all computers will require restarts before your settings actually work.
You should not have to mess with your firewall...but you can test your current setup with the firewall disabled to see if that is a problem. McAfee and Norton quite often force you to make a specific rule for the device's IP address or range. I don't know if TrendMicro does the same. It seems it might be blocking you as you could not browse the printer.
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OR.........I picked up a little DLInk wireless print server. Had it up and running in about an hour. The Desktop accesses the print server via ENet cable into the main wireless router. All other devices access the print server via the wireless router (wifi). The trick is that you'll need to have the print server do a dual connection (wired & wifi) to the main wireless router.
I did have to make a firewall rule for one of my "picky" firewalls. This can be done by putting your program into learning mode (if possible) or just making it verbose so you see EVERY event and are allowed to permit or block it.
Windows Firewall had NO problems and required no special configuration.
Most of these units will handle up to 4 USB devices (printers, scanners & multi-function printers).