Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
4 Posts
0
64617
February 19th, 2008 13:00
1815 Printer not being recognized on network
For the past year we've been using our Dell 1815 printer on a "home" network directly connected to a Dell 1180 wireless router with 4 pc's all printing to it via wireless nic cards at our volunteer ambulance base.
Recently we wanted to upgrade the router to 802g so as to take advantage of better security and went out and purchased a Netgear WPN824 wireless router. All pc's are able to connect to the wireless router fine. I plugged in the 1815 printer and attempted to install the driver software but it doesn't find the printer. As far as I can tell DHCP is set on the router but the printer doesn't seem to want to get it's IP address from it. I've reset the network settings thru the printer and printed out the various system reports - all of them are giving me an IP address that's not in the range of the Netgear router and it's also not in the range of the previous router.
FYI, if I connect a laptop to the printer DIRECTLY via USB I can load the drivers/software fine and the printer works with no problem - it's just trying to connect via the network. And, I'm not using any extraneous print server - just the one that comes built into the printer.
I've changed network cables, booted the printer numerous times, unplugged the cable modem and router numerous times, nothing seems to work. The bios on the printer and router have both been updated to the latest available. The 3 Desktop PC's are WinXP (2 pro, 1 home) and the Laptop is Vista.
Can anyone suggest other areas I may need to look to get the printer to be recognized by the network? Is there a way to totally reset the printer back to factory defaults i.e. during startup of the printer? Any settings on the router I may need to look at? We're not network gurus and just use DHCP so the addressing is "automatic" - I don't want to try and manually set i.p's if possible. Should I uninstall any existing installations of the printer drivers?
Thanks for any help/suggestions given.
Steve
PudgyOne
11 Legend
•
30.3K Posts
•
106.6K Points
0
February 19th, 2008 17:00
Before "the llynster" can help you better and she is good at this, I think you need to fix your home network.
Setup should look like
wall > ISP modem/router > Netgear Wireless router > wired/wireless
Press the reset button in the back of the Netgear router for 30 seconds. Now power it on. When you log in, using the USB cable, the setup wizard will help you set up the router.
Download and install the latest firmware for your wireless router from here.
Broadcast SSID(change the name, this will make it easier to connect)
Use WPA security.
Do NOT use Mac addresses. It conflict with the WPA security.
Use mixed b and g mode
Use channels 1, 6 or 11. Most devices work better on these channels.
Have the wireless router get the ip addresses for the computers automatically.
Save and exit. Restart everything, computer, router and modem.
Now try to connect. Enter passkey/password.
Now install the printer drivers. Since you're using a network, the question is what is your printer plugged into? Are you using a host computer?
llynster
2 Intern
•
1.7K Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 17:00
I'd bet the IP address was something like 169.254.xxx.xxx, right?
This is referred to as an APIPA address, which means Automatic Private IP Addressing, which basically means, the printer gives itself an IP address if not given one.
Yes, sounds like the 1815dn needs a factory default reset. It's not accepting an IP address from your router.
skondolf
4 Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 17:00
I'd have to go to the base to actually look up the exact info but from what I can remember:
the i.p. address is like 254.187.xx.xx or something like that - totally different than the typical 192.168.1.xx that the router is using
subnet mask is 255.255.0.0 where normally it's 255.255.255.0
gateway it totally different
What's also strange is that when I first went in to load the drivers on one of the XP machines the program came up not finding the printer so I clicked the 'add' button to try and enter it manually. When I did this the program filled in with the same wrong i.p. address, host name, etc that shows when I print out the system report. However when I tried to use these settings the program comes back stating it can't find the printer.
So wherever these values are coming from, the pc and printer are using them.
I'll be going there tonight (I hope) and will uninstall the drivers from all connected pc's and do a few other things. If nothing works I'll post the exact values from the printer system report.
llynster
2 Intern
•
1.7K Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 17:00
Always a good idea to totally remove drivers, then re-install after changing configurations. That way, you can start fresh.
Can you give us an idea of the IP addresses (differences) you were referring too?
llynster
2 Intern
•
1.7K Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 18:00
You can restore the printer to factory defaults by entering Tech Mode on the printer. DO this by entering EXACTLY this key sequence: ← # 1 9 3 4
(the little symbol in front of the # is the left arrow)
After you get into Tech Mode, navigate into "Data Setup" then select "Clear All Mem".
obtw....... I'm a "he", not a "she"
PudgyOne
11 Legend
•
30.3K Posts
•
106.6K Points
0
February 19th, 2008 19:00
Sorry, Sir. I still mean what I say, you really have great knowledge.
llynster
2 Intern
•
1.7K Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 19:00
NO problemo...... I had a pretty good laugh !!
skondolf
4 Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 20:00
ok, I was able to resolve the issue.
First, the keyboard sequence to fully reset the printer to the defaults didn't work. Maybe I was entering them wrong or wasn't at the right location but I couldn't get them to work. Anyways here's what I did to resolve the issue:
1. made sure the network was setup properly for the pc's on it which it was
2. went to one of the XP boxes and proceeded to install the printer driver software
3. system didn't find the printer (just like before)
4. added the printer and manually entered network addresses as follows:
IP - 192.168.1.100 (just picked something higher than we'll ever have installed)
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 (same as the router)
Gateway: 192.168.1.1 (i.p. address of router)
5. That did it - the printer was able to be setup and the files installed. Test print worked fine
6. So that I didn't run into any issues in the future I did the following:
a. Went into the printer server webpage and gave the printer a hostname of DELLPRINTER
b. also set the print server to STATIC so it will always use 192.168.1.100
c. then went into the router and defined 192.168.1.100 as a reserved i.p. address and gave it a name of
DELLPRINTER. Now when the system resets this value will always point to DELLPRINTER and pinging
DELLPRINTER from any pc finds the printer.
d. set the printers on each pc to point to port DELLPRINTER
That seemed to resolve the issue. Not sure why this wasn't automatic but perhaps the newer Netgear router doesn't talk well with the older print server found in the Dell printer.
llynster
2 Intern
•
1.7K Posts
0
February 19th, 2008 23:00
Glad you resolved the issue.
What model Netgear router was that? I think I'll try to convince my boss to buy one so we can do some testing.
When you say the Keyboard sequence didn't work..... did you get into Tech Mode at all?
(and hope I'm not insulting you, but these are keys on the printer control panel)
skondolf
4 Posts
0
February 20th, 2008 10:00
Not insulting. I'm a DBA and work in the IT field and have worked on help desks before - I'm aware of some of the issues faced. Yes, I was doing that on the printer keyboard. Was I supposed to be in a specific spot in the menus before I did the key sequence or just from the main menu?
The router is a Netgear WPN824. Just bought it from another very well-known Electronics store - in fact I feel I got the "Best Buy" I could.
And both the router and printer were upgraded with the latest bios upgrade as part of all this. I will say (as I just remembered this) that the printer may have been set for STATIC I.P. when it was connected to the old router so that could've been my problem initially. However when I set the network configuration to use DHCP I would've thought that would remove the STATIC setting. Perhaps that's where the problem was - changing the printer's configuration thru the panel didn't set some internal codes.
llynster
2 Intern
•
1.7K Posts
0
February 20th, 2008 12:00
Was I supposed to be in a specific spot in the menus before I did the key sequence or just from the main menu?
You should have been able to enter tech mode from any of the menu items. I'll double check on one of my lab machines and make sure that was the sequence.
I do recall seeing something about retention of Static IP addresses in the 1815dn. The latest version of firmware on the Dell downoad site is supposed to have resolved that.