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Win XP Pro/ Networked wireless printer(s), CAN'T connect!
Hello all, Have a Dell Truemobile 2300 wireless router connected to DSL modem and two HP printers; a laserjet 2550ln color and a hp photosmart C7280. The first printer is hardwired to the router and the other is connected wirelessly. Both work on my Dell 8400- with NO real problems. TROUBLE is THIS: Neither can be found or connected to on the other Dell 8400 and another Dell, can't think of model # at the moment, ALL run XP Pro, with AVG virus/& security/firewall etc. I try the add printer 'wizard',and get to where when browsing for a printer attached to another pc under shared printers: it says: MS windows network, + Workgroup I wait for the printers to show up under workgroup and nothing ever happens... I go back and sulk in my cave and beat my head with rock! Help! rock is breaking into little pieces; afraid I will run out of rock before deed is done!! :)
- It's unclear how your printers are set up on the network. In one sentence you say they are connected to a router and in another sentence you say the are connected to another computer on the network. Please try to explain your setup better.Steve
- I believe I said they work basically flawlessly as they are connected to my pc, via the router; also connected to my pc. The laserjet is hardwired via the router and the photosmart is wirelessly connecting to the router and thus my pc. Where the problem lies is the two remote pc's which are both wirelessly('connected') to my pc- (they are in other parts of the house), those two pc's do not 'see' the printers, and therefore cannot connect with them. {Sorry if I was not clear- I can't read my original post as I write this so I'm just trying to further clarify...} Let me know if this is clearer. Any help appreciated....
- Ok. Let me try again. In my office on first floor is my dell 8400. attached to it is my DSL modem and to the modem my router. In the same room the laserjet is physically attached to the router and the photo printer is wireless connecting through the router to my 8400. In that setup both printers work and I can print, fax, copy, scan, etc. When I go to other 8400 in next room I do not see the printers when I try to do an add printer wizard. Same thing on the 2nd floor where the third pc is located, I believe it is a Dell 4600 model. It all used to work(with the laserjet) before my and the other Dell 8400 had to have their drives replaced due to various age related failures. I have since added the photosmart wireless printer and at this time neither printer is seen by either of the two remote pc's in any room other than where the modem/router and printers are physically located. I have a Netgear signal booster on the upstairs pc to get the signal to the downstairs room and it is working fine for email. In fact, both remotes can access the I-net and email but cannot see the printers. You stated:"It's still not very clear, but you seem to be saying that the printers are not physically connected to another computer, but connect directly to the router, either through an ethernet port or through a wireless connection. Is this correct? If so, do the printers have a static IP address on the network? If so, have you simply tried adding the printers by Adding a port and typing in the IP address of each printer in the Add Port diaglog box? Steve" My reply to your inquiry: Yes to both as to how then printers connect to the office pc- one via the hardware port on the router the other through a wireless connection. As to the static IP addresses on the network, I would have to say I believe so from what the router's config says. (Steve)asked:"If so, have you simply tried adding the printers by Adding a port and typing in the IP address of each printer in the Add Port dialog box?" I'm not sure where you are saying to add the port- on each remote pc? on the router's config page? This is where I tend to get lost without specific step x step instructions.....
Message Edited by chimney on 01-23-2008 10:43 PM - Let me first ask this. On the computer which can print to the network printers, how is it set up. If you go to that computer and open the Printers folder, how are each of these printers listed (please give the full names listed there)? That will give me a clue as to how to suggest setting up the printers on the computers which cannot connect.Steve
- 1.) HP Photosmart C7200 series IP=192.168.2.8,Host=HP0A3172 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ hpcolorLaserJet 2550 series HP std TCP/IP port ~~~hpcolorLaserJet2550PCL6 While in the area I noticed on the 'sharing tab' that both printers were NOT allowing sharing. I set them up (now) to allow sharing, but did not do it by the wizard since my network is already installed and configured- or at least it was at one time.... {I feel like we may be gaining on it} :).... All I can say is I guess when I installed the new hard drive and reloaded the os I did not check to see if printer sharing might be turned off.... I haven't had time to try this to see if it will work - yet..... I'll be on it tomorrow AM......
Message Edited by chimney on 01-24-2008 12:50 AM - You can only share a printer if it is attached directly to the computer by a USB cable or a parallel printer cable. Yours are not attached to that computer, so you don't want to share them. They are independent printers on a network and are thus automatically shared on the network. So, don't designate them as shared printers.What you have to do to install them on the other computers (assuming they all run XP) is the following:On each of these computers, open the Printers and Faxes folder and click on Add Printer. Click on Next.Then, make sure that "A local printer.....: (I know it doesn't sound logical) is selected and click Next.Select the option to "Create a new port", then change the selection in the box next to it to "Standard TCP/IP port" and click Next. The Add Port Wizard will start. Click next.Type the IP address of one of the printers in the box. When you are done, it should add the port and return you to the "Select a Printer Port" dialog box with the newly added port in the box at the top. Click Next.Then have your printer installation disk ready, and browse that disk for the proper drivers.I don't have a printer to install, so I can't complete the details, but it should be pretty straightforward once you have pointed the wizard to the correct driver installation files.Steve
- Volcano, YAHOO! I'm 1/2 way there! Got the newer photosmart printer to print a test page but am still baffled by my color laserjet's unwillingness to cooperate... It must be something I'm doing wrong as to putting in the name because it says it does not find it on the network from the remote pc upstairs and when I try to print to the LaserJet it comes back as having failed to print. When it is trying to print after its initial setup it is NOT set as default printer, (since the Photosmart is already set as default). Would that make a difference for a 'test' page- an cause it show failed to print? I'm wondering since the LaserJet was able to be accessed previously on the remote prior to replacing the hard drive on the pc where the printer is located-in my office...do I need to do some add/remove hardware on the remote prior to trying to 'reinstall' it for remote printing? Also: what about: 'enable printer pooling' on the main pc where the printers are located - should it be on or off? Thanks-don't give up- we're almost there and then others can use this as an example when dealing with similar issues.
- When you print a test page, the command goes to the printer which you selected to open the printer's property box. It does not matter that it is not the default printer.If you didn't change anything on the upstairs computer, then what happened to the computer in the same room as the printers does not matter. Since the printers are stand-alone network printers, you should be able to print to them over the network even you if completely removed the downstairs computer. The only thing I can think of is that the IP address of the LaserJet has changed. The IP address doesn't show up in the rather garbled output you copied into the message of 1/23 at 11:48 PM. I'm wondering if you have that printer set on a dynamic IP address that may change everytime the printer is powered on. Have you really assigned it a static IP address?Did you set all of this up initially when it was working? The only reason I ask is that most of your questions reveal that you don't really understand how all of this works, and thus it would be difficult for you to set it up initially.All of your questions concerninig changing settings on the downstairs computer are not really relevant, because again, these printers are not connected directly to that computer and that computer doesn't even have to be in the network in order for printing to work from the upstairs computer to the stand alone network printers.Steve
volcano11
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Posted January 24th, 2008 00:00