Have you ever used the network port on this printer before? (do you know if it's good?)

Is it a known good cable? (a cross-over is best)

Is there ANY light activity on the LED's adjacent to the network connector clip - at the back of the printer - when the cable is plugged into the printer from the router?

Do any of the other wired ports on your router work with other wired devices at your installation?

I've had the printer for 3 years and am trying to use the ethernet port for the first time.

The cable is good. It's a straight cable...not a crossover cable.

The green LED light blinks at the ethernet port on the printer when the cable is plugged in.

All the LAN ports on the router work when I plug my desktop into them...(I can still access the internet).

When I connect the printer to my laptop using the straight ethernet cable the laptop doesn't see the printer.  This leads me to believe that either the enet port on the printer is bad or I need to use a crossover cable instead of straight cable. 

One of my co-workers thinks I need to try the network manager tool on the printer's install disk to resolve the problem.  I will give that a try before buying a new cable.

SO, if you print the network settings page from the printer control panel, is there an IP address listed? (and SNM, and GWY addresses?
(the "Net management" tool is not gonna have anything to do with this)

How are your determining that your printer is not being "seen" by the PC?

The fact that you have a flashing LED on the printer network port is a good sign. Is it flashing at a constant or random rate?

Yes, the IP address is 169.254.75.157, the SNM is 255.255.0.0 and the GWY is 169.254.1.1.

I attempted to access the printers setup menu by plugging a USB cable directly between the printer and my PC. But when I enter the IP address (above) into the address bar the computer can't find it (tried it on both IE and Firefox).

Then, I attempted to print from the PC with using a straight enet cable then a crossover enet cable connected directly between the printer and pc but the printer did not appear on the list of available printers.

Not sure where to go from here.

The IP address you provided is what's known as an APIPA address. (Automatic Private IP Addressing) Basically, the printer never rcvd an IP address from your network router so it assigns itself an IP...... this is why you can't communicate with it when connected to your network.

In the 2nd sentence of your reply, you indicated you tried to access the IP of the printer using a USB cable? Uhh...... that'll never happen.

Basically, your printer has not yet rcvd an IP address from your router. The IP address on most home-use routers begin with 192.168.x.x (SNM 255.255.255.0; GWY 192.168.x.1)

Here are instructions to do a Factory Reset on the printer. The First thing is to enter Tech Mode:
** WARNING ** this procedure will clear and reset all stored data in the machine.
1. You need to enter this sequence (rapidly): < # 1 9 3 4
2. The display should indicate "Tech Mode" (if not, try again... faster)
3. Press > to "Data Setup", press the "check-mark" button
4. Press > to "Clear All Mem", press the "check-mark" button
5. USA is displayed, (< or > to select your country), press the "check-mark" button
6. The System Data page is printed and the display indicates "Please Power OFF"
7. Power off the printer, wait 5 seconds, then Power on

Plug a network cable (wired as straight "patch" cable) from the router to the printer and wait about 5 minutes, then print another network setting page and let me know if you have a valid IP address.

I was using the instructions from the following PDF to update the firmware and access the printer menu. The process calls for a USB connection. http://ftp.dell.com/Printer/Dell%201815dn%20FW%20update%20Procedure%201.2.pdf This is why I was typing the IP address into the IE address bar. I'm not sure why the USB connection would pose a problem. Regardless, I will try using the Tech Mode you outline above and report back.

Yes, those are the instructions. But there are two sections..... the first section is SPECIFIC to USB connected printers and the second section is SPECIFIC to network connected printers. If you are connected USB, you can't use IE and an IP address...... it DOESN'T work that way. If you are connected via network, you can't use the USB method. Did you get the instructions between the two methods mixed up?

I ran through the instructions to clear the memory using Tech Mode and no luck...the IP address still remains 169.254.75.157. I repeated the steps 3 times and the results were identical.

llynster,

Just a quick note. The ip address that he gave is because the routers need reset.

Power off the ISP Modem/router. Then power off your wireless router. Wait 30 seconds, then power on the ISP modem first. Wait 15 seconds then power on your ISP modem. You should be able to get a better ip address, like the one llynster suggested.

llynster, he should be able to get the ip address like you suggested. Had this problem during electrical storms and power flickers.

Rick

There's not much farther we can take this before we declare the network port on the printer...... BAD

Last thing to try (unless you've done so already)...... connect a PC OR Laptop to the SAME router port using the SAME cable and try to access the Internet. If that works, I think it's time to declare the printer network port as bad.

Did you closely inspect the connections inside the port connector to make sure they're not smashed down? I've seen people accidentally plug the "B" end of the USB cable into this connector and smash down the spring clips.

Hey Rick,

I do hope you are correct. I would hope that he has reset the router by now... good thing to try, sometimes we forget the obvious... and my last reply to him should be enough to determine one or the other.

Typically, a router will not provide an IP address in this range. The 169.254.x.x address is what's called an APIPA address, which many modern network interfaces can self-assign.

To clarify my setup, I have the Verizon Actiontech Modem/Wireless router for my FIOS internet connection. I previously had a Linksys wireless router wired to the Actiontech router, a desktop wired to the Linksys and the 1815dn printer wired to the desktop (via USB).  We have two laptops that were using the home network on the Linksys to access the shared printer on the desktop. I decided to simplify the home network config by eliminating the linksys router and hooking the printer directly to the Actiontech wireless router via the enet port. I wanted to eliminate the need to turn on the desktop everytime someone wanted to print from a laptop. This should have worked if all the equipment was functional. But this is obviously not the case.

Regarding your comment about resetting the Actiontech router...each time I ran the tech mode instructions I disconnected the enet cable from the printer, reset the memory on the printer, turned off the printer and the Actiontech router, powered up the printer, reconnected the enet cable and powered up the router.  This process was unsuccessful at resetting the IP address on the printer to one that was compatible with the router. Please advise if you think a different sequence would work better.

I will double check the pins on the enet port on the printer.  If those aren't the problem then I'll work with a friend to see if we can replace the enet port.  If that's too much work then I'm off to the store for a new printer.

Thanks for the excellent support!! :)

bulbs,

Just to clarify your actual ip address for llynster, try ipconfig /all log and copy it here so he can see your actual ip address. This will help with configuring the printer.

Rick

Another thought...... do you still have the Linksys router? Does it work? Is it one of the more common models (WRT54G) ?

If yes, and just to test, fire up the Linksys, reset the unit, and plug the 1815dn into one of it's wired LAN ports to see if it gets an IP address. Out of the box, or freshly reset, the Linksys should provide IP addresses in the 192.168.1.x range. You won't need to connect the Linksys to anything else (except power) to perform this test.

If you DO get an IP now, you may have discovered a subtle incompatibility between your new router and the 1815dn.

A question on your home network config...... did you ever indicate that one or more of your PC's/Laptops were connected "wired" to your new router?

As to your power-up sequence, power-up the router first, wait a couple minutes for it to complete self-test, then power-up the other devices.

llynster,

In your previous post you mentioned damaged pins on the enet port of the router and you were correct. I must have mashed the pins by accidentially pushing the USB connector into the enet port.

So, I've straightened out the pins as best I could and the router light now comes on when I connect the cable between the two. After that, I installed the DRIVERS AND UTILITY disk and used the SET IP UTILITY option to change the IP address of the printer to 192.168.1.100. As soon as I applied the IP address change a new network configuration sheet printed from the printer which was only connected to the router via a straight enet cable (i.e. no USB to the desktop).

So, I'm almost there. The problem I'm having now is to get my desktop to find the printer using the ADD PRINTER fuction in Windows XP. For some reason, the desktop doesn't see the printer. Both machines are wired to the router via enet cables. I can even see the printer on the routers control menu. I was going to try deleting all other printer connections and restart the desktop to see if that works. Any other suggestions?