What's the trick to make Ethernet work on an HP 2100TN printer?

[Misha]

In another thread, I mentioned a friend gave me a printer. Here is a picture of the HP LaserJet 2100TN hooked up at my house:

The friend had it on AppleTalk (Macintosh), but I'm Windows and Linux (XP and Ubuntu).

I plugged the printer into the router by the ethernet cable, and rebooted. Nothing happened on the WinXP PC connected to the same router by ethernet cable. Nothing happened on the Ubuntu laptop connected wirelessly by the same cable. Nor on the Android phone.

Probably I need drivers, but, when I went to the HP support page, they had tons of drivers. But which one is the one needed to enable the WinXP PC (and the other PCs connected wirelessly to the router) to see the printer?

Which of those drivers will make the ethernet work?

1. hp LaserJet 2100 PCL 5e Printer Driver
2. hp LaserJet 2100 PCL 6 Printer Driver
3. hp LaserJet 2100 PCL 5e point and print bundles
4. hp LaserJet 2100 PCL 6 point and print bundles
5. 3 - HP Universal Print Driver for Windows PCL5
6. HP Printer Administrator Resource Kit

Or is there another trick to making the printer show up to Windows XP? (The workgroup is "HOME" for the WinXP PC.)

[PV]

You need to assign an IP address to the printer, one that resides within your existing IP scheme. Install the drivers on the respective computer. I would use the PCL 6 and print bundles. I have no idea about the Linux machine.

If the printer drivers to not automatically find the printer you will have to create a printer port pointed at the IP address of the printer

A very brief overview of how it's done.

[Misha]

Reading this service manual:

Page 140 seemed the most likely for network configuration, but, there was really nothing there that could actually be used.

I went to the IP address of the printer using the web, and it wanted me to install a Java plugin, so, I'm hoping Java will get the HP 2100TN printer visible on the WinXP PC network.

[Misha]

OK. I'll install the one called:

1. hp LaserJet 2100 PCL 6 point and print bundles

It seems (from the printouts my friend provided with the machine) that the HP LaserJet 2100TN printer had an IP address at my friend's house of 192.168.1.116.

Interestingly, my router is at 192.168.1.1, and, when I printed a test page, it showed the printer *still* has that IP address, but this time, on my network.

Just to see what happens, I pointed my WinXP browser to that URL: http://192.168.1.116 (on port 80) And, well, it found *something* ...

[Ed Pawlowski]

Go to Control Panel Printers Add a new printer

On W7 you can go directly to Devices and Printers, but I forget on XP so I know you can go through Control Panel

[Misha]

The funny thing is that my friend gave me only a power cord.

There is no direct connection to the printer from the Windows XP desktop.

The WinXP desktop is connected to the home broadband router via an ethernet cable just like the printer is currently connected to that same router by an ethernet cable.

So when I go to Start->Settings->Control Panel in WinXP, I can go to "Printers & Faxes->Add Printer", which takes me to the "Welcoem to the Add Printer Wizard".

For the first time in my life, I check the "Network Printer" radio dial even though there is a note at the bottom saying: "To set up a network printer that is not attached to a print server, use the "Local printer" option".

Hmmm... do I have a print server or not?

[Misha]

Well, moving forward, blindly guessing, selecting this failed: (o)Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network URL = http://192.168.1.116

The error was: Windows cannot connect to the printer...

So, I must not be specifying the printer address correctly. Or, it's the wrong button to check in the printer control panel applet.

[Misha]

Going back to the web browser URL to the printer, after installing Java on WinXP, and, after agreeing to an ominous warning:

I now see that the web browser communicates just fine with the printer.

I think I'm close.

I just don't know how to tell WinXP explicitly what the printer name is that is attached to the router.

And, Windows XP doesn't know how to find that printer which is connected to the router by a similar wire that it is.

I do have a Win7 machine handy on the same network (wirelessly though), so I'll see what the magic name might be from Windows 7 standpoints.

[Misha]

Pinging from Windows XP worked just fine: C:\> ping 192.168.1.116

I ran the ipconfig commands, but, they didn't really need to be run since the ping already found the printer.

So, the printer (which is connected to the router), is clearly on the network.

The trick is figuring out how to tell Windows XP that the printer is on the network.

I'm also trying to set it up as a TCP/IP printer, whatever that is (in the Add New Printer Wizard):

But, the problem is that there are so many wrong turns one can take that I must be taking them all because I don't know the proper sequence for setting up a networked printer.

[Misha]

OK. I got it working by that method above. Here is the entire sequence, documented in screenshots:

Whew! That was *not* intuitive!

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Windows have Help and Support built-in. Why not give a keyword like "how to add network printer on LAN?" and see what happens. You don't have to give the printer fixed IP, you can let the DHCP server on the router get one. Think networked printer. On linux, same thing. I have Canon MP990 WiFi connected to network on a router for various OS and all is working fine. Can you ping the printer? Can you do ipconfig /all and ipconfig /renew from XP machine?

[Misha]

Well, if I had originally thought it was unintuitive getting Windows XP to print to a newly home-ethernetted HP 2100 TN printer, I spoke before I got Linux to print to the same printer (wirelessly):

Here's the sequence for Linux to get a printer hooked to a home broadband router:

Now, the WinXP machine, hard wired to the router, can print to the printer (also hard wired to the router); while the Linux laptop wirelessly connected to the router can also print to that networked printer.

Success at last! Thanks for all your help!

[Misha]

By way of summary, here are composite screenshots of the steps, from start to finish, necessary to configure Windows & Linux to print to a printer wired only to the router.

Windows XP ==>

7 ==> ==> If anyone has a clue how to print using Android on WiFi, please let me know as I don't have a clue where to start.

[David H. Lipman]

From: "Misha"

Printer drivers are completely independent of Ethernet. They are the language of the printer and will allow the printer to properly render what is desired to be printed.

PS = PostScript and will use an associated PPD file. PCL = Printer Control Language PCL5 = Printer Control Language version 5 PCL6 = Printer Control Language version 6

A HP printer may use an embedded or extenally attached JetDirect "Print Server". It will conform to Telnet (TCP port 23), HTTP (TCP port 80) and to TCP raw printing @ TCP port 9100

Telnet and HTTP can be used to configure the HP JetDirect.

External HP JetDirect Print Servers (Ex: 200m, 300x and 310x) have a "reset" button that will cause the JetDirect to reset it settings and it will then seek a new IP address via DHCP such as from a SOHO Router. Once the HP JetDirect gets an IP from a SOHO Router, one can query the Router's DHCP assignments and get the IP address that was assigned to the HP JetDirect.

Printers with Internal JetDirects (Ex: 600n, 610n and 615n) can be setup by the printer using the buttons, menu and the printer's LCD display.

Once the printer has a DHCP assigment you can use Telnet or HTTP to configure the printer such as for SNMP, Banner Page, Static or Dynamic IP, Access Lists or turn off un-needed protocols (Ex: DLC/LLC and IPX/SPX). NOTE: It is easier to work with HP JetDirects using a static IP address.

Once the JetDirect is configured, you can setup a TCP/IP port Assignment to print to.

Use of the HP Install Network Printer Wizard (INPW) software can help automate the process on Windows, including the setup of the JetDirect because it communicates with the JetDirect based upon the MAC address and all HP JetDirects use a standard MAC address preamble.

[Bob_Villa]

Misha Mouska...take these question to a pertinent group!

[Hot-Text]

1. HP Printer Administrator Resource Kit

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, You use Ubuntu? I use Ubuntu and Mist Linux. Ubuntu is good but they charge for some apps. My router is ASUS RT-AC66U, Synology NAS DS713+/DX213 combo. Network has Wired devices thru a GBe switch XP pro, W7 Ult., W8 Pro, Linux. Mac OS X sharing Canon MP990 WiFi printer. I monitor my PV solar panel array connected to the router as well. Coming winter project is adding WiFi video surv. cameras tothe NAS.

[Misha]

I always wonder which is the one to use, since all of them work, and I have no need for more than one.

Which would you use?

[Misha]

I had not even thought of telnetting to the printer.

Trying it out, I find it a bit cryptic.

$ telnet 192.168.1.116 Trying 192.168.1.116... Connected to 192.168.1.116. Escape character is '^]'.

HP JetDirect

Please type "?" for HELP, or "/" for current settings

To Change/Configure Parameters Enter: Parameter-name: value

Parameter-name Type of value ip: IP-address in dotted notation subnet-mask: address in dotted notation default-gw: address in dotted notation syslog-svr: address in dotted notation idle-timeout: seconds in integers set-cmnty-name: alpha-numeric string (32 chars max) host-name: alpha-numeric string (upper case only, 32 chars max) dhcp-config: 0 to disable, 1 to enable ipx/spx: 0 to disable, 1 to enable dlc/llc: 0 to disable, 1 to enable ethertalk: 0 to disable, 1 to enable banner: 0 to disable, 1 to enable

Type passwd to change the password.

Type "?" for HELP, "/" for current settings or "quit" to save-and-exit. Or type "exit" to exit without saving configuration parameter entries

>

[Misha]

I did try http://192.168.1.116, which required a Java installation:

Once done, the web interface gave a web page of information:

But, I couldn't see from that web page how to CHANGE anything.

Nor would I know what I'd want to change anyway. I just wanted to print.