OT: installing a networked printer

[Lobster]

Apologies for cluttering with OT stuff but this is the most helpful IT support forum I know ;-)

After (someone else's) long thread a few weeks ago about printers, I have taken the plunge and followed several folk's recommendations and scored myself a LaserJet 5 off ebay. It arrived this morning and looks great, and prints perfect test prints... but that's all! I

*cannot* figure out for the life of my how to install the bloody thing (it's a networked jobbie) and google and hp.com aren't helping. I've downloaded a utility from hp.com which is supposed to detect what's hooked up and advise accordingly, but it can't find anything connected. Also found an online manual but it's all about Windows 3.1! Needless to say the printer didn't have any installation disk (though I expect they'd have been on 5.25" floppies....)

Printer is a LaserJet 5 (model C3916A) with a JetDirect J2550B ethernet network thingy. That is connected to my LAN via a Linksys WRT54G router.

Where do I start? Do I need to manually configure stuff into the printer? What drivers do I need? etc etc etc

Thanks for any pointers David

[Adrian]

Lobster gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

You need to either figure out what IP address the printer's been given by DHCP (print off the network status page) or, preferably, give it a static address via the front panel. Then just add a _local_ (yes, counter- intuitive, I know) printer in Windows, create a new port, and point it to that IP address. Select the type of printer, and bingo.

I've got a LJ5N here, too - cheapie via fleaBay a few years back - and it's proper bomb-proof kit. It started to mis-feed paper, but a roller kit was cheap and easy to fit.

[Tim S]

Lobster coughed up some electrons that declared:

Hi David,

OK - first thing to do is to find out its IP address (it may have DHCP'd one off your router, which will be correct but unknown, or it may carry some old and invalid (for your network) setting from the last place it was installed.

See here:

get it to print a test page. That should list the IP address.

Personally, I'd set it up with a known one valid on your network, by fiddling with the MENU and ITEM buttons until you get to configure the network settings (IIRC you might see "MIO" or "EIO" which you want.

Here's a good description of the process:

you have a stable IP address, netmask and (optionally) a gateway address, you should point at web browser at the IP address. That should give you a web page direct from the printer that will let you examine and tweak the rest of it in more comfort!

As to Windows - I'm rusty: Something like "Add Printer", "Local Port", "something-Direct or port 9100" connection - that's to get the computer to talk to the printer.

Drivers - HP LaserJet 5 (or Laserjet ANYTHING more or less) will be included in Windows for the last 10 years plus - so you shouldn't need any new drivers (but since I hate Windows, I might be corrected on this).

If you have afiddle and come back with any particular issues, I'll have another go :)

Cheers

Tim

[Rod]

Install it as a *local* printer (but don't attempt do a test print!) using the latest available drivers.

Change the printer port. Right-click on the printer, choose Properties, got to the Ports tab. Add a new port (Standard TCP/IP port) based on the IP address of the printer and switch the printer to use it.

You only real issue (IIRC) is to ensure that the printer's IP address does not change - your router might allow fixing addresses within its DHCP server based on MAC address which is an easy approach.

[Jim]

Forget about downloading drivers and utilities, you won't need them.

You need to configure an IP address and subnet mask on the JetDirect, this is available via the menu interface on the printer itself.

IP address will be something like 192.168.1.254 (check by getting a cmd prompt and typing ipconfig /all, the first 3 numbers should be the same as your PC) Subnet mask will be 255.255.255.0

Then just (in Windows XP) do Add Printer, local printer, new local port, tcp/ip port, point to that IP address, you should already have a LJ5 driver available.

[Harry Bloomfield]

That is a rather old one, but rock solid.

Download and install the driver for the printer for your operating system from HP if there are any. Failing that see if your operating system lists any driver for that printer, as in the add new hardware. When it comes to setting the port it is attached to, you will need tell it that it is a network printer and to type in the TCP/IP address of the JetDirect (see below).

Download the manual for the JetDirect unit, for instructions to set that up. Probably it will need to be reset, so that it reverts back to factory defaults - find out in the manual what the default IP is. Probably something like 192.168.0.???

You need to set a PC up so that it has the same IP number, but different on the ??? numbers above - that is unless you are already using the same IP numbers by default on your LAN. Connect the JetDirect to that PC with a CAT5 cable.

Now you need to use Telnet...

Open a DOS prompt window and Type Telnet, now type OPEN (followed by the IP of the JetDirect).

You should now see the printer respond with'HP JetDirect' and more. The 'more' is various settings including allowing you to set the printers IP to what ever you want, consistent with your own LAN settings.

A note on LAN IP's....

Maybe you use DHCP. This is where your router dynamically allocates IP's as various items on the LAN are turned on. I use static IP's so the items on my LAN always have the same numbers - your printer at least WILL NEED a static IP so the driver can find it.

Hope that gives you some clues and that I have got all of that correct.

[Dave Liquorice]

Every one else has done the IP stuff and that will probably sort you out but you have checked that you get the right lights lit on your switch and on the Jerdirect card with network cable plugged in.

[OG]

I addition to what others have said, you may need to add the IP address as an allowed destination on any firewalls you have installed on your computers.

[John Rumm]

What the others said, with an extra wrinkle...

Assign a static IP address to the printer (via the LAN setup options on the front panel). However to ensure you can't get a conflict later, you want to make sure that this is outside of the range of addressees that your router is allowed to hand out to DHCP clients. This may require some fiddling on the routers web interface.

So say you say the router is allowed to allocate addresses in the range

192.168.1.2 - .100, then stick the printer at .150 or something similar.

[neverwas]

A wrinkle on the wrinkles already given.

The JetDirect won't support DHCP unless it has firmware A.05.05 or later. See

can upgrade the firmware by connecting the printer direct to a PC and using HP's upgrade utilities. See essential if you use a fixed address or if your card already supports DHCP but updating the firmware removed some other glitches I had with our LJ 4+ and 5.

As others have said, watch your firewall - and not just for the address. Eg you may need also to unblock the print spooler.

[Tim S]

neverwas coughed up some electrons that declared:

I'm fairly sure they did BOOTP for a long time previously - and many DHCP servers manage BOOTP.

Now RARP, that *is* old...

[The Natural Philosopher]

The first thing is to get it ON your network, and that's the hardest thing. You need to get into the jetdirect bit and give it an IP address. After that its more or less trivial Drivers are available from HP and you just tell them 'jet direct at such and such IP address.'

[Dave Plowman (News)]

The easy way might be to assign fixed IP addresses to everything on your network. If you go to your router setup it should give all the required data. Have to use this method here due to some old computers in use.

[Huge]

This is a PITA for more than 2 or 3 hosts, though. Even yours truly the techie dinosaur has changed to DHCP.

[Bob Eager]

I use DHCP, but assign permanent leases based on MAC address so I know where everything is. Makes the DNS easier too.

[Lobster]

I rest my case! ;-)

Thank you all very much for the advice - I've now got it up and running perfectly, it seems.

As John Rumm suggested, I put it at 192.168.1.150. However, I can't access that as a web page via my browser (as I can with my router) - any reason why that should be the case?

Regarding the whole DHCP issue, which I'd never given much thought to before, but have today had to look into a bit - am I right in thinking it's better to fix the IP addresses of anything permanently fixed on the network (ie the router, VOIP phone, 2 desktop PCs and now a printer)? Other than for the printer, which I can understand, what's the advantage of that?

But I need to leave DHCP enabled for portable kit for use elsewhere like the laptops and the kids Nintendos, right?

Thanks again David

[Huge]

I have a mixture. Stuff that needs DNS & firewall specifics gets a permanent lease, stuff that doesn't, doesn't. I do it all on the Smoothwall, now, which has a DHCP and very clever DNS proxy.

But I suspect this is beyond the OP ... :o)

[The Natural Philosopher]

Anything that needs to be contacted BY a desktop..servers, print servers, file servers and the router - needs to be fixed IP address.

Anything else, run DHCP.

best to follow teh standards.. I have assiugned 192.168.0.1-192.168.0.63 to dhcp, the rest is reserved for sevres--..Linux server, (.100) print server (.250) and the router (.254).

Yup.

[Big Les Wade]

Lobster posted

It's because the printer is not running a web server application whereas the router is. All nodes on your network must have an IP address, but they don't all have to be web servers.

[tinnews]

That's not really necessarily so. When computers (in particular) get their IP address by DHCP they (usually) tell the DHCP server their name. You can then access them by name if the DHCP server is also a local DNS cache.

This is how I run my system, a small SoHo network where maintaining static addresses for everything becomes a pain. I run dnsmasq as my DHCP server on a permanently on Linux box but I think quite a few routers will provide a similar service.

When, for example, my wife turns her computer on it gets its IP address by asking the DHCP server and registers the name 'maxine'. Now I can access her machine as 'maxine' with no need to know its IP address.

Even my DECT/VOIP base station works this way, it gives the name C475IP to the DHCP server and I can access its web configuration as C475IP.