Ethernet printer server help

[Scott Shepherd]

Greetings, I am in need of some computer related advice/help.

I have several computers in my office, all plugged into the same Linksys router and we are able to share files, etc.

We just added another printer and we want that to be available to everyone. I had an older ethernet print server left over from a previous adventure and I plugged it into the router, the new printer into it, and thought we'd be good to go.

Added the printer, gave it the address I got for it (some crazy name/number combination), and installed the driver and it printed from one computer.

After several prints, it stopped printing from that machine. I tried another machine, it printed from that one fine. Printed about 50 pages from that computer, no problem. Came in today, printed 20 more pages, no problem. Then, it won't print any more. No lights on the printer saying it's waiting, nothing. Tried the other computer, worked. Tried the one that was working, still won't work. Tried the other computer again, won't print from there either. Have turned the printer on and off many time, the computers off, the print server off and back on. Can't seem to make it work.

It's also SUPER slow going through that thing. You print something and it might start printing 2 minutes from now.

All running XP, and it's a D-Link DP301U print server.

Any suggestions or ideas? I don't mind buying something else if it'll work, but I also don't want to drop $100 on something that works about the same as this thing.

Thanks!

[Randal Stevenson]

Got time to play around?

I am wondering how much memory the printer/printserver has? You could be filling the cache, in which case the next print/page is in the computers cache, waiting for (normally manually) it to be unpaused. (local pc)

One way to test this would be by printing out pages of the same thing and figure out the maximum number of pages that will come out.

[Scott Shepherd]

I'm just sending over small files. It was a used printer that had clogged heads, so I'm printing out nothing more than a simple colored bar to check if I got the head clean or not (which I have resolved). So only issue now is getting it to print in a timely manner and consistently.

I can go into the print server and see all these addresses, IP, MAC, etc., but no where in the setup of my printer from the PC's did it ever ask for that. So I tend to have a gut feeling it's something to do with that.

Right now, when it asked for the location, i.e., it said \\server\location so I put in the \\the name of the print server\name of the location (which also came from the print server admin page. So it looks like all my printer info is to the server and has nothing to do with the printer itself.

Just thinking out loud.

[paul cottingham]

Really, really common with "cheap" (sorry to use that word) print servers. Buy a new one from somewhere you can take it back to, and try that. The only print servers that work well are the ones built into printers.

As an aside are you printing to an ip or a netbios name? (\\server\machine) netbios printing is notoriously prickly.

[Stephen Massman]

have you tried to update the firmware of the print server device.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks Paul, I don't know what I'm running, that's the problem :)

The location for the printer is \\PS-ADACFD\PS-ADACFD-U1

PS-ADACFD being the name of the print server from what I gathered off the configuration page of the print server and the PS-ADACFD-U1 being the port name which I gathered from that same configuration page.

It often gives a message when opening all available printers that the printer cannot be found on the server, while another computer says "ready" and it will print from fine.

I do remember I never liked the thing from the day I bought it. I've installed 2 of these in different places over the last 3 years and neither one was a happy experience, and neither one worked like I thought it should.

[Matt Meiser]

I've got a Netgear that's really picky too. I did get it to work using an IP address rather than netbios after hours of screwing around with it. The printer is an HP that's about 6 years old and the HP software is part of the problems I had.

I also had a bunch of trouble with one that we used on a project site at my old place of work. I finally gave up on that one, connected the printer to one desktop and shared it out that way.

Sharing seems to work great by the way if you can live with it being attached to a specific computer that is going to have to be turned on for everyone to print. I have an inexpensive laser connected to the PC in my shop and I can print out to there no problem from any PC in the house.

Otherwise unless its something special, you are money ahead if your time is valuable to you to just buy a network-ready new printer which are downright cheap anymore. My wife and I were looking at some for her office a few months ago and I couldn't believe the prices for a network-ready "personal" printer.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks Matt, I wish it were that easy! No where to locate it for being plugged into a single computer, it's only possible location is on the side of the room opposite all our desks. It's also setup to be a dye sub printer, so just buying another printer isn't the solution either.

[Curt Harms]

Really, really common with "cheap" (sorry to use that word) print servers. Buy a new one from somewhere you can take it back to, and try that. The only print servers that work well are the ones built into printers.

As an aside are you printing to an ip or a netbios name? (\\server\machine) netbios printing is notoriously prickly.

I had (still have-somewhere) a Netgear PS-101 parallel port print server. It worked--sorta-- but did something simiiar. I'd have to reinstall it frequently. Of course this was running Win98 which probably didn't help. I have 2 printers with WiFi/ethernet print servers built in. HP Photosmart & Brother MFC-6490CW. Both work great. I think it takes longer for a job to start than it would with a USB connection (perhaps 15 seconds) but there's no problem with printer recognition and function.

[Matt Meiser]

Netgear PS-101 parallel port print server

A bunch of those caused me non-stop grief for a summer about 6 years ago. One of our clients used them on barcode printers because the manufactuer's ethernet card for the printer was on backorder. They would just stop responding periodically but of course everyone blamed my software. They were making an auto part who's value at the point where the barcode was printed was about $25. Since the barcode contained the serial number of the part, if they couldn't positively identify which part when with which label, they had to scrap the part, so everyone was understandably upset. And of course when the OEM card came off backorder and they got them installed, the problems magically disappeared.

[paul cottingham]

try typing ping -name of print server- to find the ip of it. then try configuring your computers to print to the ip rther than the netbios name. that will help.

[Scott Shepherd]

Paul, I have the IP address, but I don't have a clue where to go to set it up using the IP address. Any tips for where to go on that? WinXP.

[Stephen Massman]

Go to start\run and type in \\ipaddress and hit enter. That should bring up the list of printer shares. Double click on the one you want and install the drivers. then delete the old one using the netbios name.

Hope that helps.

[paul cottingham]

Paul, I have the IP address, but I don't have a clue where to go to set it up using the IP address. Any tips for where to go on that? WinXP.
Go to add printers. Set up the printer using the ip adress. Sorry, I don't run windows at home anymore, so am doing this from memory.

[Bryan Morgan]

Greetings, I am in need of some computer related advice/help.

I have several computers in my office, all plugged into the same Linksys router and we are able to share files, etc.

We just added another printer and we want that to be available to everyone. I had an older ethernet print server left over from a previous adventure and I plugged it into the router, the new printer into it, and thought we'd be good to go.

Added the printer, gave it the address I got for it (some crazy name/number combination), and installed the driver and it printed from one computer.

After several prints, it stopped printing from that machine. I tried another machine, it printed from that one fine. Printed about 50 pages from that computer, no problem. Came in today, printed 20 more pages, no problem. Then, it won't print any more. No lights on the printer saying it's waiting, nothing. Tried the other computer, worked. Tried the one that was working, still won't work. Tried the other computer again, won't print from there either. Have turned the printer on and off many time, the computers off, the print server off and back on. Can't seem to make it work.

It's also SUPER slow going through that thing. You print something and it might start printing 2 minutes from now.

All running XP, and it's a D-Link DP301U print server.

Any suggestions or ideas? I don't mind buying something else if it'll work, but I also don't want to drop $100 on something that works about the same as this thing.

Thanks!

Add printer -> local printer -> create new port -> standard tcp/ip printer ... try it this way. I've gone through hundreds of these little print servers and they are all flaky and have to be reset from time to time. Using the UNC/Netbios name is also flaky on a Windows network. If that print server doesn't support standard 9100 printing you can try adding that entry to the hosts file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) in the format of <IP><tab><network name> ex:

192.168.0.55 ps-printer

If you are running a domain or at least a WINS server you don't have to edit the hosts file. Windows printing in general is just flaky (as apposed to direct ip printing or LPR)

I'll tell you the ones that work the best aren't cheap. We've had great luck with Axis and hp JetDirect external print servers. The most reliable I can remember were these old Intel boxes, but I haven't seen them in years.

Typically if you have to load some proprietary drivers to make them work (looking at you Hawking Tech.) they are not very reliable at all.

Also, while you can connect the printer locally and just share it with the other computers, I don't recommend this. I've seen computers have their print spoolers get smoked and have to get reloaded from a backup image.

My company has a LOT of printers I have to install and maintain... everything from your small desktop lasers to huge 8 feet wide solvent ink printers.

[paul cottingham]

What Bryan said.

[Curt Harms]

Hoo Boy...that'd make a cheap device expensive in a hurry, wouldn't it? As I recall, at the time there weren't a lot of alternatives unlike today.


A bunch of those caused me non-stop grief for a summer about 6 years ago. One of our clients used them on barcode printers because the manufactuer's ethernet card for the printer was on backorder. They would just stop responding periodically but of course everyone blamed my software. They were making an auto part who's value at the point where the barcode was printed was about $25. Since the barcode contained the serial number of the part, if they couldn't positively identify which part when with which label, they had to scrap the part, so everyone was understandably upset. And of course when the OEM card came off backorder and they got them installed, the problems magically disappeared.

[Scott Shepherd]

Bryan, you are THE MAN!!! Excellent!

I had to make up some stuff along the way, as it didn't have the device listed in some section where it wanted to know the device info, so I picked "custom" and everything was filled in, so I accepted it and it worked!

It now prints from any computer on our little home style network and it prints fast as well. It also brings up the control panel for the printer when you print, which is something that never happened before. It's as if the computers can finally see the printer, rather than just spitting out data down the line and hoping something happens downstream.

Thanks very much, that's exactly the help I needed!

[Bryan Morgan]

Bryan, you are THE MAN!!! Excellent!

I had to make up some stuff along the way, as it didn't have the device listed in some section where it wanted to know the device info, so I picked "custom" and everything was filled in, so I accepted it and it worked!

It now prints from any computer on our little home style network and it prints fast as well. It also brings up the control panel for the printer when you print, which is something that never happened before. It's as if the computers can finally see the printer, rather than just spitting out data down the line and hoping something happens downstream.

Thanks very much, that's exactly the help I needed!

Glad to be of help! I come to this forum to learn about woodworking and tools because I don't know too much about it.... But, computers/networks are my day job so that is a way I can give back. :) Your issue was somewhat easy as I work for a big graphics and printing company and have to set this stuff up in particular and fix it daily :D