Wireless printing
 

I've searched the forums but couldn't find an answer. Hopefully there is one out there.

First, let me say that I am absolutely brand new to networking and can be considered a complete idiot at it, so you need to treat me as one in your replies. That being said, here's my problem:

I cannot print wirelessly.

My wife and I are both set up on a wireless home network. Our equipment is as follows:

<b>router</b> - NetGear WGR614 v4
<b>pci</b> - D-Link Air DWL-650
<b>print server</b> - iogear GPSU 01
<b>printer</b> - HP OfficeJet 4215
<b>computers</b> - both Gateway laptops running XP home and ZoneAlarm Pro as our firewall.

Our shared internet is working fine. HP's website states that the drivers for our printer do not support network printing so I downloaded their mobile printing drivers which enable you to identify the IP adress of the printer. Still no luck.

My computer recognizes my printer and it is online and ready to print, except that it won't print. I've been through Window's troubleshooter and have followed every step to no avail. I receive no error messages and every indication is that the documents print, except I find an empty tray. I've tried unplugging, uninstalling, reinstalling, reconnecting, restarting, rain dances, offering up fatted calves, sacrificing virgins, promising god I'll repent, but so far nothing has worked.

I can view my printer online via its IP address; I can connect directly to the computer via USB and print, I just can't print wirelessly. Any help you can offer would be appreciated. We both need the wireless printing due to our locations so connecting to one computer and networking isn't the best option.

Any ideas?

Wireless print servers usually come with a driver for your PC. They tend to be "virtual ports" on your computer that intercept the print request and send it to the wireless print server.

Does the IOGear print server follow this model? Did you install software on the actual PCs?


Mr Mephisto

I installed the the software which autodetects the device. It's called PSAdmin. According to this, my printer is recognized and ready to print. It enables TCP/IP, Bindery, NDS, and Appletalk. I'm told I need to use TCP/IP, so that is what it is configured for.

According to PSAdmin, LPR, Appletalk, and IPP are enabled while NDS and Bindery are disabled. Keep in mind I have absolutely no clue what this means.

IP is Internet Protocol. It is the protocol that is used to manage communication on the Internet, along with TCP (Transport Control Protocol). That's why you sometimes see it described as not just IP, but TCP/IP.

IP is also used on most networks these days. So it not only "runs" the Internet, but most home and company networks.

LPR is the printing protocol that works with IP


Appletalk should be obvious. That's the older networking protocol that Apple Macs used. If you don't use old Macs, you can forget about it.

NDS and Bindery refer to Novell networks. Novell used to be the king of enterprise network systems, until they dropped the ball and let Microsoft clean the floor with them. Shame really, as they had great products, but NT and XP have superceded 99% of Novell networks. Rest assured you can ignore NDS and Bindery also.

So, you're on the right track in assuming that you need to use TCP/IP.


When you setup the print server, did you assign it an IP address? This is a string of numbers seperated by a period. 192.168.1.1 is a common example. If you did assign it an IP address, can you remember what it was? We can check to see if your PCs can "see" the print server by "pinging" it. This basically means that you send out some packets to the IP address and wait for a reply.

That's a good start.


Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the specific products you have, but I'll try my best to help out mate. :)


Mr Mephisto

I pinged the IP address, here are the results of that ping:

Reply from 192.168.0.7: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=32
Reply from 192.168.0.7: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=32
Reply from 192.168.0.7: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=32
Reply from 192.168.0.7: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=32

Ping statistics for 192.168.0.7
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 <0% loss>.
Approximate round trip time in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 28ms, Average = 9ms.


And Mr. Mephisto, if you were in Chicago, I'd buy you a beer. I appreciate what you're doing. Thanks.

Hmm.... If HP says that the printer driver doesn't support network printing, them i am going to have to assume that this is one of those "windows printers" (also refered to as GDI printer). This just means that the host pc does the processing of the stuff to be printed before going to the printer (as oppossed to the printer being able to process the print job by itself). If this is the case, the only way to network it would be to hook it up to a pc, and then share the printer from the pc. Of course this would mean that the wireless printer server is "useless" with your current printer.

Well, I did a search on the IOGear print server and just found out it isn't a wireless print server!

I must have been confused.

BTW, this device gets LOADS of bad reviews at http://www.everythingusb.com/hardwar...int_Server.htm

There are some tips there that might help though..


Try that.



Mr Mephisto

I've always wondered what the sound of a piece of electronics sounded like falling down a trash chute from 30 floors up. I'd throw it off my balcony but the street is too busy and I might get sued.

Thanks for all your help Mr. Mephisto, even though this was a bust for me, at least I can walk away knowing I wasn't a complete idiot at home, just in the computer store. :|

You threw it away? Did you try following some of the advice on that link? I'm sure you could probably get it to work EVENTUALLY...

:)


Mr Mephisto