Enchantermon on 26/8/2009 at 15:09

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Okay, so here's the deal: As part of my schooling, I'm attempting to fix some problems a church is having with their network. They've got a computer lab with nine computers all connected to a switch. Also on the switch is a print server (HP Jetdirect 170X) connected through a parallel port to a printer.

At one point in the past, this setup was working; the lab computers (and, in fact, the whole office outside of the lab) could all print to this one printer. After the man who set the network up passed away, several networking companies have been through the place doing maintenance, and things got screwed up.
Of course, my contact can't find any documentation on the server (which is old as crap, by the way), not to mention the absence of anything about the network itself. And the other companies didn't leave any network documentation behind either. :grr:

Anyway, I can print if I connect the printer directly to one of the computers, so I know the printer and the parallel cable work. There are two lights on the front; a status light and an activity light. The status light comes on as it's supposed to, though I've never seen the activity light come on. There's only one light on the server's Ethernet interface as opposed to two, and it remains lit as well (HP's website says it should). On the switch, only the interface's green light comes on; the orange one does not (so no data flow, correct?). A different interface produced the same results. I've tried a CAT5 cable that I know is working, and there was no change. I reset the server to factory defaults, reinstalled the software, put a static IP in the same network on the computer and attempted to ping and telnet to it, but both fail (telnet at least is supposed to let you in so you can configure the server).

I'm baffled. HP has obsolesced the original software and instead provides an installer which lets you choose the driver and printer to install. At one point, it searches for printers and finds the one I'm attempting to use, so apparently it can see through the print server to the printer, which confuses me even more.

So to recap: the printer and its parallel cable work. The switch works (the computer can access the internet through it). The software installs properly. Somehow, though, the printer is not detected. The computer is running XP Home (probably SP2, though I'm at home, so I can't check right now).

Any thoughts? I don't even know if there are any networkers here, but I figured I'd ask just in case. Thanks.

Enchantermon on 26/8/2009 at 20:28

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Hrm. I was afraid of that. Though, if it was dead, how could the installation software recognize the printer through it?

The printer doesn't have an IP address; it communicates with the print server over a standard parallel connection, not Ethernet. Iirc, it doesn't even have an Ethernet interface.

Briareos H on 27/8/2009 at 13:40

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Does the Test button print a sample page ?
Did you make sure that there is no DHCP server which would attribute an unwanted IP to the print server before configuration ?

If you are certain that you did reset the print server and yet you still can't telnet/web access to it even though you have the correct default IP (192.0.0.192), then yeah of course it is dead.

bikerdude on 27/8/2009 at 19:34

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they are cheap enough to replace..

baeuchlein on 28/8/2009 at 23:53

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Maybe the server isn't dead but just has it's parallel port configured incorrectly, for whatever reason. However, if you're not able to do much by telnetting, buying a new server might be a preferrable solution. Unless you call that cowardice and loose your honor by giving up...:cheeky: