Wireless Printing Problem
Paperhouse
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Bought a new Cannon printer on 25 March and it worked wirelessly until yesterday when problem started. Wouldn't always print, error messages such as 'printer not responding' etc. So I decided to reinstall it but couldn't and a 'network error' message. Now given that all other devises here are working thorugh my home hub, am I right to conclude that the problem lies with the new printer? BTW the printer works OK when connected via a USB cable.
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After a while got bored of doing this and simply told the home hub to reserve the same ip address to the printer and not to use it for any other device. Problem solved. Then also found out that the web server built into printer had a handy login feature that gave access to the network setup without having to reinstall printer driver.
I assume you might be having same issue, and you will probably just find the printer is now running on a different ip address than what your pc is expecting it to be on.
DHCP is a means for the router (Home Hub in your case) to dish out IP addresses and other essential information to each device automatically. In theory it means everything gets it's own unique address and you don't have to worry about setting everything up manually all the time.
If the printer is using DHCP to obtain an IP address then it can quite possibly change from time to time. If the PCs on your home network are assuming the IP address is fixed however then they will lose contact with the printer if the Home Hub doles out a different address to the printer for whatever reason.
Very well explained chrisjr. I've now exchanged the printer and will see if the new one does the same. If it does, thespookster suggested that something can be done with the homehub to resolve things. I'll keep you posted.
That is what I have done with my printer. I simply set it up with an IP address well out of the way of any that the router would dish out via DHCP. No changes made to the router config at all and it just works.
It depends on whether the printer allows you to enter an IP address manually or not. If it does not then you would need to go into the config of the Home Hub and tell it to allocate the same IP address to the printer all the time. But to do that you may need to know the MAC address of the printer, which is a whole new concept to get your head around
192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.200 (ignore first 3 numbers it is the 100 -200 that is important here).
You switch on laptop - it is given address 192.168.1.100
You switch on printer - it is given address 192.168.1.101
The printer software when installed tells you PC to print to IP 192.168.101.
Now you turn off printer (address 192.168.1.101), and you decide to turn on another PC or whatever. This is then allocated 192.168.1.101 instead.
You turn on your printer again, and it is allocated 192.168.102.
Your PC will now not print correctly as it will point to wrong address.
Some Routers are clever enough (or you can tell them to do so) to remember the item connected and the IP address initially assigned, and will not give that address to anybody else unless it is running out of addresses (virtually impossible on a home network).
So it may work between your PC and the printer with no problem. The key test is to check if a 2nd PC or laptop also prints correctly. If this works, your are probably ok.
As others said before, the best way is to set the IP manually in the printer's management sofwtare (usually a web interface). This should be in user manuals supplied with printer.
The key thing is to choose an IP address well away from DHCP range on router. Usually a fairly low number e.g. 198.168.XX.20 is ok. The first three number must be same as on your router. You can tell the XX easily as there is normally a sticker giving the router IP as something like
192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.254, 192.168.2.1 etc.
You can also use command ipconfig/new under a command line window and look for your PCs IP address.
And to see what IP address is assigned to a computer you just need IPCONFIG or IPCONFIG /ALL to see all the gory details.
When trying to print there is a message saying printer not responding and shows the Port as CNBJNP_180CAC0C1B17. Is that the IP address? And does anyone know how to assign a sepecific IP address for the Canon printer on a BT Homehub (the black box?) and seperate router (the white box). I do hope that this make sense to someone out there.
Thanks in advance.
What you could try is putting an IP address into the printer manually. That should work without having to touch the router.
If you post the exact model of the printer it should be possible to look up the manual online to see how this can be done.
It's a Canon Pixma MG4250.
http://gdlp01.c-wss.com/gds/7/0300008387/01/MG4200_NonPC_EN.pdf
scroll down to nearly the end of the document to the section headed "The device may not be able to connect to the network in the following cases" and follow the instructions there to get into the manual IP settings.
It doesn't specify what happens next however. But at the very least it will need an IP address and possibly a Subnet mask and Gateway address. To work out what to enter here open a Command Prompt on any computer on your network and type
IPCONFIG
then press Enter which will return a set of figures somewhere in which will be something like this
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
What you need to enter into the printer is the IP address changing the last number (2 in the example above) to some other value. If it's a low number enter something like 100, eg 192.168.1.100. If it's a high number (100+) enter a low number but not the same as in the Gateway address.
Enter the Subnet Mask and Gateway exactly as shown on your computer. If it asks for a DNS address use the Gateway address for that as well.
Not sure if after that whether you will need to go through the printer set-up again on your computers or not.
Give that a try and see what happens.
How true. Tried to print the Canon instruction manual wirelessly but it would only print a couple of pages and then give up! So I installed a USB cable and printed the manual that way. But now the Canon printer will not respond to the PC. I shouldn't have to reinstall the printer simply because I have used a USB cable for ten minutes should I?
The annoying thing is that I didn't necessariy want a wireless printer. But if it has the feature then I would like it to work occasionally.
So if you look in Devices and Printers you might see two printers.Just change the default back to the network one.
How far apart are the router and the printer? Would it be better to run a cable between the two? Don't think that is an option with your printer as I don't remember seeing mention of an ethernet port? But it might work more reliably. In my case my router and printer are no more than 3 feet apart and so no issue cabling the two together. And in my case I've never had any problems. No matter how long the gap between print jobs.
I've already changed the default back to the network one but the printer is now not recognised by any computer. The PC and printer are side by side at the moment so are easily connected by USB cable. But it would be nice to locate the printer somewhere else.
I don't understand your comment re ethernet cable.
Also.....
In your previous advice you said 'open a Command Prompt'. Sorry to be a numbskull but what doe that mean exactly?
IP address 192.168.1.72
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway 192.168.1.254
Your computer and printer are communicating via your router, not directly (just turn off the router and see what happens!). If the router and printer are more or less side by side there is little point using WiFi.
If the printer has an ethernet port then a cable connection to the router may well be more reliable and stable than WiFi. However I don't think your printer has an ethernet port so talk of cable is probably academic anyway (unless you get a new one ).
Just type CMD into the Search box on the Start menu and select either cmd.exe or Command (Prompt) depending on what is returned.
If you were into computers back in the days before Windows you'll be completely familiar with what comes up.
You can try and persevere getting it to work wirelessly, but I can't see it ending well.