Printing Problems

[keysersoze]

Hey all--

We have 4 laser printers here at work... and over the weekend our 4 OS X.3 machines have stopped being able to print to them. A message comes up that says "printer is not responding." Our OS9.2.2 machines can see them and print off of them just fine though. We have reset the printers to no avail.

Anyone know why the OSX machines have decided to not print and how to fix it?

 

[Eniregnat]

What kind of printers?
How are they connected?
What has changed recenty?

 

[keysersoze]

What kind of printers?
How are they connected?
What has changed recenty?

4 HP LaserJets... 2 Color 1450's, 2 B&W 1400's. Nothing changed recently... everything is attached through a LAN. Our iMac G5 has started printing as of 10 minutes ago, but two powerbooks and an iMac G4 are all responding with the same "printer isn't responding" message, and the little exclamation point.

It's very bizarre.

 

[jim.]

Has any of the IT workers been messing with subnets or IP addresses? Once here, ITC split our subnet and changed the IP addresses so none of our computers would print anymore. When they merged the subnet again, some of the computers worked because they were set to use Appletalk, but those set to use IP printing wouldn't work. The PCs always worked because of the care that ITC takes to keep working with Windows Networking (SMB) across subnets (or so they claim).

This may be overly complicated, but if you work within a large network, I think it is not uncommon.

Have you checked the IP addresses of your printers and verified that they are the ones set on your Macs?

Just a thought.

Jim

 

[keysersoze]

Have you checked the IP addresses of your printers and verified that they are the ones set on your Macs?

Just a thought.

Jim

Jim-
Thanks for the response. I am going to spend some time later this afternoon trying to figure our what's going on, once people have left for the day. Noone has been messing with IP addresses or subnets. I work in a pretty small office that is mostly self-reliant when it come to IT. Unfortunately this issue has presented us with a bit of a headache.

 

[superbovine]

first thing you do is reboot the printer and printer servers. the next thing is go and remove the printer and re-add them.

 

[Eniregnat]

The SuperBovine (coole handel) advice is good. Also make sure that somebody didn't get paranoid and screw with the firewall settings on your network. You can at least check the Mac. System Prefrences-->Shareing->Firewall Tab->Printer Shareing checkbox.

 

[keysersoze]

Hey, thanks SB, E, and Jim-- you guys saved us. The printers were showing up in the 'shared printers' list, so we assumed that that's how we should access them. After rebooting the servers and OSX machines, and looking to add the printers again, low and behold, they appeared, under 'AppleTalk' printers. That's where they were when they worked.

So rebooting and re-adding the printers saved the day.

Thanks!