Can anyone explain, in plain English, what I have to do to make my HP Laserjet 4+ connect via the router?

I've put a network card in but don't understand the tech lingo to make it work.

It's currently conected to a desktop pc and is available to the laptops via that connection but only if the desktop pc is switched on.

 

Try first off all connecting the printer to your router via a patch/network cable.

Leave it a couple of minutes and print off a printer config report.

Or if its possible log onto the router and check the connected devices they will give out an ip address to all devices connected to your router.

What you need is an ip address (Internet Protocol address) IPv4

See what it says and let me know on here

 

I can't blieve it. I've spent hours, on and off, buggering about with this over the last couple of years. I've even bought a HP JetDirect Print Server because everything I could find suggested the printer needed that to go on a network.

Then the instructions for the print server were all gobbledeygook so I gave up and resigned myself to keeping it connected with the parallel cable to an old desktop pc, even though they both had to be on for any other computer to use the printer and the old pc took about a week to boot up!

Then I ask for help in here, and you give me simple instructions, so I print the list of clients and IP numbers, then plug the printer into the router and identify the new IP number on the list so that must be the printer.

Then I get all disheartened when the cmputer doesn't find the printer on the network, but as soon as I tell itr to search for the IP number you showed me how to find, I'm in business and printing over the network!

Honestly, thank you for this - just wish I had you on hand all those months or years ago when I started on this mission!

 

I'm back to this again!

Had to buy a new router and it won't pick up on th printer at all.

When I go into the printer and do a test page it says the IP Address is 0.0.0.0

 

I had this problem with my netgear router and in the end I had something called wireless isolation switched on. Spent yonks on it then the second I turned that off *ping* the I.P. address switched to something actually recogniseable lol

Jordan

 

It's nothing to do with the wireless side...

Quite simply your printer is not getting an address from the router, I assume everything else works ok?

It may sound silly, but have you actually power cycled the printer?

Martin

 

I changed a setting on the router and now the printer test page gives me an IP address but it is outside the range set on the router?

 

As I say, have you power cycled it?

It sounds like the old address is not being released.

Martin

 

Not sure if power cycling means switching it off and on again (like in The IT Crowd)

I have done that, and printing the test page gave me a 192.0.0.192 IP address,but the router allocates them in the range 192.169.1.100-149.

 

Yes that's it lol.

Well you have multiple issues, as both the printer address and your scope are not valid private addresses, in addition they are not on a common subnet.

I suspect you messed with the routers scope?

Martin

 

The only change I made was under SETUP, BASIC SETUP where I changed something called AUTODETECT from DISABLED to ENABLED.

I had a typo in the router range above - correct figures are 192.168.1.100-149

Just printed a test page again and the printer has reverted to 0.0.0.0 but I haven't made any changes to router or printer.

 

When I go to the Client Table for the router it lists some things by name and others just with a number so I'm not sure what they are.

The list doesn't seem to change if I have the printer on or off, though the Port light on the router comes on when the printer is switched on and goes off when it is turned off.

 

Thought that might have been the case, that is fine then.

Try another known working cable to connect the printer, what happens...

Martin

 

If you have DHCP (ip address assignment) enabled on the router and the PCs are working fine i cant see why the printer wouldnt get an address after on/off.