I was asked to troubleshoot some issues in a network so I started working on it. One issue was that one network printer stopped printing. I checked connectivity and saw that RG-45 lights are properly lit so that's one thing fine. I went on to check its IP address from its control panel and it gave me something like 169.254.xxx.xxx, so I immediately told myself that the printer isn't actually really connected because that's the auto-configuration IP address. I later noticed that the network doesn't have a router so there is only a switch and every device is assigned an IP address manually (No DHCP of course). When I do a network search for printers, the printer in question appears with its 169.254.xxx.xxx ip address and I was always avoiding it but I later said let's just add it and install its driver. I did and it worked. So the printer is on 169.254.xxx.xxx and the PC is on 192.168.11.5 for example. I understand that this thing is an apipa thing but how does it work exactly?? Two devices can communicate while not in the same subnet with no routing involved?
Bear with me please. I'm having a hard time remembering the stuff in my network classes
Bear with me please. I'm having a hard time remembering the stuff in my network classes