Network Copier

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bobsaget

Supreme [H]ardness
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I work in a small office and have somehow found myself as the IT guy because of my intermediate knowledge of computers.

We bought a used copier for our office and I'm trying to set it up on our network. I plugged it in to the same router where our last one was.

Our server is using the operating system Windows Server 2003. I've downloaded the necessary drivers but I can't get the server and the copier to talk. I've tried changing the IP address and adding a new printer using the correct address.

I just can't get the two to talk. I've tried pinging the copier but to no avail. If I can just get them to talk I think I can take care of the rest. I connected my laptop using the same Ethernet cable and its connection is fine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Print out the network settings on the printer and check them against what they should be. IP and subnet are the most important. Gateway, DNS, are only needed if printer is on a different subnet.
Turn-off all unused protocols on printer- I suggest use only TCP-IP and turn-off everything else- AppleTalk, Novel, IPX, mDNS, Klingon, etc.
Unless you can do a network-reset on the printer (last ditch), getting the current network settings is the key. If they differ from what you want, either use the printer's control panel or connect to the printer via crossover and set them via the web interface.
 
How do you know the copier's IP address?
Did you set it manually, or did it get ti via DHCP?
Sorry i'm not trying to make fun of you, but I once knew a guy that got a used copier. It was set to
192.168.1.254
and he put on his network which was a 10.10.0.x and expected that the copier would jsut pick up the old printer's ip address and start working.
 
What is the specific device? Do you know what sort of printing front end it has? When its on the network you should be able to use a web browser to log into its internal interface if you know what its IP address is.

Older network Copiers are a pain in the ass, most of them require special licencing for the network interface to work, do you know if this was purchased for this device by the original owner?
 
Damn. I knew it would be hard but didn't realize it would be this difficult.

We bought the copier used from another business. It's a Ricoh Aficio 2045e. I was able to pull up the IP address on the copier itself. I can change the IP address on there as well or Auto Assign (DHCP). I've tried both.

I naively assumed (since we had a old copier before) that it would be compatible with our setup. I'm guessing this one is around mid 90s. As of now I dont know what printing front end it has. I'm sure I can find out. Exactly what do you mean by front end.

I apologize for my lack of understanding. What would be the best way to test to see if I can get them to at least recognize another?

Thanks again guys.
 
I think you should take one step back. It's really nothing we can't walk you through.

First: Get the IP address of the copier
Second: Get the IP address of the server
Compare these two, if they are very similar - for example 192.168.1.30 and 192.168.1.47 then you are on the right track. If they are very different - for example 192.168.1.30 and 10.1.1.22 then you have to make some changes somewhere. It will probably be useful to tell us what your findings are specifically. Since these are private addresses you won't be compromising anything. It will also be useful for us to know if the default gateway and/or subnet masks are the same on both devices. If they are not, your devices still will not talk to each other even if they have similar IP addresses.

Third: If these numbers all rook same, go to the server and try to ping the copier using the copier IP address. If you get a response, you should be able to access the IP address as a webpage. If not come back and let us know.

D: Add it as a printer
E: Wait 4 months
F: Cry when you can't find any toner for it
 
timberdoodle said:
I think you should take one step back. It's really nothing we can't walk you through.

First: Get the IP address of the copier
Second: Get the IP address of the server
Compare these two, if they are very similar - for example 192.168.1.30 and 192.168.1.47 then you are on the right track. If they are very different - for example 192.168.1.30 and 10.1.1.22 then you have to make some changes somewhere. It will probably be useful to tell us what your findings are specifically. Since these are private addresses you won't be compromising anything. It will also be useful for us to know if the default gateway and/or subnet masks are the same on both devices. If they are not, your devices still will not talk to each other even if they have similar IP addresses.

Third: If these numbers all rook same, go to the server and try to ping the copier using the copier IP address. If you get a response, you should be able to access the IP address as a webpage. If not come back and let us know.

D: Add it as a printer
E: Wait 4 months
F: Cry when you can't find any toner for it
Click to expand...

Server:
IP: 10.1.10.110
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway: 10.1.10.0

Copier:
IP: 192.168.000.007
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.000
Gateway: 192.168.000.001


Tried pinging to no avail. With these findings I assume I'm in trouble?
 
Those will not talk to each other. You need to go into the Copier and change it's IP address.

First thing, please double check the Gateway on the Server. I hope it is 10.1.10.1 and not what you wrote....confirm with us.

You can do it one of two ways:

If there are not many devices in the office you could set it to:
10.1.10.250
255.255.255.0
10.1.10.0

This MIGHT conflict with something that we don't know about.

The safer way to do it:

Set it to DHCP, Reboot the copier, check the IP Address again - should be a 10.1.10.x at this point.
Then manually set the address to whatever that IP turns out to be...making sure to also set the subnet mask and default gateway respectively.

At this point you should be able to ping.
 
timberdoodle said:
Those will not talk to each other. You need to go into the Copier and change it's IP address.

First thing, please double check the Gateway on the Server. I hope it is 10.1.10.1 and not what you wrote....confirm with us.

You can do it one of two ways:

If there are not many devices in the office you could set it to:
10.1.10.250
255.255.255.0
10.1.10.0

This MIGHT conflict with something that we don't know about.

The safer way to do it:

Set it to DHCP, Reboot the copier, check the IP Address again - should be a 10.1.10.x at this point.
Then manually set the address to whatever that IP turns out to be...making sure to also set the subnet mask and default gateway respectively.

At this point you should be able to ping.
Click to expand...

Sorry, it is 10.1.10.1

Just to confirm I follow with you. Set the copier to DHCP, reboot the copier and check the IP address.

Manually the address? When I add the printer to the network?
 
I set the copier to DHCP and rebooted it.

The IP address is now 010.001.010.060 but in parenthesis (192.168.000.007)
The Gateway address is now 010.001.010.060 but in parenthesis (192.168.000.007)

Now manually add the printer to the network using the above IP?
 
After it is set to DHCP and rebooted, the copier will get its IP address from whatever is handing out IP addresses on your network - the same one that gives out IPs to the workstations, etc. So when your copier restarts it will have a new IP address that will not conflict with anything else on the network.

You want to set it manually to this address though because if it stayed on DHCP there is a probability that address will change within a few weeks. This is a problem because the print server needs an address that never changes.
 
bobsaget said:
I set the copier to DHCP and rebooted it.

The IP address is now 010.001.010.060 but in parenthesis (192.168.000.007)
The Gateway address is now 010.001.010.060 but in parenthesis (192.168.000.007)

Now manually add the printer to the network using the above IP?
Click to expand...

You may be mistyping again but the IP address and the Gateway address should not be the same. The IP looks correct here but the Gateway needs to be what we said before 10.1.10.1 or in the format above 010.001.010.001.

Now set the whole thing back to static using the following information:

IP 10.1.10.60
Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 10.1.10.1

Reboot again

Try pinging from server

If Success, add it as a printer with the new IP
 
Makes complete sense:

Manually changed to 010.001.010.060
-but still can't ping...

Here is more info:
288w1gx.jpg
 
Ok so again I rebooted it with the changed ip address: 010.001.010.060

BUT the Gateway address changed to: 192.168.000.001
 
It still has DHCP enabled, switch that to off. If it keeps turning back on after a reboot there may be a network reboot option or similar
 
First off, I truly appreciate your help. It's probably annoying to you, but its very helpful for me.

DHCP disabled. Rebooted. Set IP.

IP: 010.001.010.060
Gateway: 010.001.010.001

...still can't ping.

There are other setting on the copier listed below, do you think that could affect it?
-DNS configuration
-WINS configuration
-Host Name
-Domain Name
 
No those won't matter for ping as long as the IP / subnet mask are set correctly. Even the gateway isn't important as long as they are on the same network. So with the laptop see if you can ping the printer after manually setting your laptops IP to 10.1.10.X If you can then plug the laptop into the printers cable and see if the laptop will ping the server.
 
Last edited:
I suppose it's possible your server is on a separate subnet than your copier but that would be weird. As bman said, what is your laptop IP address information when you are at your desk or plugged into that router (switch) in another spot?
 
timberdoodle said:
I suppose it's possible your server is on a separate subnet than your copier but that would be weird. As bman said, what is your laptop IP address information when you are at your desk or plugged into that router (switch) in another spot?
Click to expand...

I figured it made the most sense to assume could be because I don't really know where he is plugging the copier into. Not sure what port or wall jack he might be trying to use. He could have plugged the copier into a phone jack for all I know. :p (I'm sure a lot of places just use cat5 for phones as well as data)
 
bman212121 said:
I figured it made the most sense to assume could be because I don't really know where he is plugging the copier into. Not sure what port or wall jack he might be trying to use. He could have plugged the copier into a phone jack for all I know. :p (I'm sure a lot of places just use cat5 for phones as well as data)
Click to expand...

Well he said the laptop worked and the printer gets a dhcp address so we assume the port is ok. It is possible they have double NAT or something. Hard to say.
 
What address do you get when you plug your laptop in instead of the printer? When your laptop is plugged-in instead of the printer, can you ping the server?
 
timberdoodle said:
Well he said the laptop worked and the printer gets a dhcp address so we assume the port is ok. It is possible they have double NAT or something. Hard to say.
Click to expand...

Yes that is a possibility because the printer was pulling a 192 address if I read the printout correctly. That would actually make a lot of sense too.
 
Ricohs have a web interface for this stuff. They also have an option to not respond to ICMP .. so it not pinging may not necessarily be a bad thing. I’ve pretty much written a book for you on this, I’m sure a good bit of it is redundant info but you never know when some little detail will come along and kick your ass so I dropped it all in there. Just go along until it doesn’t work and let us know where you are hanging up at and we can go from there.. Good luck,

Plug your laptop into the network jack the printer is at and verify we are on the same sub-net. What should occur is when you get your DHCP address it should have the same first 3 octets (10.1.10.) as the server. If so can you ping your server from here? If not we will need to determine why you are on a different sub-net and or why you can't get traffic to your server...

If you are getting the right sub-net and can ping the server the next step will be to plug the copier back into the wall and set it back to DHCP. Check the settings and scribble down the ip address. Go to another workstation on the network and fire up Internet Explorer. These pages are scripted by monkeys so alternate browsers will have problems with them. From IE put the printer's IP address in the address bar, this should give you the printer’s logon page. Select Administrator and the default password will be 123456 or 12345678. If you can’t get this page try like someone stated above and direct cable to the printer, if you still are not getting anything the device may not have network features enabled, or the NIC on the printer is damaged. I have seen both be the culprit, and in both cases you will most likely need to get the device serviced.

If you do hit the login page and the default password works (hardly anyone takes the time to change these for some reason) you will find yourself very much on the path of success. From this interface you can change the IP address to static etc... I find it much easier to do from this interface than dicking with the keypad on the Copier itself. If you can set a static IP address to an address outside of your DHCP scope, my guess from the .60 address you were assigned earlier that your scope is probably something like 10.1.10.2 to 10.1.10.100 or .11 to .100. All depends on how it was setup however the scope could be the entire subnet. The reason I say to use something not in this range is that some DHCP servers are quite dumb and will assign your address to something else causing you all sorts of fun issues. I would suggest using an IP ending in something over 200 to be safe. Also you should ping the address and make sure something else isn’t living there before you change it up.

Once you have a good address set on the printer and you can still reach the web interface (You will need to change the address in your browser when you set this) your now ready to add this device to your server.

Go to http://www.ricoh-usa.com/downloads/downloads.aspx and get both the 32 and 64 bit drivers for your server’s OS and unzip them to someplace where you can find them. The following instructions pertain to Server 2k3, as this is the most prevalent flavor of windows server in small offices these days, but should be similar enough on other versions to be usable,

Go to Start -> Printers and Faxes

Select Add a printer

Click Next

Select Local printer attached to this computer and uncheck automatically detect and bla bla bla…

Select Create a New port at the bottom and use the Drop box to select Standard TCP/IP port

When the Add TCP wizard pops click next and put your Copier’s ip address in the name or IP box and leave the Port name box as is.

It should sit and spin for a moment and then ask you for a device type, Generic Network Card is fine for this.

Click finish at which point it should be asking you about your specific printer model. Its important to select Have disk even if your printer is listed so we can install both the 32 and 64 bit drivers because if they don’t match it won’t work.

After have disk, browse to where you saved your files and click ok, at this point you will need to pick the specific device you have from the list.

Give the printer a name

Give the printer a share name.. I recommend something simple with no spaces I.E. “Ricoh”

Next through the next few screens, give details if you want and print a test page.

If you get a test page at the printer you have successfully installed it and shared it on the network, just need to add a 64bit driver otherwise you will have to install each of your 64 bit clients individually.

Right click the printer and select properties

Click the sharing tab, click the Additional Drivers button.

Check the x64 box and click ok

From here you will install the 64 bit version of the driver you downloaded in the same manner you did the 32 bit version above.
 
Hey guys thanks for all your help. I finally was able to get it working by adjusting the IP address a bit.

Instead of using IP: 010.001.010.060
i used IP: 010.001.010.250

A computer must have been grabbing the IP, preventing the copier from using it.


Now I'm trying to set up email on the copier. I want to be able to scan to email. I get the error message:

"Sending the data has failed, the data will be sent later."

Any help or advice would greatly be appreciated.
 
have you setup the smtp settings? These are generally only available from the web interface on the Ricohs. You will need to set the copier up with an outbound email account the same as you would with any other email client in your organization.
 
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