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please help with network printer setup

S

ScarsUnseen

Weaksauce
Joined
Jul 9, 2007
Messages
121
Hello,

I am trying to hook up a network printer to about 10 computers through a switch and a router. My equipment is:

Cisco E2000 router
Netgear VSF318 switch
HP LaserJet P3015 printer (network-ready, no wifi)

The Cisco router has ethernet cables running to the Netgear switch and the HP printer.

The Cisco router's DHCP range is 192.168.1.100 thru 192.168.1.149
The Netgear switch's range is 192.168.0.2 thru 168.168.0.100
The HP printer can only have the IP address of 192.168.0.50 and does not look customizable at all.

The previous setup worked through the Netgear switch because the printer was within the IP range, but worked extremely slow or just not at all. I'd like to have the printer directly connected to the router and then attach the Netgear switch to the router to then go to computers.

My problem is that the HP's IP address can NOT be changed from 192.168.0.50 and the Cisco's IP address isn't customizable to x.x.0.x.

Can anyone offer a suggestion other than changing routers?

Thanks.
 
Disable dhcp on the printer (configuration method manual) then you can set th
e IP address.
 
Thanks guys. But I called HP and they said there is no way to change the printer's IP address from 192.168.0.50. One HP rep even said to plug the printer in to a computer's USB port and use IE to go to the above IP address so I can change it from there, which obviously doesn't work.

There are no options on the printer's little screen to change its IP address.
 
I've not come across a real LaserJet where you can't change the IP address.

HP's manual for the P3015 says: http://ompldr.org/vY2wwNg/howto.png

That's the same way I've been configuring them for ages, even on my LaserJet 4+ it's the same way and that was made 20 years ago.
 
I've never seen a router you couldn't change the dhcp range and I've never seen a printer you couldn't change it's IP.

Why is the switch on a different IP range?
 
AcidBurn, you can not change column C of the DHCP range on the router. It has to be 192.168.1....

The switch's default range is 192.168.0.2 thru 168.168.0.100. If I make the two range's overlap, won't there be issues?
 
What are you talking about the switch's default range? Is this a managed switch? Is it doing DHCP? That switch should be in the same subnet as the Cisco router, 192.168.1.0. Then set your printer to an IP in the 1.0 - 1.254 range. Profit.

You CAN change the IP on those printers.

EDIT: I googled that "switch." That's a VPN router. Depending on how you have everything setup you are either double natting or you have two DHCP servers on the network. You should replace that with a proper switch. Can you give us any information on how your network is setup?
 
I spoke to HP again and they said the IP address can NOT be changed. I just replaced the router with a D-Link (DHCP range 192.168.0.2 thru 192.168.0.100) and everything worked fine. I think their router was just crap.

I don't really have too much info on the network because I did not do the original setup, which looked way more complicated than necessary. Got everything working except for two 7- or 8-yr old Dell Dimension XP towers. They are in awful shape to begin with, but all the other computers (about 10) have no problems.
 
This whole thing is a big mess. Yes, the IP on the printer can be changed. Is HP's position really that every network in the world has to conform to this specific subnet to use that printer? Completely absurd. It's possible that the thing is password protected, or is set to DHCP and getting it's IP from a reservation, I'm not sure. if anyone else you talk to says the IP can't be changed, you need to talk to someone else, or ask them to send you a replacement printer, possibly one that's not broken.

What you have here are 2 routers, each handing out DHCP. You're probably going through the WAN interface on the netgear to get to the LAN devices on the cisco box.

The proper solution here is to throw out one of the routers, probably the netgear, since it's older. Replace it with a normal switch.

Configure the cisco router to use whatever subnet you want, I'd keep it the same to make your life easier. plug the new switch into the LAN port on the router, and your PCs and printer into the switch.
 
I talked to 4 people from HP. They all said the same thing. Believe me, I trust you guys over HP, but I just changed out the router and had no problem other than two ancient Dell PC's. The issue also is that they have multiple VSF318's networked together for some reason. They originally had the printer networked to one of the VSF318's to accommodate for the Cisco router's DHCP range not being compatible, but this caused other issues because I believe that one of the switches or one of its ethernet ports or cat5's was failing.
 
I found it strange also that on the Cisco e2000's settings, you could only customize column D of the DHCP range, but the DIR-655 just worked.
 
You're going to have issues though, if you're using routers as switches. Even if you have all the routing features disabled, to try and turn a router into a switch, at some point, one of them will be reset, either on accident or on purpose, it'll start handing out DHCP addresses and cause nothing but issues.

You'd probably be much happier getting rid of all but one of them.

On the e2000, The reason you can only change the 4th octet of the DHCP scope is because it can only do 255 addresses for DHCP. If you look elsewhere in the router config, you'll see a place to change the entire IP, it's in the Network Setup section. Change that, then you can change the DHCP scope.
 
i did not see anyone mention this. so i will. if you cant configure the printers IP address i personally would just through it away. now seriously another option is to just buy a USB print server and plug that into the printer and your network and configure that. works well i have use them on printers with out network ports.

when i read your post i could not figure out for the life of me how you got a switch with IP ranges. lol. you really need to just pay someone to come in and take care of it. stop using the guy you know that does it for free or cheap. you just have a mess going on. i am surprised it all works now.
 
I did not originally set up this whole network. The original setup was a whole fustercluck and never worked right in the first place.

/usr/home - Thanks for that advice. I see HP doesn't even know their own products. If need be, I'll go into the printer settings, but it looks ok now.

Nerdydave - As said before, I did not buy this equipment. It's all at least 5 years old and may not even function properly. The Netgear switch definitely does have an IP range, which I thought was strange also.

This network originally had a crap router with 4 or 5 switches going through each other. I'm just happy it's working now.
 
Did you even spend the minute it takes to look in the configuration menu of the printer that I linked above?
 
ScarsUnseen said:
Thanks guys. But I called HP and they said there is no way to change the printer's IP address from 192.168.0.50. One HP rep even said to plug the printer in to a computer's USB port and use IE to go to the above IP address so I can change it from there, which obviously doesn't work.

There are no options on the printer's little screen to change its IP address.
Click to expand...

YOU called hp, and they said that you can't change the ip of the printer ? WTF, i think you called the wrong number..
 
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