Wireless printer help

TopBanana

TopBanana

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Tim
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I'm after some technical assistance please with an Epson wireless printer.
I set it all up according to the manufacturer's guidance and it worked just fine. I then restarted my router (BT HomeHub), to help with an unrelated linespeed issue, and it hasn't worked since. I've since re-installed the printer software and unsuccessfully tried to reconnect the PC and printer using the method I used originally.

The printer appears to be connected to the router ok.
My laptop is connected to the router ok.
But from the laptop I can't ping the printer's IP address (the printer's LCD display gives me the IP address).
If I connect the laptop and printer by USB I can print without any issues.

I think that when I restarted the router it gave the printer a new IP address and somehow the laptop isn't communicating with the new address.
I'm using MS Security Essentials and the standard Windows Vista Firewall (which I'm thinking may be causing the problems but don't know how to do anything about it).

Can anyone please help before my wife smashes the printer or the laptop or my head!
 
What is the network mask set to on the printer, router and laptop. (if your IP addresses are 192.168.1.xxx then the network mask will look like 255.255.255.0). If the network mask is not exactly the same on all 3 devices, they will be seen as on different networks and you will get the behaviour you see.

You should also check that the gateway IP is set to your routers IP address.
 
Oh... and what are the IP addresses of all 3 boxes.
 
I'm not at home at the moment but I'll be getting on to it when I get home. What do I do if the network masks are different or the gateway IP is wrong?
 
TopBanana said:
What do I do if the network masks are different or the gateway IP is wrong?
Click to expand...
Set them to be correct!!!

Most home networks have a network address like: 192.168.yyy.xxx where yyy is fixed for everything on the network (my home network is 192.168.1.yyy, my partners business network at her shop is 192.168.10.yyy). Both of these networks have subnet masks of 255.255.255.0. Without trying to explain things which might confuse you further due to the way I might explain it - these are seen as different networks. If you cannot even ping the device, I would suggest either it doesn't respond to pings or it is on a completely different network to your laptop.

If two networks have the same root IP address (192.168.1.yyy) but the subnet masks are set differently, they will still be seen as two separate networks, but I would probably expect the pings to work.

If you want to see what sort of issues you can have with the subnets set differently have a read of this: http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=360234 That turned out to be one subnet mast set to 255.0.0.0 whilst everything else was 255.255.255.0 - even with the 192.168.1.yyy (or in that case 10.0.4.yyy) IP addresses.
 
laptop ip: 192.168.1.75
printer ip: 192.168.1.76

subnet mask on both is 255.255.255.0

default gateway on both is 192.168.1.254

When I try to ping the printer it says "destination host unreachable"
 
Also have you got any anti virus or firewalls running?
 
neil_g said:
Wireless printers are the spawn of the devil.
Click to expand...
I've been impressed with ours. Ms Andy has moved hers to her new shop which is connected by a VPN. Despite being at home, she managed to print something to the shop last night without me having to touch a thing. PC->router->VPN->router->wireless (on a different subnet).
 
TopBanana said:
laptop ip: 192.168.1.75
printer ip: 192.168.1.76

subnet mask on both is 255.255.255.0

default gateway on both is 192.168.1.254

When I try to ping the printer it says "destination host unreachable"
Click to expand...
Hmm.. Have you tried setting a static IP on the printer (outside of your DHCP range) and re-installing the printer?
 
neil_g said:
It might not be set to reply to ping, some devices don't. Does it have a web config interface?
Click to expand...
Good point, I'm not totally sure if I should be able to ping it :bonk:
There were a bunch of Epson programs which came with it and none of them seem to do much! There are a couple of programs as part of the install that search for available printers on the network and none of them seem to find it.


neil_g said:
Wireless printers are the spawn of the devil.
Click to expand...
I'm starting to agree - one day I'll have a home office where everything is permanently set-up... one day
 
Davec223 said:
Also have you got any anti virus or firewalls running?
Click to expand...
MS security essentials and Windows Firewall. I turned off the firewall and tried connecting to the printer in various ways but no luck. I haven't changed any MSE settings though.
 
TopBanana said:
No I haven't and I'm not entirely sure how to do that!
Click to expand...
Menu->Setup->Network or something like that ;)

You will need to set a Static IP/mode (from DHCP) and then enter 3 numbers:

IP: 192.168.1.xxx (where xxx is outside the range of your dynamic IPs - your router will tell you this)
NetMask 255.255.255.0
Gateway 192.168.1.254

An alternative way to get a "fixed" IP is to get the DHCP server (on your router) to always give the same IP to the printer. How you do that will vary from router to router.

I'm not saying this will fix the issue, but IP addresses that change for devices like printers CAN cause problems.
 
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