How to hook up a printer WIRELESS (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Question...



If my new printer is network ready....



Does that mean it has a print server already

built into it?



Do I still need the wireless print server to

communicate across my wireless network?



I need to know this before I open up the box

to the Linksys print server.



Thanks

 

[Glenn]

Ron,



Your printer can either be hooked up via USB or ethernet cables directly to your network(ethernet) or a computer(USB).



You are trying to connect via your wireless network and you will need a wireless print server to do this.



The printer and wireless server go together and are hooked up via a USB cable, which you might have to supply.



Glenn

 

[Kelvin Tucker]

Glenn is correct, of course... you can use what you have and get it working. If you were not connecting a color laser, I'd let it drop. But you are spending $1k and deserve your monies worth.



So, as it stands, any print functions will be limited to what the Linksys print server supports. It could be great, but it does state that

quote:Not compatible with All-in-one machines

, makes one wonder....



OR



I'd suggest you consider that since you are already paying for a network ready printer, you connect it to the network. This would require swapping the Linksys print server, for a cheaper Linksys game server or something similar that just connects an ethernet device. Then -



All print functions would be provided by the Konica drivers, talking directly to the printer (via ethernet).



This is an example of a more appropriate Linksys box -

Game Adapter



K

 

[Ronald Epstein]

What a friggin' mess hooking up my printer
to a wireless network with the Linksys G Print
server.

I was on the phone with Linksys for well over
an hour. Nothing was recognized and I had to
go in and ping my IP address, assign that address
to printer ports and yadda yadda yadda.

Now the printer does work wirelessly with ONE
computer (the main) on the network but the other
two (while recognizing it) will not print to it.

God forbid I ever have to format my XP as I have
no clue how to go through all this mess again.

You would THINK that hooking up a printer to
a wireless network would be easier, but it was
an absolute nightmare.

Now I have to figure out why the other two
computers (not the main one) will not print to
the printer.

Another problem I have is that the printer goes
into an energy save mode after 30 minutes. It
*SHOULD* wake up when sent a print command but
I found myself having to unplug and plug back in
the G print server to wake it up. Shouldn't
the print server stay alert for signals?

What a mess.

 

[shaniceMW]

make sure the print server has a static ip address. also use netbios across your network. that helped me. please post the exact problem you are having if that does not help.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Shanice,

How do I activate netbios?

The problems I am having...

* Printer shows up across all 3 computers
on the network, but only the MAIN computer
is able to print from it.

Note: All 3 computers have the drivers loaded.
Should all 3 computers also have the IP addresses
to the print server added in their properties or
is that done across the board once you configure
the first computer?

* The printer goes into ENERGY SAVE mode
after 30 minutes. I would think the PRINT
SERVER should awaken it to do a print job once
a command is sent to do so -- but it doesn't.
I actually have to unplug and plug the print
server back in to awaken the printer.

Really, I thought it would be so much easier
than this -- and the Linksys istructions lead
you to believe it would.

 

[Kelvin Tucker]

Sorry to hear you are still struggling with the printer.



Contrary to contemporary logic, I find it best to seperate this into 2 distinct areas, and attack them one at a time. First, you have the PC to Linksys Print Server connection, and then the actual Konica printer itself.



Concentrating on the PC to Linksys, have you done the following on ALL machines?



a) Run the Linksys Setup wizard, pointing to the IP address of the Linksys box

b) Intalled Konica Print Drivers, pointing to the Linksys port



Oh yes, and assign a fixed IP address to the Linksys

I'm lost on the failure to wakeup the printer, but maybe something will jump out later.....



K

 

[shaniceMW]

i dont use linksys. only d-link and belkin. what i did with the belkin router was set up dhcp and my computers get their addresses from the router. d-link print server and printer have static ip addresses. netbios will not help if you are not using "names" for your printer. i use it and i call mine dlink and minolta for example. when you go through the setup wizard, make sure you have every computer set up. with the minolta software, you can download the software onto one computer and set up each computer from there to make sure you have the print drivers. cant remember exactly how i set mine up as i did this about three years ago. also, when you view the administrator controls for the printer, make sure that each printer is allowed to print. the printer should show up when you view network computers. re-reading your post, when you view the printers on each computer, they should each be able to view the printer directly. meaning they should be set up individually, not just a short cut via the main computer to the printer. when you do this, you should be able to view the printer properties and you can see the crown port (what minolta uses) for the printer. you should see port - description - printer name. where the port will be the ip address for the print server and the description will be the description of the printer and the printer name. not sure about the wake feature on the router but i have a wake function on my printer. but when a signal is received to the print server, it i then passed on to the printer and it takes about two minutes to warm up. but i do have a feature on mine to tell it to sleep or not to sleep. i rather have mine sleep because it cuts down on noise because i have a glass desk that it sits on. i hate that noise.



if the main printer will always be on, the easy thing to do is to share out the printer from that computer and allow permission to use that computer to print to the printer. you would right click on the printer and click on sharing and follow the prompts from there.



let me check my printer to see how to set up the energy save thingie. will be back when i figure it out.

edited post**
from the konica documentation:

Changing the Energy Saver (Power Save) Mode on the magicolor 5430 DL Driver

1. Ready light should be on.

2. Printer panel display should read READY.

3. Press the MENU/SELECT button.

4. Next, press the Right Arrow until you see ENGINE

5. Press MENU/SELECT again.

6. Press the Right Arrow until you see ENERGY SAVER/X MINUTES, ENERGY SAVER/X HOUR (where X is either the default 30 or another value sent by the end user) or ENERGY SAVER/OFF (if the machine has been changed from a timed value to the OFF value).

7. Press MENU/SELECT and you should see ENERGY SAVER SET/15 MINUTES.

8. Press the Right Arrow until you see the desired length of time you want the printer to remain at IDLE before engaging in Energy Saver mode (or until you see OFF, if you are wishing to disable the Energy Saver mode), then press MENU/SELECT.

You should see a very brief panel message that informs you the desired time has been selected, then the panel will change to ENERGY SAVER/X MINUTES (or X HOUR or OFF), as described in step 6.

9. Press the Up Arrow until you see READY.

 

[shaniceMW]

also, make sure that every computer and the printer and linkys are all on the same subnet mask and ip range.