Question : Problem: Network printer not printing--subnet?

I've already posted this question under "networking" but got no reply.  Hope I will get some helpful suggestions here..

I've got a networked printer that for some reason was installed on subnet 255.255.252.0, and the rest of the network is on 255.255.248.0.  I can't ping the printer from the network.  If I change a PC to a fixed IP address with subnet 255.255.252.0, I can ping it, but can't print to it--there's no response from the printer when I send a job to it.  I've tried changing the printer to subnet 255.255.248.0, but then I can't ping it from the network; I just get "destination host unreachable" message. Why can't I ping it?  Why can't I print to it when it's on the other subnet that I can ping to?

Thanks...

Answer : Problem: Network printer not printing--subnet?

If your setup is something like this:


INTERNET and your ISP => cable or ADSL or similar => modem => router => switch => all your PC's and printers

AND you don't have in excess of some 230 users, I think a "normal" setup would be like:

Public IP, given to you by your ISP; static or dynamic X.X.X.X, which is what your router will have on its WAN (outside) port.

The router's inside (LAN) port can be configured to run a DHCP server for all your clients. Usually a "private" range of IP's is chosen, like 192.168.X.Y or similar. Many routers will prefer 0, 1 or 2  as the third (X) value (192.168.1.Y). The netmask is typically set to 255.255.255.0 for all units on the network. It is preferable to have static IP's for printers and servers, so the DHCP pool on the router should not cover the entire range, but leave alone enough IP's to allow for a number of static ones. The router settings are very often accessible through a web interface that can be called up by a browser directed to the IP of the router's LAN port (typically 192.168.x.1).

I see no reason for using another netmask than 255.255.255.0 on any unit and no reason NOT to use a common private range for internal IP's.

Your problem may be to be able to configure your router, if you cannot access its setup functions easily. Once that is cleared up, the DHCP will take care of the PC's settings and you have to manually configure the printer  to have a static IP in the same network as all the PC's and with the same netmask.

Hope this is helpful to some extent.
/RID