Change IP address for Mac printer

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Level 1

8 points

Change IP address for Mac printer

How do I change the IP address for a printer in the "Printer & Fax" preference pane? I need to change some printers from 192.168.x.x to 172.17.x.x but I can't figure out how to edit this setting.

Under the "Printer Setup..." for a particular printer, and under the "Name and Location" I can see a non-editable field listing the "Queue Name" as " 192_168_xx" but it won't allow me to change this.

If I have to log into 24 Macs and delete three print queues and re-add three new print queues with the new IP address... well, I'm probably going to A) take to all of them with a baseball bat or B) well and truly tell my boss that I've had enough of the Macs' recalcitrance and tell our teachers that Apples are no good for anybody but Grandma and Grandpa.

I know this probably isn't the best way to go about asking for assistance, but I've just about had enough of dealing with the Mac's rather poor support from a system administrator's perspective. I've tried my best to work around various issues, but not being able to change a print queue's IP address is going to be the last straw (if it turns out you can't edit it... nicely).

Intel iMac 20" Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Jul 9, 2007 10:20 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

PAHU

Level 6

16,705 points

Jul 9, 2007 11:05 PM in response to Homercycles

You can modify the printer ip address via the CUPS admin page, but you will have to do this on each client.

Open your browser and type http://127.0.0.1:631/printers. You will see a page with each printer queue listed. For the printer/s you need to change, click on Modify Printer. You will have to authenticate as an administrator of the Mac (which I guess you are). Click Continue until you get to the Device URI page where you can change the ip address. Click Continue until you get back to the Printers page.

FYI - Can I suggest that you look using DNS names for the printers rather than IP addresses. That way if there is ever a need to change the address on your printers, you will never need to change the driver on the client...

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Answer 2

Homercycles Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 10, 2007 1:32 AM in response to PAHU

I had no idea Macs used CUPS. Thanks for replying (despite the fact that I seem to have vented my spleen all over this forum post today; Macs seem to delight me one minute and utterly turn me off the next... it's a love/hate relationship, sadly).

The first Google search for CUPS returned the following page of command-line interfaces for managing queues, so I'll have a go at updating the IP address with ARD tomorrow (and report back):

http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse91/suselinux-adminguide/html/ch05s07.htm l

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Answer 3

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Jul 10, 2007 4:43 AM in response to Homercycles

For a system admin handy with unix -
The OS X Printer List (in Printer Setup) is wholly contained in two things - the file /etc/cups/printers.config, and the folder of "currently-added" printer PPDs, /etc/cups/ppd/.

You can copy those two two things to every computer to make identical setups. Using scp, for example.

About the "Queue Name" as " 192_168_xx" - that's the CUPS "invented" internal queue name, and changing it wouldn't do what you want.

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Answer 4

Homercycles Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 11, 2007 9:01 PM in response to PAHU

I was able to manually change the IP using Greg Sahli's instructions below, but I wasn't able to access the CUPS web interface... at least not until I sent a print job successfully to the printer after changing the IP manually. Is this normal behaviour? That is, the CUPS interface is unavailable until you fire up the printing engine by sending a job to a printer?

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Answer 5

Homercycles Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 11, 2007 9:03 PM in response to greg sahli

I think I'm going to like the manual method rather than the CUPS interface... I was able to change the IP address for a Lexmark E323 printer using the web interface but then I had to choose between several "Gimp Print" drivers - none of which looked like a Lexmark driver. Thankfully, with the manual method, I can simply rename the PPD file and know that it's still the right driver and not some evil driver the CUPS interface forced me into choosing. Thanks.

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Answer 6

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Jul 12, 2007 4:26 AM in response to Homercycles

No that doesn't sound normal.
One of the first things to try if you don't get the CUPS page immediately, is substitute 127.0.0.1 for localhost.

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