ethernet printer will not print unless internet is disconnected

Question

ethernet printer will not print unless internet is disconnected

Here's a strange one.

MacBook OSX 10.4.10
10 Base-T ethernet hub
Cable modem internet connection into ethernet hub
Epson 3000 running with latest Gutenprint, CUPS, PPD, with properly assigned IP address, connected to hub

I cannot print unless I disconnect the internet ethernet cable. If the internet cable is connected, when I try to print, the print window shows that the system is searching for the printer IP address, but it never finds it.

So I cancel printing, unplug everything from the ethernet hub, and plug back in only the computer and the printer, print again, and bam it finds it immediately and prints.

I plug the internet back in, try to print something else, and it does not find the printer again.

So I have to unplug the internet to print? What in the #*&@ is going on here?

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 16, 2007 4:29 PM

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Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Sep 16, 2007 7:43 PM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

It sounds to me like you don't have a router? Please explain what a properly assigned IP address means to you.

My guess is that you have just a hub, connected to a DSL/cable modem. This means your computer has an internet IP address, not a local IP address. This further means the computer tries to communicate with the printer via the router/switch at the ISP's office, and can't find its way back to your modem. A hub doesn't manage a local network - it doesn't keep communication destined for a local device there at home.

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Answer 2

Sep 16, 2007 9:59 PM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

No, I don't have a router. It's a hub. I've used my printers and the internet through this very hub with an iBook G4 for the past 5 years before I got this MacBook, and until making the change it all worked great. In fact, this same hub worked for 5 years before that with my G3 tower and the same printers.

By properly assigned IP address, I mean the IP address is valid, within the correct range according to the IP address of this computer, as was described to me on this forum by Kappy.

When I got the MacBook, the Epson driver no longer worked - apparently Epson is not supporting this printer for Intel Macs. "Epson Appletalk" over ethernet no longer worked, so I had to change to Gutenprint and assign an IP address to the Epson, which Kappy helped me out with. So now that I did all that, I get this non-functionality unless I disconnect from the internet. I didn't notice it until now, because I normally use my other GCC laser printer, and only use the Epson for special projects. I have 2 printers working over ethernet. One is a GCC laser and the other is the Epson Ink Jet. As I said, everything was working before the MacBook invasion. 2 printers, 1 computer, 1 internet connection, all using ethernet. No router necessary.

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 3

Sep 17, 2007 11:35 AM in response to greg sahli

Greg, reading your response again, I wonder how it all could have been working for years, and I guess it must be because the network was managed by Appletalk, which no longer works for the Epson on the Intel MacBook. But you are saying that the problem now could be solved by getting a router? What if I got an airport?

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 4

Sep 18, 2007 6:23 AM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

Anyone care to pick this up?

I checked out Airport extreme. It has 3 ethernet ports. Apparently the USB is supposed to be used for printing. I don't have USB printers. They are ethernet. Can I use the airport ethernet ports for the printers? Will this solve the problem as stated in the original post?

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 5

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Sep 18, 2007 8:26 AM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

Airport Extreme would solve this (IP printing) for you - you can connect your hub to the LAN (local network) port on the Extreme, and your printer plus others into the hub (you only need the hub is you have more than one ethernet device in the LAN).

But now that I think of it, your intel mac should still be able to do appletalk over ethernet. Please explain what else has changed?
- Oh, I see you don't have the original Epson driver which could use the proprietary "Epson Appletalk" protocol, and now you want to use IP - does that mean you have an Epson driver which gives you the choice of "Epson IP?" I don't think your printer will work with standard TCP/IP or Apple standard appletalk. Do you know if it will?
This might answer that question - did you use the Gimp-Print or Gutenprint driver before?
What is the IP address you have set the printer to? Maybe Kappy will show up to help, and maybe not, but I need to know what was set up different before - do you have a link to the previous post?

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Answer 6

Sep 18, 2007 8:48 AM in response to greg sahli

Hi Greg; thanks for the response. My previous dialog with Kappy is here:

<http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5087717&#5087717>

Actually I never wanted to use TCIP/IP, it just appeared that I had to do this in order to print. Although the GCC still works through Appletalk over ethernet, the Epson requires the proprietary Epson Appletalk, as you say, and this is not available for the 3000 on the Intel. Hence I switched to Gutenprint and TCP/IP. You can see what a bother it wss, since I had to use my almost dead iBook in order to set the IP address on the Epson. Do you still need the IP addresses?

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 7

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Sep 18, 2007 9:01 AM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

I think I'd try two workarounds (But let me say a router is the best way and it gives you more security, too):
Try installing or copying over the PPC Epson driver, and set Printer Setup Utility to run in Rosetta and use appletalk to add the printer.

Or, in Network Prefs > Network Port Configs, duplicate the built-in ethernet (call it #2 or something, the configure it manually and give it a local-only IP address like 192.168.3.3 and if you can set the printer to 192.168.3.4 (ie, next to the computer) and activate appletalk on this second ethernet (which turns off #1). And try adding the printer with appletalk or Epson IP (still running under Rosetta).

Hope someone with an Intel Mac can confirm these ideas, too!

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Answer 8

Sep 18, 2007 11:09 AM in response to greg sahli

Thanks, Greg. I'm wary of messing with drivers etc. and trying to use Rosetta at this point, but I'll try your helpful suggestions and report back...

Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 9

Sep 26, 2007 3:04 PM in response to greg sahli

Hi Greg.

As I had been considering Airport Extreme for a while, I bought it hoping it would solve this printing problem. Now the internet over airport works great, but ... now I can't print *at all*.

Airport Extreme has 3 ethernet ports on the back. I have plugged in my 2 printers, the GCC and the Epson 3000. GCC uses Appletalk over ethernet. Epson has been reconfigured to use TCP/IP.

GCC: Now when I try to print on the GCC, I get a message saying that Appletalk is not active. When I go to Network Setup and check Appletalk, it says it IS active. I click Apply and nothing changes, same result when I try to print.

Epson: When I try to print on the Epson, I get the same "attampting to contact, blah blah" followed by something like "could not connect, the network device is either off or missing or unavailable blah blah"

I have no hub connected and no ethernet cable coming from the computer. I want to be able to print wirelessly to both printers using the airport. I thought I could do this with Airport extreme using its ethernet ports. i guess I must have misunderstood something? I understand the USB port on the airport is supposed to be used for printers, but my printers do NOT have USB connections; they work over ethernet. Please help!

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 10

Sep 26, 2007 3:46 PM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

I thought this might help. I copied the info from terminal netstat -r. I have no idea what any of this means...

Routing tables

Internet:
Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire
default 10.0.1.1 UGSc 33 3 en1
10.0.1/24 link#5 UCS 1 0 en1
10.0.1.1 0:1b:63:f3:80:8f UHLW 34 544 en1 564
10.0.1.200 localhost UHS 0 1 lo0
127 localhost UCS 0 0 lo0
localhost localhost UH 9 9927 lo0
169.254 link#5 UCS 0 0 en1

Internet6:
Destination Gateway Flags Netif Expire
default h-pi-lab.local UGSc en1
localhost localhost UH lo0
link#5 UC en1
localhost 0:19:e3:2:fc:f6 UHL lo0
localhost Uc lo0
localhost link#1 UHL lo0
link#5 UC en1
aaron-hunts-comput 0:19:e3:2:fc:f6 UHL lo0
h-pi-lab.local 0:1b:63:f3:80:8f UHLW en1
ff01:: localhost U lo0
ff02::%lo0 localhost UC lo0
ff02::%en1 link#5 UC en1

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 11

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Sep 26, 2007 7:11 PM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

Aaron, If you are now using airport (wireless) for your network connection, please note my previous instructions where I explained that appletalk on the Mac can only be ON for one network interface at a time -- if you have it on for ethernet, it can't be on over wireless...

The GCC is a different animal than the Epson, because it uses postscript. (Postscript is the native output of Macs) Non-postscript printers MUST have a driver that translates postscript for the printer. The driver from Epson does that FOR EXACTLY THE COMM PROTOCOLS that Epson wrote into the driver. Since it's a PPC driver and you don't want to use Rosetta, I'm guessing you can't print via Airport Router, either. NO EPSON driver supports IP printing > LPD or IPP or Jetdirect -- it wasn't written into the driver like that. Only CUPS-compatible drivers can use all the OS X comm protocols, like IP printing. You have a CUPS driver already installed on your Mac -- Apple included the Gimp-Print third party CUPS drivers to try to help in this situation.

I'm sorry this is so complicated - I didn't make it so.

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Answer 12

Sep 26, 2007 10:47 PM in response to greg sahli

Greg, you wrote earlier:

<Airport Extreme would solve this (IP printing) for you - you can connect your hub to the LAN (local network) port on the Extreme, and your printer plus others into the hub (you only need the hub is you have more than one ethernet device in the LAN).>

I bought Airport because it is supposed to solve the problem (IP printing). The airport has 3 ethernet jacks on it, so the only thing I am doing differently than you described above is not using the hub. I only have 2 ethernet devices (the two printers) plugged in. I'm sorry, I don't understand why at this point I have to change drivers again. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 13

jdelima

Level 3

515 points

Sep 26, 2007 11:07 PM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

Aaron, please provide some IP details for me.
Printer IP -
MacBook IP (Ethernet)-
MacBook IP (Airport) -
Gateway -
Netmask -

I've read most of this post but lets stick to what's needed - getting the printer and MacBook talking over IP. Greg hit the nail on the head in his 1st post in saying that the traffic must be going out to your ISP and looking for the printer there. My guess is that the network is not configured properly - what happens when you disconect the internet, is that all traffic cannot be routed out there, and hence your printing works. When the internet is connected, your traffic for some reason (incorrect IP configuration) is routed out to your ISP.

I am assuming that you currently run 2 networks, given you've purchased an airport for use here. The first network would be the internet (your machine out to the ISP). The second would be your wireless network (your machine to the printer; even though it's cabled, you're wireless to the airport). This means you'll NEED two separate address ranges. One for the ISP network, one for the wireless network. If you use a single scope it won't work.

Post details and we'll get it working!

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Answer 14

Sep 29, 2007 10:10 AM in response to jdelima

Hi jdelima. Sorry I've been away from thsi problem as I had too much to do and just plugged in ethernet directly to do my printing. Is there a terminal command I can use to give you all the info you need? Otherwise I'm afraid I don't know enough and will have to spend all day figuring it out which I just can't afford to do.

Thanks,
Aaron Hunt
H-Pi Instruments

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Answer 15

jdelima

Level 3

515 points

Sep 30, 2007 10:16 PM in response to AaronAndrewHunt

Start with the basics then. I requested all the relevant IP details as from the config you have posted it appears that there is only a single connection, and i got the impression there were two. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from this and the other thread i see a wireless connection with IP address 10.0.1.200 (airport extreme is 10.0.1.1), but no cabled connection.

How is everything connected? In particular, the internet. You are wirelessly connected to the airport extreme that has the printer attached to it. What is the physical path to the internet?

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