IPP Printing over WAN to Brother MFC-8660DN

I have a Brother MFC-8660DN connected to the switch on my wireless router. Local LAN printing over wireless works from both Windows and Mac computers. The Brother can also connect to the internet ok because Scan to FTP uploads the scanned files perfectly.

Now, I am trying to set up so I can print over the internet WAN from other locations to this printer. I assigned the printer a static IP address, then forwarded port 631 (which I understand is the IPP port) to that address. I then used the Advanced button in the Add Printer dialog to add the printer using the URL: http://WANADDR:631/ipp (as instructed in the Windows docs from the printer). I also tried all kinds of other combinations of ipp://WANADDR:631. The printers add correctly, but when I try to print to them (using an outside internet connection), it tries to connect to the printer and eventually times out.

Does anybody know how to properly setup printing over IPP to a Brother network printer?

Thanks.

MacBook 2Ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on May 15, 2008 1:23 PM

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8 replies

May 15, 2008 4:27 PM in response to Collin Ong1

Ok, I solved the problem by using the CUPS driver instead of the postscript one.

For future reference:

1) Open System Preferences and choose the Print & Fax section.
2) Click + to add a printer
3) If you have not already done so, Ctrl-Click in a blank area of the toolbar of the resulting window and select "Customize Toolbar". Drag the "Advanced" (Gear Cogwheel) icon up to the toolbar to add it. Click Done when it is added.
4) Select Advanced and then under Type select "Internet Printer Protocol (http)".
5) Under URL enter "http://WANADDRESS:631/ipp". You can find out your WAN address by going to whatsmyip.org
6) Enter appropriate description under Name and Location.
7) Under print using pick the printer driver for your printer. (May need to use the "Select a Driver to use" to browse the available drivers) Pick the CUPS version.
8) Click Add. Another dialog may pop up asking to configure options for the printer. Do so and click Continue.

You should now be able to print over the internet to the printer.

Since most people's WAN address can change at any time depending on their ISP, you may also want to set up an dynamic DNS account at a place like dyndns.com. There, you can setup a hostname for your ISP account like myhome.dyndns.org and then run a small program on your computer to keep dyndns updated on your WAN address. If you do this, then the IPP URL above will become: "http://myhome.dyndns.org:631/ipp".

May 15, 2008 2:00 PM in response to greg sahli

Here is the part of the Windows docs that talk about the IPP URL:

For Windows® XP: Select Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network and
then enter the following in the URL field:
http://printer_ipaddress:631/ipp (Where printer_ipaddress is the IP address or the print server name).

I don't know which part of the is the queue name; it must be the ipp part?

This is the URL that I was trying to use that wasn't working. Any ideas what else could be going wrong?

May 15, 2008 2:04 PM in response to Collin Ong1

I found another section that may be the key to solving this problem:

5
Specifying a different URL
Please note that there are several possible entries that you can enter for the URL field.
http://ipaddress:631/ipp
This is the default URL and we recommend that you use this URL. Please note the Get More Info option will
t display any printer data.
http://ipaddress:631/ipp/port1
This is for HP® Jetdirect® compatibility. Please note the Get More Info option will not display any printer data.
http://ipaddress:631/
If you forget the URL details, you can simply enter the above text and the printer will still receive and process
data. please note the Get More Info option will not display any printer data.
If you are using the built in service names that the Brother print server supports, you can also use the
following: (However, please note the Get More Info option will not display any printer data).
http://ipaddress:631/brnxxxxxxp1
http://ipaddress:631/binary_p1
http://ipaddress:631/text_p1
http://ipaddress:631/pcl_p1
http:/ipaddress:631/postscript_p1
http://ipaddress:631/brnxxxxxx_p1at
Where ipaddress is the IP address or the print server name.

Since I was using the postscript driver, I think I may need to use the http:/ipaddress:631/postscript_p1 version of the URL. I can't try it right now but will report back.

May 15, 2008 3:27 PM in response to Collin Ong1

ok, I tried setting up an IPP (http) printer using http://WANADDR:631/postscript_p1 but when i tried printing to that one, it did not get a connection error but the queue kept going back into pause mode.

I later checked the printers web interface for the configuration of the postscript_p1 service and noticed that it the "Raw TCP Port" was set to 9100. I then tried changing the port in the URL to 9100 and also setup the router to forward 9100 to the printer as well.

This made some progress since now when I sent a print job to the printer, it starts blinking and shows "Receiving" on its display. However, after receiving, it displays "Receive Error" and doesn't print anything.

Any other clues on where to go with this one?

The configuration of the Postscript port also has the following options:
Protocols: TCP/IP, IPP, NetBIOS
Filter: No Filter, Text Substitution, AppleTalk, Text to Postscript, Postscript Tagged Binary
Control strings:
Beginning of Job: empty, \1BE, \04, \1B%-12345X, @PJL, ENTER LANGUAGE=, PCL\0A, POSTSCRIPT\0A, \FF\04\FF\05\FF\06\FF\07, \FF\04\FF\05\FF\06\FF\08 [this is the current default setting], \0C
Eng of Job: same list but the current default setting is \1B%-12345X

Raw TCP Port: 9100
Service Options: Bi-Directional

May 16, 2008 7:02 PM in response to Collin Ong1

I tried to configure my Brother MFC 8660DN using the IP Printer setting as described using the CUPS driver. The setup went exactly as described. However I am getting the following error message:
Network host "ip adress" is busy. Will retry in x seconds..

I am wondering where the "631" comes from? Could that be the problem?

Could the problem be a security setting on my Time Capsule preventing the data from reaching my printer?

Any other ideas?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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IPP Printing over WAN to Brother MFC-8660DN

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