Hi there dladders.
First of all, in response to the reply from Nort, I suggest you don't waste your time contacting Apple. They know little to nothing about network office MFD's and you will probably just tell you to contact Ricoh.
As for KT's reply, this may be helpful although looking through the supported model
list , there is no listing for the MP C4000 but there are other models, such as the Aficio MP C4500 PS, and this may work, providing your model has PostScript if it is optional.
Regarding the symptoms you have seen, there are several likely causes...
For only printing in B&W, if you created the printer queue using one of the supplied Generic PS or PCL drivers, then you will only get b&w printing. This is a known limitation of these system drivers.
The loads of blank pages is generally an indication that you have created a printer queue using PostScript but your printer only supports PCL.
The message re cannot connect could be related to the protocol used to create the network queue or an incorrect queue name was used if the protocol was correct.
To help you select the correct driver and network connection my suggestion would be to have a look at one of the Windows computers. This will show you which protocol they are using (RAW Port 9100 on Windows is called HP Jetdirect-Socket on the Mac) and if they are using a PCL driver or PS driver. The other thing to check is the machine itself. Some machines have a built-in web page which can you open by typing the machines IP address into your web browser. This can show you what print languages the machine supports and what print protocols are available. If you can't open the web page then see if you can print a configuration sheet from the machine. This should also provide information about supported protocols and print languages.
HTH
Pahu