How to find ip address of print server?

Question

How to find ip address of print server?

Hi All,

I've got a Netgear PS101 connected to our router in order to share a Laserjet 6mp. It's been hooked up for years and has been working fine. As we've been updating our machines to Leopard we've come across a problem where an extra page would print after every print job. It would just have the following text: Error Offending Command timeout; Stack D;

I wanted to explore the settings on the print server to see if there was anything I could change to solve this problem, but unfortunately I just can't find the ip address of the print server. I've used an ip scanner utility to scan various ip ranges on our network and nothing shows up. I tried using the netgear utilities on a windows box and it doesn't show anything on the network at all. I went into the etc/cups/printer.conf file to see if the ip address was listed there and this is what it had: pap://*/PSC3ACDA/LaserWriter. I have no idea what to do with that. The PSC3ACDA is the name of that print server, but I don't understand why it doesn't have a normal ip address.

Anyone have any clues as to what is going on here? I just don't understand how the device is communicating on the network if it doesn't seem to have any type of normal ip address.

Thanks,
Chris

G5 dual 2GHz, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Jan 4, 2010 8:01 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 4, 2010 8:56 PM in response to chris catalano

You would generally consult your router's DHCP table for that information. If that fails for some reason then

ping -c 3 x.x.x.255; arp -a

should turn it up as well. You'll need to substitute your actual subnet in place of the x'es.

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Answer 2

Jan 5, 2010 6:30 AM in response to Dewey Sachs

Hi Dewey,

My router (Netgear) has an 'attached devices' window in the admin section. Unfortunately, the printer does not show up on that list. I ran the command you provided in terminal (substituting 255 for the x'es) and it returned the same list that the router admin screen shows - no printer. And yes, I can absolutely print to the printer from every machine on the network....

Thanks,
Chris

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Answer 3

j.v.

Level 5

4,155 points

Jan 5, 2010 9:47 PM in response to chris catalano

from an administratively privileged user account, launch Terminal and type "sudo tcpdump -ni en1" (I'm assuming that interface en1 is your wireless and that's what you're using, my Mac Pro's en2 interface is actually the wireless interface but the other computers it's en1). en0 is generally ethernet, so use that if connected by ethernet cable. Then launch an application (Word, Text Edit, whatever) and print. You should be seeing lots of packets fly by from your computer to the network printer. As I understand it, the "-n" should force numeric IP and numeric port numbers rather than host names, and port names. That should give you one way to figure out the IP address of the printer. I think that print stuff uses port 631, too, so that may help you identify the IP address if you see stuff going to some.local.IP.address.631. And if you don't already know, control-c to interrupt.

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Answer 4

Jan 6, 2010 12:48 PM in response to j.v.

Hi J.V.

Thanks for the help. I was able to get the dump, but not really sure how to look at it. The mac I ran it from is at 192.168.1.3, but it looks like all outgoing commands are coming from addresses starting with 255. You can see the connection to the printer (PSC3ACDA:LaserWriter) about 20 lines down in the dump I pasted below. I also tried browsing to some of the addresses in the list to see if I could connect with the printer server, but nothing connected. Does anything here look obvious to you?

Thanks,
Chris

OfficeG5:~ chriscatalano$ sudo tcpdump -ni en0
Password:
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on en0, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet), capture size 96 bytes
15:21:55.666878 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:21:55.764534 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:21:55.864679 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:21:55.937238 IP6 fe80::d4a4:1f85:d986:87d0.61380 > ff02::c.1900: UDP, length 146
15:21:55.964832 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:21:56.065799 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:21:58.933509 IP6 fe80::d4a4:1f85:d986:87d0.61380 > ff02::c.1900: UDP, length 146
15:22:01.166237 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:01.266387 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:01.366605 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:01.464203 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:01.564438 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:01.937526 IP6 fe80::d4a4:1f85:d986:87d0.61380 > ff02::c.1900: UDP, length 146
15:22:05.936102 IP6 fe80::d4a4:1f85:d986:87d0.61380 > ff02::c.1900: UDP, length 146
15:22:06.665064 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:06.765226 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:06.865386 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:06.965601 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:07.066408 AT 255.89.1.6 > 0.0.6: at-#6 29
15:22:07.359157 AT 255.182.66.253 > 0.0.2: nbp-lkup 1: "PSC3ACDA:LaserWriter@*"
15:22:07.360072 aarp who-has 255.182.66 tell 255.89.1
15:22:07.360163 aarp reply 255.89.1 is-at 00:c0:02:c3:ac:da
15:22:07.364544 AT 255.89.1.2 > 255.182.66.253: nbp-reply 1: "PSC3ACDA:LaserWriter@*"(0) 128
15:22:07.364947 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.128: atp-req 27<0> [len=4] 0x85010000
15:22:07.366878 AT 255.89.1.128 > 255.182.66.129: atp-resp*27:0 (125) 0x85020000
15:22:07.366943 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.128: atp-rel 27<0> 0x204641
15:22:07.367260 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-req* 28<0> 0x85050000
15:22:07.367350 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-req 29<0-7> 0x85030001
15:22:08.942218 IP6 fe80::d4a4:1f85:d986:87d0.61380 > ff02::c.1900: UDP, length 146
15:22:09.366306 AT 255.89.1.131 > 255.182.66.129: atp-req* 1262<0> [len=21] 0x85050000
15:22:09.366511 AT 255.89.1.131 > 255.182.66.129: atp-req 1263<0-7> [len=21] 0x85030001
15:22:09.366606 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:0 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366614 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:1 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366617 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:2 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366619 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:3 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366621 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:4 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366624 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:5 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366626 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1263:6 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.366629 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp*1263:7 (512) 0x85040000
15:22:09.370242 AT 255.89.1.131 > 255.182.66.129: atp-rel 1263<0> [len=21]
15:22:09.373248 AT 255.89.1.131 > 255.182.66.129: atp-req 1264<0-7> [len=21] 0x85030002
15:22:09.373362 AT 255.182.66.129 > 255.89.1.131: atp-resp 1264:0 (512) 0x85040000

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Answer 5

Jan 6, 2010 1:32 PM in response to chris catalano

Assuming you're talking to it through Bonjour, you can also browse for available printers and then request the information necessary to communicate with them:


$ mDNS -B ipp.tcp .
Browsing for ipp.tcp
Talking to DNS SD Daemon at Mach port 5123
Timestamp A/R Flags Domain Service Type Instance Name
13:29:12.891 Add 0 local. ipp.tcp. HP LaserJet 1012 @ Panopticon
^C
$ mDNS -L "HP LaserJet 1012 @ Panopticon" ipp.tcp .
Lookup HP LaserJet 1012 @ Panopticon.ipp.tcplocal
Talking to DNS SD Daemon at Mach port 5123
13:29:39.419 Service can be reached at 192.168.192.200:631 TXT txtvers=1 qtotal=1 rp=printers/HPLaserJet1012 ty=hp LaserJ

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Answer 6

Jan 6, 2010 1:37 PM in response to Dewey Sachs

Hi Dewey,

I'm pretty sure I'm not talking to it through Bonjour. I did try your command and it didn't return anything:

Browsing for ipp.tcp
Talking to DNS SD Daemon at Mach port 3843

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Answer 7

Jan 6, 2010 1:51 PM in response to chris catalano

It might not be an IPP printer. There are a few different service types, such as printer.tcp

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Answer 8

Jan 6, 2010 2:13 PM in response to Dewey Sachs

No luck with that either:

Browsing for printer.tcp
Talking to DNS SD Daemon at Mach port 3843
^C

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Answer 9

Jan 6, 2010 5:09 PM in response to chris catalano

How old is that print server? All of the recommendations so far have been excellent advice for tracking down IP information.

However, from looking at the packet capture it's obvious your print server is using...wait for it...AppleTalk!

At least that's what the Mac driver is using to communicate. If this server has an HTTP configuration page, you'll probably need to use a PC to find the IP address. Unless it's using NetBEUI in which case you might be equally out of luck.

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Answer 10

Jan 6, 2010 7:30 PM in response to LittleSaint

Its a Netgear PS101 - probably about 3 years old or so. And yes, it does have an http configuration page. That's why I'm trying to find the ip address. I did try using the Netgear Admin sw on a pc, but it didn't show the print server on the network either! So nothing can see this device, but yet everything can print to it..... ugh.

This is all because we finally upgraded our macs to Leopard (i know, a little late) and it f'ed up printing to this Laserjet. Everything prints an extra page with a timeout error on it.

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Answer 11

Jan 7, 2010 7:41 PM in response to chris catalano

Have you tried netstat? +netstat -r+ shows me my printer. I don't know how many computers you have, but maybe that would narrow it down. Or start a print job and just run netstat, see what the computer's connected to.

charlie

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Answer 12

Jan 8, 2010 6:23 AM in response to Charles Minow

The printer driver is using AppleTalk. What is netstat going to show you that will give you the printer IP address?

One thing you could try, assuming your computer is on the same LAN as the printer is pinging the broadcast address. It may respond to broadcast pings. Then you can look in your arp table for an IP address that is not one of your Macs or PCs. It may be the printer.

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Answer 13

Jan 8, 2010 7:19 AM in response to LittleSaint

Could you explain how to ping the broadcast address? I've not heard that term before.

Thanks.

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Answer 14

Jan 8, 2010 8:33 AM in response to chris catalano

You should have already done that about 20 posts ago.

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Answer 15

Jan 8, 2010 11:10 AM in response to Dewey Sachs

You mean (ping -c 3 x.x.x.255; arp -a)? - yes I did that and reported back that it only showed the same devices that the router's admin screen shows. No printer....

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