printing to the wrong printer

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Level 1

26 points

printing to the wrong printer

we have a small network at home with three Macs (all running 10.6) and two laser printers (Brother b/w, HP color) the HP ColorLaser Jet is the latest device added to the network. The printers are on the network using Ethernet.
Everything worked fine so far but since three days on the MacBook the printers are mixed up. If I select the Brother as the printer to use I get all the options from the Brother driver but the paper will be printed by the HP printer ?!

First I suspect my daughter but I could see that "strange" behaviour myself. Why that, and more important how can this be fixed?

MacBook (2), MacBookPro, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Feb 24, 2011 1:52 PM

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Answer 1

Feb 24, 2011 2:26 PM in response to uhu

Do you use DHCP or static IP addresses in your printer configurations?

Rick

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Answer 2

uhu Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 24, 2011 8:47 PM in response to rdvholtwood

both printers are using DHCP and will get their address from the router (xDSL to connect to the Internet).

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Answer 3

Feb 24, 2011 8:51 PM in response to uhu

You may want to try using a static IP address instead.

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Answer 4

uhu Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 24, 2011 10:34 PM in response to rdvholtwood

I will have to try that, yes but in general I think that this is some kind of workaround and not a soulution.
Having two printers should't be too much for all these wizzards trying to help me making my life easier.

Anyway I will try that and then I'll if that helps. And at the end I will turn off DHCP but it becomes useless to me. Having just three computers getting their IP address from the DCHP server makes no sense I can manage these three addresses as well manually 😉

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Answer 5

Feb 24, 2011 11:01 PM in response to uhu

You do not need to turn off DHCP. You just need to assign addresses to the printers outside the range of addresses that DHCP uses, or so far down the list that DHCP would never use them.

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Answer 6

Feb 24, 2011 11:06 PM in response to uhu

Try removing and re-adding the printers, or better yet, first right-click a print and choose the option to reset the printing system, then set up your printers again.

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Answer 7

uhu Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 24, 2011 11:15 PM in response to Bruce De Benedictis

sure I won't. Indeed I have setup my DHCP server that way (there is an address range outside the dynamic range for devices that need fixed addresses). Just in case the router and firewall have fixed address - you never know.
But having fixed addesses for the LAN priters as well I have now five devices outside the dynamic range of the DHCP compared to the three notebooks?

But back to the issue of the wrong printer. What disappoints me is the fact that there is no error message. The system just works the wrong way around. You can choose your printer, you can choose the print layout and all the other options and at the end it fails (sending the data to the wrong device).
I know IT is still complicated behind the scene. But this situation should not happen.

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Answer 8

Feb 25, 2011 2:29 PM in response to uhu

Utilizing a static ip address is not a workaround. I have never used DHCP on any printer - even if its only one printer. Try it and see how works for you. I would not turn off DHCP for your other devices. However, thats up to you.

Good Luck and let us know how you make out.

Rick

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Answer 9

Feb 25, 2011 4:10 PM in response to uhu

There is no need to turn off DHCP. You should also check out the router's capabilities. Many routers allow you to reserve specific IP addresses *within the DHCP range* for specific devices. You just tell the router to reserve an IP address for a particular MAC address. That can give you "the best of both worlds" solution. You don't get confused by tracking IP addresses outside of the DHCP range, and all devices that do not require a fixed IP address just work.

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Answer 10

Feb 25, 2011 5:26 PM in response to Matt Broughton

Great suggestion Matt....

Either way will work - It is important to remember that using DHCP reservations has no functional difference from using a static IP address. I have a time capsule and what is nice is that for administration - I can go into the TC settings and see what IP addresses are reserved. As Matt mentioned, you will need to know the MAC addresses of your printer. At present, my printer is using an IP outside the dhcp range - *this is important* if you decide to use static. It is recommended that you not make an IP address within the DHCP static - as this will most definitely cause problems down the road with conflicts.

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Answer 11

ajduguid

Level 3

650 points

Feb 26, 2011 5:44 AM in response to uhu

System Preferences : Print & Fax

For both of your printers, what is the url in Options & Supplies? If it is using an IP address and assuming they both accept postscript I could see why the mac wouldn't complain if somehow the two IP addresses were swapped. It sent a print job to a networked printer and a printer accepted.

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Answer 12

uhu Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 27, 2011 10:16 AM in response to ajduguid

the URL for the Brother is:

dnssd://Brother%20HL-5170DN%20series%20%28BRN 384A5B_P1_AT%29._printer.tcp.local.

and the one for the HP-1415 looks similar. No IP-address like 10.10.1.35.

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