I have an old but perfectly serviceable B&W laser printer - an HP 4000N - with a Laserjet ethernet card installed. I have recently connected it to our home network and can see it on the network and have been able to get an IP address for it. I cannot however, get it to accept a print instruction. I wonder if someone can assist me? Thanks
If you used IPP for the print protocol then you will need to delete this queue and create a new queue, this time selecting HP Jetdirect Socket for the protocol.
Thank you PAHU - I did that and receive a message that the address is valid and then after I press "Add" there is a process to determine the Installable Options with a Status of "Connecting to printer...". However, it does get past this point so I still cannot get it properly installed. Any ideas? Thanks again for your advice.
AppleTalk no longer exists in Snow Leopard, which is how the 4000 was originally intended to use for the Mac. You'll have to add it via an IP address. Using the buttons on the top of the printer, kick out a Configuration Page. The IP address assigned to the printer by your router will be on that sheet.
To print a configuration page:
1 Press Menu until INFORMATION MENU appears.
2 Press Item until PRINT CONFIGURATION appears.
3 Press Select to print the configuration page.
Now add the printer as IP. Choose HP JetDirect as the connection. Enter the IP address as shown on the Configuration Page. Put a logical name in the name field, which would be the obvious "HP 4000", or something similar.
Hello Kurt - I tried your advice but finish without change. I have the configuration page with the ip details and so on. I followed your instructions - choosing HP JetDirect but when I select "Add" the process finishes with a window titled "Determining Installable Option..." with Status as "Connecting to Printer..." It does not go further. I am becoming a little frustrated as this should be more straightforward than this. Thanks again.
Is the submask something other than the standard 255.255.255.0? Are both your Mac and the HP4000 on the same router or switch?
In addition to Kurt's response, it may be helpful to us if you can reply with the IP address, subnet mask and router (gateway) settings that are currently set in your Mac and in the HP4000. If these settings differ greatly between both devices then this can cause the current symptom.
The Protocol Information (as shown on the Configuration Page)
TCP/IP - Ready
Config by: Front Panel/Tel Net
IP Address: 10.0.1.196
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Def Gatway: 10.0.1.1
Syslog Server: Not Specified
Webja Server: Not Specified
Novell Status: Disabled
Both the Mac and HP4000N are on the same switch.
Thanks for your continuing interest in getting me going.
Thanks for the info.
So providing your Mac has an IP address of 10.0.1.x, where x is a number other than 1 and 196, and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and router address of 10.0.1.1 (which would indicate you have an Airport device) then you should be getting past the window of determing installable options.
Are you selecting the HP4000N driver/PPD? If so, then try adding the printer again, but this time selecting Generic Postscript or Generic PCL Laser in the Print Using menu. I'm curious to see if this still causes the installable options message to appear.
PAHU - this time I selected Generic PCL Laser (it previously auto-selected Generic Postscript) and entered the correct details using the Jetdirect socket and as you predicted it did not bypass the Installable Options message but moved to "Continue" which I selected. However, on sending a print command the print screen return a "Printing page 1. 3% complete..." followed a little while later by the same error message as before namely, "Unable to connect to printer, will retry in 30 seconds".
I did the same again for Generic Postscript with the same result.
By the way, you said above "So providing your Mac has an IP address of 10.0.1.x, where x is a number other than 1 and 196..." My IP address does have .196
Thanks
Your Mac and the printer cannot have the same IP address. If the printer has 10.0.1.196 then then Mac needs to have a different last set of digits, such as 10.0.1.100. Is the Mac set to use DHCP or do you manually enter an IP address into the Mac?
PAHU - 10.0.1.196 is the address on the JetDirect Configuration Page and I have been assuming all along that this is the printer ip. Where do I locate the computer ip address? Sorry DHCP? I have been simply connecting to the home network either by ethernet cable or by wireless.
I see from the "About this Apple" that the configuration method is DHCP (IPv6) and the MacBook has a MAC address of 10:9a:dd:5a:48:72 if that gives you any more information. Thanks again.
Yes, if the JetDirect Configuration Page shows the IP address as 10.0.1.196, then this is the IP address for the printer.
To check what IP address is registered on the Mac you need to open System Preferences > Network and select the topology (connection type) that you are currently using on the Mac to connect to the network (Ethernet or Airport) in the left column. This will show in the right pane what addresses the Mac is using, although for Airport you will have to click the Advanced button and then select the TCP/IP tab. So what do you have set here?
PAHU - you are being very patient! Thank you.
Ethernet connection is IP address: 192.168.1.36
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.1.1
Airport (using DHCP)
IPv4 addres: 192.168.1.63
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.1.1
Note the difference in ethernet and airport ip's
Okay, now things are getting clearer.
Your Ethernet and Airport connections are set to a totally different IP subnet to the printer and this is your problem. You can see that the Mac is using a subnet of 192.168.1 (this is determined by the subnet mask) and your Ethernet port has a network address of 36 and your Airport has a network address of 63. It also shows that your router has a network address of 1 for the same IP subnet.
So in order for you to be able to connect to the LJ4000N you are going to have to change its IP address from 10.0.1.96 to 192.168.1.x, where x is not 36, 63 or 1 (or another number that any other network device is using). You should also change its gateway address to 192.168.1.1.
Just one more question. Why are you using Ethernet and Airport at the same time. This is not necessary, especially if you are connecting both ports to your router. But if you have the Ethernet connecting to some network device other than the router, such as directly to the printer for example, then having it set to the same IP subnet can cause trouble for the Mac.
Just one more question. Why are you using Ethernet and Airport at the same time.
I was curious about that, too. Since an Airport is an Ethernet device. So I'm not sure what the distinction is mcleoadsd is referring to.
If he means he has an Airport and another separate router, then that would be a big issue if both are set to assign IP addresses. One has to be passive (acting simply as a switch).
Printing HP Laserjet 4000N to Mac OSX network
