"Looking for Printer..." message, need to reboot Airport to fix

Question

Level 1

24 points

"Looking for Printer..." message, need to reboot Airport to fix

Problem:

Every few days my Airport Extreme connected printer ceases to be usable by any Macs on the network. Print dialog reports "looking for printer..."

Steps to Repro:

Use any application.
Print a page to the R200 printer.
Print jobs get stuck.
Expected Result:
-- Print job succeeds.
Actual Result:
-- Print window reports: "Looking for Printer <<name of my printer>>>" forever.

Regression Tests:

Printer can be found and added by Bonjour.
Tried removing it, re-adding it, re-printing = no love
Other printers work fine.

[annoying] Workaround:

Reboot Airport.
Print jobs then go through, with no further problem or prompting.

History:

This used to work correctly. The configuration of the printer & airport has not changed. (which is why this is confusing)

Configuration:

Airport Extreme, v5.6
Epson R200, connected to Airport via USB, Driver 2.02
Mac G5 Dual 2.5GHz, 10.4.9, all updates as of June 1, 2007
Connection from mac(s) to Airport: Ethernet, via 1 8-port switch.

Airport Extreme Mac OS X (10.4.9) Epson R200

Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4)

Posted on Jun 2, 2007 11:30 AM

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Answer 1

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Jun 2, 2007 3:13 PM in response to Don Louv

Please write down the IP address of all net components now while it's working. Then, when it doesn't work, recheck the IP addresses. Do you turn off any of the computers, then turn them back on later - maybe in a different order?

On my router, I have an access list so that the DHCP server gives each computer its same IP address each time I restart it.

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Answer 2

Don Louv Author

Level 1

24 points

Jun 2, 2007 3:39 PM in response to greg sahli

Thanks, but I don't think changing DHCP addresses are the problem.

All IP addresses stay the same. (All = The mac (from which I print) and the Airport Extreme. Both are fixed IPs. The printer doesn't have an IP.

Nothing gets turned off. They are always on (mac, switch, airport & printer) Even sleeping the Mac, and then waking it, doesn't cause the problem right now, but I suspect in a day or two the printer will be "lost".

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