Posted by: Karl Smith on April 26, 2009

Setting Up A Home Network Printer

I know this is a lot of information to read and understand. Think of it as an investment and not a burden. I have tried to include what is necessary without writing a whole book about a 5 minute procedure.

Summary of steps to install a network printer.

1. Download the most recent driver from the manufacturer’s website.
2. Configure network settings on the printer.
3. Use the Add Printer Wizard to create a local network printer on the pc.
4. (Optional) – share printer to other users.

If you are performing this type of installation for more than a handful of people, it is best to install this once on a Windows Server and share that printer to everyone. Normally it takes between 5 and 10 minutes to perform this type of install on each pc.

1. Download the most recent driver.

Visit the manufacturer’s website to obtain the latest driver – print drivers can be found in the support area searching by model number.
( this is important because early problems are fixed and drivers are updated )

For color printers you want to download a PostScript driver.
Black and White – monochrome printers work fine with a PCL driver.
*Run-Unzip-Extract* to a known location on the computer -
c:temp -or- c:*printer model*

2. Configure network settings on the printer
If you are a small business or an at home office you probably have a tiny router that handles what is called DHCP ( this is a service that manages IP addresses ).

The bad thing about these little devices is when they lose power, IP addresses are re-assigned on a first come basis.

I suggest using a static IP for all installations. Log into your printers web interface using the DHCP assigned IP address and change it to a static IP high in the range.

If available, I use 192.168.1.201, since most routers start assigning IPs at 192.168.1.2

If you have IT people who control your network, they should be consulted before making any changes to IP settings.

3. Using the Add Printer wizard
Go to Printers in the Control Panel – there are different ways to get there – just find one

Click the Add a Printer link

Choose – Add a local printer

**Note** – I know you have a network printer and the second choice is network printer and it makes logical sense to choose that – but you have to trust me and not think for yourself on this one.

Choose to Create a new port – select Standard TCP/IP Port in the dropdown list

Fill in the information – IP address you chose to use

If it detects the device type – great – if it doesn’t – click OK and Next anyway ( leave it generic or whatever it says )

Next is where we browse to the location you Extracted-unzipped the drivers ( this could also be to the CD you have ). Most of time when you download drivers they are in exe form or zipped and have to be Run and extracted before becoming available for use

Install the printer driver

Click Have Disk

Click Browse

Navigate to the location containing an INF file within the driver directory you created

Double-click the inf file or select it and click Open

Then click the OK button

Select your model and click Next

If it asks you to keep or replace the driver ( make a choice )

Then you will be asked to name the printer – On a server install it is best to make this a general term like – Office Color – or – Department BW.

Then you will be asked to Share the printer ( this is the Optional part for Server installs )

Just click Finish and the driver will be installed

4. Optional sharing the printer

Right-click the printer in Printers and Faxes and select Properties

click on the Sharing tab and choose to share and give it a share name

**Note**
The Network Printer option I told you to ignore earlier is for connecting to shared printers. The fast way to install a *shared* printer is to:

Click Start and select Run ( if you do not have a run just type the UNC name into an address bar )

Here is a link describing what UNC is http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/UNC.html

Type in the UNC name of the PC with the shared printer
Click OK

You will be presented with share folders and printers
Double-click the printer to install

————————-
Troubleshooting

1. Some printers need to have the port configured for a different RAW number or with LPR settings

The documentation or support site should cover what special settings are required.
Sometimes the default 9100 needs to be changed to another number, but usually it is an LPR port with a queue name of LPT1 – PORT1 – PS – AUTO – or lp, the LPR Byte Counting is sometimes necessary also.

You can configure these settings by going to the Properties of the printer
Select the Ports tab and click the Configure Port button.

2. The format of the IP address is important – do not use any leading zeroes that you may see on a config page or web screen

i.e. 192.168.001.201 should be programmed into the port as 192.168.1.201

3. IP addresses are important – normally on small networks 192.168.0. networks cannot print to 192.168.1 addresses – If your router changes its settings are has to be reconfigured, be sure to double check that you are an the same *Network ID* (first three sets of numbers), I have seen routers change back and forth between networks and different brands use different defaults.

4. Sometimes the ports on servers and workstations become corrupted and need to be deleted and recreated.

5. Sometimes you might have a *Network Security* application that blocks communication to a new printer – watch for popups when attempting your first print.

Final Thoughts

If you read all the way to here, you probably need more help.

Please visit the Do-it-yourself IT Answers blog for more articles of this type including helpful photos

http://diyitanswers.blogspot.com

Setting Up A Home Network Printer

Posted by: Karl Smith on April 26, 2009

Pc Keeps Restarting On Boot Up

Have you experienced problems such as turning on your PC, just moments before seeing the desktop, it restarts automatically? Problems such as this in which a computer experiences endless rebooting is usually caused by a computer virus. The signs are obvious. Your machine shuts down for no reason at all, without even touching any of the keys of your keyboard.

Though situations like this is commonly blamed to a computer virus which most likely has successfully invaded your computer hard drive, there are other reasons. In order to know the real problem, cover things one by one; create a checklist to figure out what’s going on.

In order to determine the computer problems specifically and carefully, make a checklist like the one I enumerated below:

(a) Check the computer power supply

(b) Check the CPU for dust particles or dust cakes

(c) Check for viruses and worms through trusted virus scanning software

(d) Check the memory and other computer hardware stuff

Aside from computer viruses, bad power supply is the reason why some times your computer experiences rebooting that keeps on repeating. The common situation you would experience in having a bad computer supply is the shutting off of your PC once in a while; then, it seems okay for a couple of hours but in all of a sudden, your computer restarts over and over again. Check your power supply if it gives enough electricity to have your computer run efficiently. Another culprit of recurring computer restarting is the dust. When dust particles start to settle on your CPU, in which lots of them are caked underneath the CPU fan, your computer would experience unexpected rebooting. According to computer experts, this is the usual cause of problems especially to newer computers with 1 Ghz CPU and above. Computers this types run very hot so they need excellent ventilation. More flow of air encourages dusts to settle on your CPU, and to some corners inside it such as CPU fan. In order to fix the problem, you should do regular checking of your CPU at least once a year and clean the dust off. Computer hardware issues can also be other causes of experiencing this kind of problem. Perhaps, your PC has bad memory or bad video card that makes the running of your computer fail.

Try also booting your computer in Safe Mode. If the problem persists, the cause maybe the software installed in your computer. If not the software, then other reason for booting failure might be the newly installed drivers. To resolve the problem, try restoring the system if you are using Windows XP. Also, try Window registry cleaner. Perhaps, your window registry is too crowded because of some stored unnecessary files in the hard drive. Ask the assistance of computer experts such as those people you find in the nearest computer stores or computer equipment rental hubs. Computer experts are the doctors of sick computers. Figuring out the cause of a problem and solutions for that problem is easy for them. If you think you can’t handle computer problems all by yourself, computer experts exist to help you.

Pc Keeps Restarting On Boot Up