The ****ing printer is NOT ****ing offline!!!!!
The ****ing printer is NOT ****ing offline!!!!!
Author
Discussion

rlg43p

Original Poster:

1,626 posts

279 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Windows seems to have a real problem thinking network printers are offline when they are not. This is an issue I have had to a VERY long time and I cannot seem to find any satisfactory solution online.

We have a network printer at home shared by all the family PCs. Very regularly the PCs seem to think the printer is offline and you cannot print to it.

However it clearly ISN'T offline as you can ping the printer's IP address successfully. You can access the web server on the printer. But you can't seem to convince the PC that the printer is NOT fkING OFFLINE YOU bh!!!

Occasionally restarting the print spooler causes the queued print job to complete, but rarely.

Does anyone share this problem and know of a solution because IT PISSES ME OFF!!

Restarting the PC fixes the issue briefly, but that's not really an acceptable answer.

Please excuse the rant.......

surveyor

18,705 posts

214 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Had a similar issue caused by the router assigning different Ip addresses. Our it bloke said a regular problem with brother.

Now on a static ip and.seems sorted..

otolith

69,337 posts

234 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all

paulrockliffe

16,618 posts

257 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Mine did this, though it's OK on the latest Firmware. I found it was absolutely rock-solid printing from my phone.

jakesmith

9,497 posts

201 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
I had this issue driving me mad and realised that when my devices were connected via VPN that they couldn't access the rpinter any more. Disconnecting the VPN solved it.

Gman20

9,548 posts

176 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Printers are a nightmare
BT promised me a paperless office on their ISDN adverts in the mid 90s
I am still waiting.

randlemarcus

13,646 posts

261 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Gman20 said:
Printers are a nightmare
BT promised me a paperless office on their ISDN adverts in the mid 90s
I am still waiting.
I suspect that quote is very closely associated with the one that says "the paperless toilet will come before the paperless office"

Basil Brush

5,628 posts

293 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
surveyor said:
Had a similar issue caused by the router assigning different Ip addresses. Our it bloke said a regular problem with brother.

Now on a static ip and.seems sorted..
+1 started having issues with an HP printer which were cured by giving it a static IP.

Andeh1

7,608 posts

236 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
We went through similar rage inducing bks with a WiFi only HP printer.

Eventually pinned it down to the printer being on the 5ghz WiFi and the laptop being on 2.5ghz....so both connected & responded to connection tests but stupid ass printer couldn't receive the data properly, for reasons I never did understand.

Disabling 5ghz & reconnecting printer made it much more reliable.

Printers are hateful things to work reliably.

Big_Dog

995 posts

215 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Another vote for a static IP from me. Printers and routers and NAS boxes always get a static IP.

tangerine_sedge

6,699 posts

248 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Gman20 said:
Printers are a nightmare
BT promised me a paperless office on their ISDN adverts in the mid 90s
I am still waiting.
To be fair, the paperless office is a reality for the OP.... hehe

leef44

5,201 posts

183 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Mine did this recently. It was a Windows update which wiped the printer driver. I had to reinstall the printer driver (download and install).

It worked after that.

rlg43p

Original Poster:

1,626 posts

279 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
Mine has a static IP address and is connected to the router via cable. Maybe I should try it on wireless and see if it is better!

anonymous-user

84 months

Thursday 11th March 2021
quotequote all
All the Epson printers I have ever had periodically throw such hissy fits even with a static IP assigned.

However one day I moved the printer to a new location where I was using a Devolo WiFi extender and the printer ceased working. I could ping it and it would connect to the network but the printer just would not print. I assume there must be some port or protocol that Epson use that the Devolo WiFi extender blocks. Connecting the printer to the Devolo using an Ethernet cable sorted the issue.

So try ethernet in short?

Magnum 475

4,182 posts

162 months

Friday 12th March 2021
quotequote all
Hmm. I've tried everything. My printer (Epson) has a static IP, and is connected via cable to the same switch in my study as my laptops.

Printing from my personal machines - a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air - works fine every time. Printing from my Mrs Magnums iMac that's in her study in a different part of the house works fine.

Then I connect my work-issued Windows 10 Laptop, which immediately reports that the printer is off line. No, the printer is not bl**dy off line, as proved when I e-mail the document I want to print to myself, and print it from one of the Macs. I can sometimes persuade the work PC to find the printer if I play with the settings for long enough, but it's quicker and easier to just send the doc to my Mac and print from there.



theboss

7,532 posts

249 months

Friday 12th March 2021
quotequote all
I've been having similar problems with an officejet pro wired to my network.

It used to be connected wirelessly and I didn't have problems at all, it was rock solid.

It seems that in a firmware update in the last year or so, HP have implemented a heavy "sleep mode" which cant be disabled. All you can do is maximise the sleep timer to 2 hours.

It's supposed to "wake up" on receipt of any network connection but mine hasn't been doing so reliably. Looking at the network the switch port flips to 10Mbps when the printer is sleeping. I've therefore had to force the printer NIC and switch port to 100/full which grates as fast Ethernet auto-negotiation compatibility issues are very 1990's. However this does seem to have stabilised things. I have always used a DHCP reservation so it's IP address is assigned but static.

I don't want to save a few watt hours of electricity - I want the damn thing to just work.

paulrockliffe

16,618 posts

257 months

Friday 12th March 2021
quotequote all
Magnum 475 said:
Hmm. I've tried everything. My printer (Epson) has a static IP, and is connected via cable to the same switch in my study as my laptops.

Printing from my personal machines - a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air - works fine every time. Printing from my Mrs Magnums iMac that's in her study in a different part of the house works fine.

Then I connect my work-issued Windows 10 Laptop, which immediately reports that the printer is off line. No, the printer is not bl**dy off line, as proved when I e-mail the document I want to print to myself, and print it from one of the Macs. I can sometimes persuade the work PC to find the printer if I play with the settings for long enough, but it's quicker and easier to just send the doc to my Mac and print from there.
You're not on a VPN with work are you? If so your printer is essentially on a different network, so your only option will be a USB cable to the printer.