Posted: 5/22/2026 10:54:38 PM EDT
[Last Edit: johnh57][Edited]
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Having a temper tantrum I'm not near the printer now so I can't really test anything. At the trap club we have an hp 4101 laser jet printer. It has no hard connections - everything is wifi. I've printed to that printer from my phone (samsung) and from my tablet (also samsung) on several occasions. No problem. Today I had a simple 4 page pdf file emailed to me I really needed to print. Tried the phone directly from email - printer unavailable, downloaded the file and printed from drive pdf - printer unavailable, opened email on my tablet - printer unavailable, downloaded file to my tablet - printer unavailable. I'm literally sitting 5' from the printer, its printing fine from the club laptop I'm using - over club wifi network. I don't have my personal email on the club laptop. Verified phone and tablet are connected to club wifi (tablet is wifi only, no cellular connection) No clues from the print utility as to wtf was 'unavailable' Any idea what to go look for? I'm baffled by what could be causing the 'printer unavailable' error. ETA: at home now - opened the doc on email with 'Drive PDF' and hit print - no problem prints fine on my epson printer here at the house. |
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in the printer interface check and see if wifi is connected. and what the IP address is. then make sure you are connected to that local wireless network. type in the IP address into your browser and see if the GUI interface shows up. if it doesn't, thats where you start. if it can't see the gui it isn't going to print |
| Phone / tablet both 'see' the printer. Tablet is wifi only - it has to be on the clubs wifi to read email (and use the internet which I was doing yesterday) printer is online as I was using it at the time from a laptop. Phone settings - connections - wifi say phone is on the wifi network. Printer is on clubs wifi network, phone is on clubs wifi network, tablet is on clubs wifi network, phone sees printer, tablet sees printer. |
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1. Power cycle the printer. Verify it's on and does it's startup routine. 2.Download manual for printer. Find the "test" sequence and using the buttons on the printer, print a test page. 3.Restart the router. 4.Check settings on the router to make sure there is a DHCP configuration and the printer IP lease is in protected space. (That means, the printer always has the same IP address and it doesn't get a new one when the router reboots.) 5.Find the printer "status" interface that will print out the configurations, one section will have the wireless settings and current connected state. In a space like that (a club where people come and go) you need to set your stuff up so it doesn't get screwed with if some knob comes in and starts up 50 VPN connections or some shit. The router needs to be set up with IP addresses on a list for DHCP. This hands out IP addresses to people that walk in. With lots of people, it is very easy for the "lease" list of IPs to fill up abnormally and "step on" the printer IP. How to fix: -In router settings shorten the leases to less than 6 hours. This will drop old connections and keep the list to only who is there at the time and shouldn't disrupt function. -In router settings, specify the DHCP block to be used. Normally 254 IP addresses, block out the lower or upper 20 or so. They should never be handed out by DHCP. -Using the printer manual, figure out how to specify an IP address for the printer, and pick one of the addresses you blocked out. One easy to remember. Put the number (just the last three digits) on a sticker on the printer. Other things: -If it's a good HP, it's old. -If it's new, it's not a good HP. -Either case, it might have just shit the bed and no longer function. -Can anybody else print? If they can, find out their settings. Copy them. -In a club, without access control to the printer you are MUCH BETTER OFF WITH WIRED becasue some wiseachre will fuck with it thinking they know better. Imagine all the stupid shit members have done and then extend that to their 14 year old kid that is interested in computer. -In all the instances of "printer doesn't work" I have gone through in my life, it has NEVER been the file it has always been the printer, printer driver, lack of power to a hub or a PEBKAC. |
Mercy on the criminal is cruelty to the innocent.
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what you are seeing on the phone is the printer you installed originally. what that means is, that is not necessarily the live view of if it sees the printer. it is the same on a regular computer. you install a printer, but someone unplugs it, the computer still "sees" the printer. but nothing will print. for a wifi printer, it could be as mentioned above, that the ip address changed, or it could not find the wifi at some point when it was booting up and isn't really on the network. I have a wfif printer like that. sometimes after a power outage, it will boot up before the network stuff does and it gets a 169 address meaning it wasn't on the actual 192 network. have to power cycle the printer to get it to reattach to the network. but during that time no one can print. even though both the phone and printer look like they show good. |