XP Stops Printing with AirPort Extreme

Hi,

I just bought a new Airport Extreme (router/wireless base station) now I cant print to a HP4050 laser printer on my ethernet network from a Window XP machine on the network. Here is the layout:

Toshiba Cable Modem ----> AirPort Extreme ----> Asanate 16 port hub

The AirPort Extreme replaces an Asante FR1004 router.

The PC and the HP4050 are both plugged into the Asante 16 port hub. The hub is plugged into the AirPort Extreme.

I can print from a MDD DP G4 Mac (running OS X 10.4) to the HP4050, but I do have (now ancient) AppleTalk on. I can also now print to the HP4050 wirelessly from my old PowerBook (again with AppleTalk on), I could not do this before with my old AirPort and OS X for some reason.

The IP address of the printer did not change (192.168.123.141). Same as before, I had the HP4050 print me a configuration sheet confiming this.

Anyone know why the XP PC can't get to the HP4050 using TCP/IP??

Oh, and I can now no longer print to the Canon i9900 connect via USB to by G4 Mac (running OS X 10.4) from the Windows XP machine using Bonjour (over TCP/IP)....

Thanks,
Jeff

 

.....just to get some important work orders I need printed from the XP machine I unplugged the cable from the 16 port Asante hub to the AirPort Extreme and plugged that cable back into the old Asante FR1004 router I was using. XP then printed fine to the HP4050. So it it appears the issue is the way the AirPort Extreme is configured somehow....

Just got this AirPort Extreme Friday. Still learning about it using the AirPort Utility software. All seemed well until this issue popped up. There must be a way to fix this....

 

Yea, I posted on MacFixit too....but Apple claims the AirPort Extreme is the "#1 selling 802.11n router" (for both PC & Mac)
http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/

.....hoping someone here would have some experiance with it. I like this router/wireless base station alot, but these network problems drive me crazy.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Here is a view of my network, if it is of any help:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jeff_ny_001/NetworkLayout1007.jpg

....also discovered:
- The Dell running Windows XP can no longer connect to the internet
- My Beige G3 Mac running OS 9 can no longer connect to the internet
- If I turn off AppleTalk on the Macs I can't print to the HP 4050 using TCP/IP
- I can no longer connect to the Beige G3 Mac (OS 9) from the MDD (OS X) using TCP/IP File Sharing

Seems the router in the AirPort Extreme is killing my TCP/IP....only my OS X machine can even get on the internet now....hummm

 

Configuring the Apple AirPort Extreme See section 4 - Access Control List Configuration.
Have you entered any required devices in this setting to allow connection?

 

Dennis, I am using the Mac version of AirPort Utilty (5.2.1, the latest version). My screens look a little different than what I see on that web page.

Under "Access Control" it is looking for a "Wireless MAC Address "....and the "(default)" is currently set to "Unlimited ". But that is for a wireless connection, not hard wired.....hummm....

I also posted on Apples Discussions forums. In the past they have not been helpful (MacFixIt was much better for help), but if I find out what's going on here I will post it here so maybe someone else can benifit from what I find out. I probably can't do any more with this until morning, but thanks....

Jeff

 

Not home right now to try this, but I THINK I have something to try when I get home. On page 31 of...

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Designing_AirPort_Networks_Using_AirPort_Utility.pdf

it says:
"Choose a range of IP addresses from the DHCP Range pop-up menu. Choose 10.0, 192.168, or 172.16 and then enter a beginning and ending address in the DHCP Beginning Address and the DHCP Ending Address fields, depending on which addresses you want the base station to provide. "

I believe this is currently set to "10.0 "....my network devices are using the local "192.168.xxx.xxx" range (assigned by the Asante router).

I will try it tomorrow...

 

Ok, I changed the local DHCP address range from 10.1 to 192.168. All seems well now. I know, in hind site it was an easy fix. But unless you deal with network setting more than once a year this stuff gets stale in the brain...

Thanks for listening as I worked this out...

Jeff

 

There is a risk with what you have done. DHCP servers keep a record of the IP addresses they have given out. They use this record to ensure that they do not give the same address to two different devices.

By changing the Apple router to use the same IP space as the previous routers, it will be giving out IPs in the same range as those given out before. However, the Apple router did not give out the previous addresses, so it will not know what IP addresses are already being used and could give out a conflicting address.

If this occurs, the best thing to do is to reset the automatic IP assignment at each PC. To do that, at each PC open a command shell (Start > run > enter cmd), and enter the command ipconfig /release at the command prompt. Then enter ipconfig /renew. This will force the PC to request a new IP address from DHCP running on the router.

In fact, doing this to all the PCs with the Apple router connected, and the Asante router disconnected, would have overcome the problem of them working with the Apple unit in its default configuration. So worth remembering if you need to reset the Apple router.

 

Reggie,

Thanks. I think you may have solved this...I was just about to post this (will try what you suggested):

Well, for some reason I now can't print to the HP4050 laser printer with the AirPort Extreme again (after my initial printing of one page successfully). My two Windows XP machines now don't see it again AND on my OS X 10.4.10 machine I turned off AppleTalk and added the printer by it's IP address and now IT can't print to the HP 4050!

The printers IP address (192.168.123.141) has not changed.

Other notes:
- Both XP machines can access the internet fine
- If I unplug the uplink cable from the 16 port Asante switch and plug it back into the Asante router I can print fine to the HP 4050. As soon as I plug it back into the AirPort Extreme I can't print via TCP/IP again.

Why is the AirPort Extreme blocking traffic to the HP 4050 printer?

Jeff

 

What's the IP address of the router?

All the devices inside your little network need to belong to the same subnet. In non-technical terms, that means if your IP addresses all start 192.168. and your mask is 255.255.255.0, the first three octets (see note below) need to be the same for all the PCs.

So if your router is 192.168.1.1, all the devices inside your network need an address that starts 192.168.1. That means you can use the numbers from 192.168.1.2 to 192.168.1.254 (192.168.1.255 is a special address that you cannot use for a computer).

I expect you will need to change the IP address of the printer to match the address of the router and the other PCs.

However, check your router's DHCP settings. It will give out a range of IP address. You need to set the printer so that it is not fall within this range. For example, if DHCP gives out 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.200, you need to set the printer using an address below 192.168.1.100, or above 192.168.1.200.

P.S. Octets are the 8 bit numbers presented in an IP address. An octet can be a number from 0 to 255, and there are four in an IP address. For an address of 192.168.0.1, the first octet is 192, the second is 168, the third 0 and the forth 1.

 

Reggie,

Here is the list of DHCP Clients:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jeff_ny_001/AirPortExtClients.jpg
(MAC addresses scambled for security)

I am not sure what 192.168.1.193 is ??? The 16 port Asante switch??

Also, is there a way to (easily) add "Client ID" names in XP? I went though my Macs and added names to help ID them in the router, but can't see where to add names in XP?

IP Address: 64.110.136.46
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.128
Router Address: 64.110.136.1
(posting that does not compromise my security??)

I think I need to figure out how to get the HP 4050 to renew its IP address? Then the router should assign an address to it.....I would like it to use the same address it has now so I don't have to recofigure addresses on the computers to print to it......hummm

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Reg,

Forgot to mention;

DHCP Begining Address: 191.168.1.2
DHCP Ending Address: 191.168.1.200
DHCP Lease: 4 (hours)

 

Tried turning off the HP 4050 and unplugging it from the wall. Then plug it (power) back and turning it on, trying to get it to renew its IP address with the router.....nothing. Still does not show up in my list of DHCP Clients.

Tried Restarting the router.....now I see no clients at all in my list of DHCP Client list..... grrrrrr

Wish I knew what to do here....

 

On the 4050 go into the menu and print the network config.

Information Menu/ Print configuration.

 

Yes, I had done that earlier, and I just tried it again a little while ago....

Well, I know I said this before.......but I think it is working now. It appears the 192.168.1.193 WAS the HP 4050....

On the first sheet I printed earlier it said 192.168.123.141....but I did not notice up above that it said "TCP/IP STATUS: INITIALIZING BOOTP/DHCP IN PROGRESS "......all I was looking at was the IP address.....on the sheet I printed a little while ago it says "TCP/IP STATUS: READY" and shows 192.168.1.193.

eeeeee.....well, (after changing the printers IP address in the computers) it seems to print now. This TCP/IP is going to drive me crazy!

Time to go just sit somewhere an clear my head

Thanks for the input,
Jeff