Static IP address

[licquorice]

@Frogmodem  Not sure your IT bloke knows what he is talking about.

[WSH]

I'd have to agree.  I was just answering your question re: static vs reserved addresses, but if it's a wireless printer the connection problem is almost certainly the wireless.  Can you try it as a wired connection?  See if that makes a difference.

[Frogmodem]

My Hub2 shows the 2.4 band as 'Smart Channel 1' and 5Ghz as 'Smart Channel 44'. I also have an option for wireless mode (1,2 or 3).  It's set as 1 at the moment.  My IT bloke reckons that another issue might be the automatic timeout on the printer - it switches itself off completely after a few hours of non-use. I'm trying to find out how to extend this, although I realise the need for energy saving.

[imjolly]

I would change from 'Smart Channel' to a fixed channel maybe 11 for 2.4ghz and 48 for 5ghz.  smart channel allows hub to change channel if it decides one of other channels is better.  maybe me but I prefer the fixed channel.

the modes are to allow for older wifi but normally you would stay on 1

if your printer timed out that would mean it is not in use and as soon as you wanted to print it would start and automatically select the wifi channel.

sorry but as others have said I don't think much of your IT guy

[gg30340]

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@Frogmodem wrote:

My Hub2 shows the 2.4 band as 'Smart Channel 1' and 5Ghz as 'Smart Channel 44'. I also have an option for wireless mode (1,2 or 3).  It's set as 1 at the moment.  My IT bloke reckons that another issue might be the automatic timeout on the printer - it switches itself off completely after a few hours of non-use. I'm trying to find out how to extend this, although I realise the need for energy saving.

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If your IT bloke is so good how come you are still having a problem. It sounds to me that he is just flanneling.

How come no one else has the same problem when their printer turns off either on an auto turn off or when the person turns it off at the end of the day!

[WSH]

To be fair to the “IT Guy”, I have known reservations to be temperamental myself.  I had one that worked fine for a couple of years and then suddenly started playing up for no obvious reason.  I’ve also worked in one place that wouldn’t allow the use of reservations because they’d had problems with them in the past.  (Mind you, I’ve also spent 18 months working somewhere where everything was done as reservations and everything worked perfectly).

On balance though, if it’s wireless, I’m 9 out 10 in favour of it being a wireless stability problem and I’d take a static address over a reservation any day.

[Frogmodem]

The printer actually turns off completely (power light off), usually overnight  - I'm trying to find the setting to change this. (When I see it happening I get that wonderful americanism  - 'printer is switching off, please wait momentarily'.)  It does go to sleep when still switched on (power light on, screen blank) and wakes when I send a print command. I assume that this re-sets the countdown to powering off.  My IT bloke is very good with Excel macros, by the way, and has also shown me a neat little batch file that runs from the Command prompt to stop and then re-start the Print Spooler.  The latter will (99% of the time anyway) get the printer working again.

[WSH]

Yes, the spooler is on the computer, not the printer and there always has been a built-in way to restart it.  (Plus, Microsoft are supposed to have fixed the problem with that years ago).

[Frogmodem]

Strange thing is that when I manually access the spooler (via Services) it's always 'on'.  But when I stop it, then start it, the printer is usually fine again for a while.

[WSH]

Yes, used to be notorious for freezing but, as I said, it's supposed to be fixed in Win 10 & 11.