Luminous Landscape Forum

Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: davidh202 on February 29, 2012, 09:22:40 pm

Title: Connecting a second printer to my PC -Update- RESOLVED
Post by: davidh202 on February 29, 2012, 09:22:40 pm
  My Epson 7900 is about to get a big brother tomorrow ,a 9890  ;D and I hope I'm not about to experience sibling rivalry! ::)

  I have no network, but do have my computer receiving cable internet from a Comcast cable router that is plugged into the only ethernet port on the PC.
The 7900 has been on a USB port and working fine.
The 9890 will be further away about 15' and Epson recommends connecting with an ethernet cable over 10'.
Since the only ethernet port available on the computer is taken, do I use a hub or a router to split the port on the computer?, and if it is only a hub I need,  should I just go ahead and put both printers on the ethernet hub along with the incoming internet connection?.  

Thanks in advance,
David
Title: Re: Connecting a second printer to my PC
Post by: John.Murray on February 29, 2012, 10:18:42 pm
I strongly recommend connecting via network as opposed to usb.

Take a look at the back of your Comcast modem; is there only one network jack?  If thats the case you'll need to purchase a router which will create a home network that you can plug multiple devices into.  Generally most SOHO (small office/home) routers will just work.  After connecting all your devices to the router, i'd recommend power cycling everything, making sure you have internet connectivity from your computer.  Now download the lastest driver from Epson's site for your new printer ....

Here's a nice article from comcast:

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/home-networking-101/
Title: Re: Connecting a second printer to my PC
Post by: John.Murray on February 29, 2012, 11:37:45 pm
If all your devices are connected to the comcast/modem router, then they are on the same network.  You can purchase a small desktop switch to provide a connection to the printer.  As long as you don't "daisy chain" more than 2 switches (including the one in the Comcast router), you'll have no connectivity issues.

If the business class router is an SMC, then (assuming someone hasn't renumbered it) your internal network will be 10.1.10.0 with the router (default gateway) at 10.1.10.1.  By default, the SMC has DHCP on, which means it's handing out IP address' to any devices connected to it.....
Title: Re: Connecting a second printer to my PC -Update- Help Needed
Post by: howardm on March 15, 2012, 09:19:51 am
when you say 'reboot', that's a vague term.  are you rebooting the computer, the printer, the router, all of them, ??????

99.98% of the time this is a simple network address problem.  save yourself a world of headache (which you're currently in)
by assigning static IP addresses to everything (the PC and the ethernet'd printer(s)) and leave DHCP on on the router.

the small 'switch' is all you need.  connect it between the cable modem/router and the PC.

1. get a piece of paper and start writing down this information....
2. log into the router and determine:  the DHCP range its offering and it's own IP address
3. determine the current IP address of the PC (via cmd ipconfig) and if it's static or dynamic (from the network panel)

From this information, you can determine what static addresses you can use (those OUTSIDE the routers DHCP offering range) (in the real world, you dont need more than 30-40 DHCP addresses)

set the PC to an address, subnet mask and gateway as appropriate (probably a 192.168.1.x address (again OUTSIDE the DHCP offer range), 255.255.255.0 mask and the IP address of the router as the gateway (assuming it's on 192.168.1.x network).

You should now still be able to access the router and the internet.  If so, continue.  If not, revisit your work until you can.

via the printer control panel or whatever the config utility is, set the printer's IP address as static and give it an address OUTSIDE the DHCP range and use the same mask and gateway values.  In a Windows cmd window, you should be able to 'ping' that address.  Once that is done, delete the printer from windows and re-instantiate it (no need to remove/install the actual driver) and tell it it's a network printer and give it the address you assigned to it.

If you get lost, PM me and we can arrange a phone call
Title: Re: Connecting a second printer to my PC -Update- Help Needed
Post by: Ken Doo on March 15, 2012, 12:26:23 pm
Is there any particular reason for the preference of connecting through a network or the aversion to using USB?

That "plug-n-play" simplicity of USB must look awfully attractive right now.....  ;D

Title: Re: Connecting a second printer to my PC -Update- Help Needed
Post by: Garnick on March 15, 2012, 01:28:47 pm
I'm using 3 USB Active Data Extension cables to span the distance from my computer to the 9900. These are not your standard USB extension cables and are more costly, approx $35CDN each. The service tech has suggested that this could present some problems with "noise" being transmitted as well, so I moved the printer close enough to connect with a 10' cable. Printed several images that had already been printed with the extensions and neither of us could see any difference at all. I do have the extension feeding straight from the computer and not from a hub. I've used one of these cables since I installed the 9900 two years ago, but recently added two more to reroute them in a more convenient manner. When I initially added the other two cables I did the tests, but repeated them while the tech was present. Something you might want to try if your network isn't networking.

Gary