Re: Can a print server be hung right off of a router?

From: Cameron Kerr (cameron.kerr_at_paradise.net.nz)
Date: 01/12/04 

Date: 12 Jan 2004 18:47:44 +1300

Net Resident <none@nospame.net> wrote:
> I'm thinking I many have to connect physically direct to my print server
> first to make sure it's IP address is fixed/static (been a while since I
> used my print server). I'm guessing this is a common practice thing but
> I was looking for a confirmation.

I'm having difficulty understanding what you're trying to say, so tell
me if I'm on the right track.

You have a router (I gathered that from your subject), and a printer.

I shall make some assumptions (please indicate if they are wrong)

* The printer is attached to a printer server (possibly embedded in the
  printer itself).

* By attaching it to your router, you mean "can I hang an ethernet
  printer server on one interface of a router." In which case, the
  answer would be "Yes, certainly, but if you don't connect a switch,
  you need to use a crossover cable"

If I have you right, you want to know how to query the printer so you
can find out its configuration, correct?

If that's the case, you've ommitted some important information.

* What is the Make/Model of the printer

* Does it have its embedded printer controller (does an ethernet cable
  plug straight into it.

  If it's not embedded, what is the Make/Model of the print controller.

Let's assume that its a Laser printer with an embedded printer
controller, say an HP LaserJet 2100L, a particularly horrid piece of
work because it doesn't have an LCD display.

If that's the case, a test page may print out more information,
otherwise, there are more possibilities.

Some printers (the 2100L does) have an embedded web server. Surf to the
address and you should be able to see the configuration.

Many printers have SNMP capabilities, you could query those, but only if
you know what you're looking for (you will need the correct MIB to find
anything interesting, although a Linux program called npadmin is
moderately useful).

If you don't know what the IP address is, then that's a bit harder. You
could try a broadcast ping, but most devices don't answer to those
(actually, Linux is the only OS I've seen exhibit that behaivour (mind
you, I've seen inside the guts of a very expensive printer controller
that runs Linux ;^)

ping -c 2 -b 255.255.255.255
ping -c 2 -b <subnet_broadcast_address>

If you start tcpdump and then restart the printer, you might see some
bootp packets, which would indicate that its configuring via DHCP. You
could write the packet capture to a file (tcpdump -w) and look at it
more closely with ethereal (ethereal /path/to/capturefile) to see what
address it was given. 

-- 
Cameron Kerr
cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!

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