Network photocopier setup

NeitherJohn

Hi all.

I am a member of a voluntary first aid org and I recently set up a network using cables laid by the electrician when we got our premises refurbished.

It's all been working fine for the last few months anyway. I have two Netgear switches (one 8 port and one 16 port) which supply all the network points in the building with internet access and access to the FreeNAS fileserver.

These are connected back to an eircom Zyxel P660 router near the phone socket. In addition, I have an old Netopia 2247 in bridge mode, broadcasting a wireless signal throughout the building. I have WiFi turned off on the Zyxel modem.

Last night we got a new printer/photocopier/scanner that is to be connected to the network. It already has an IP address locked into it that cannot be changed.

I need to make that static IP on the network as well. The photocopier appears on the bridged (Netopia) router but does not appear at all in the Zyxel.

Do I have to set it on the Netopia or Zyxel?

If someone could tell me which one I have to do it on or if I have do to something else it'd be appreciated! I can go hunt away on portforward.com if someone can point me in the right direction!

Thanks

John

Alun

NeitherJohn wrote: »

Last night we got a new printer/photocopier/scanner that is to be connected to the network. It already has an IP address locked into it that cannot be changed.

There has to be a way to either change the static IP it has, or make it use DHCP somewhere in the setup for the thing. A networked device with a fixed unchangeable IP would be a pretty useless piece of kit.

NeitherJohn

Sorry I phrased that fairly badly. What I meant was that it was configured to that address at factory to make it easier for whoever was connecting it to the network to not faff around with the DHCP settings etc.

It has an internal IP of 192.168.1.178 which is set to static in the printer settings.

This internal IP shows up on the bridged router which is broadcasting the WiFi but does not show up on the router that gives the bridged router its signal. Is that normal?

If that's the case, I have to make that internal IP address static on the bridged router don't I? I'll go looking on portforward.com


Or am I just completely overthinking this? Will this printer just request the same address from the router each time the router is power-cycled?

Alun

If it's indeed set as a static address on the printer then you don't need to do anything in principle, however depending on how you have your DHCP server set up, that address could fall within the range of address dealt out by the DHCP server which may cause problems at some stage. So, check what range your DHCP server is handing out, and if the printer's current address is outside that range then all is OK, otherwise you'll either have to modify the static address on the printer, or modify the range of addresses being handed out by the DHCP server.

When you say the address isn't appearing on the Zyxel, what do you mean exactly?

NeitherJohn

Thanks. Sounds just what I was looking for.

When I go into the LAN Client list on the Netopia I can see the printer's IP address in the list along with other devices like my smartphone and a friends iPad.

If I go into the same LAN Client list on the Zyxel, I can see other devices on the network like my smartphone and the iPad but no sign of the printer.

Alun

NeitherJohn wrote: »

If I go into the same LAN Client list on the Zyxel, I can see other devices on the network like my smartphone and the iPad but no sign of the printer.

Can you ping the printer from a PC connected to the Zyxel or one of the switches? If so, all is well.

Attached client lists on routers tend not to be too reliable on the whole.

NeitherJohn

I pinged it last night alright from my own laptop and could log in to the administration page when I typed the IP address into my address bar.

Seems I was thinking too much about it! Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.

Alun

Yeah, sometimes you can just overthink things I'd still check that the static address the printer currently has doesn't fall foul of the DHCP server's range though.