Is my HP Officejet 6310 All-in-one a boat anchor

Question

I find that the printer will not print from either my desktop (Windows 7 pro) or my Notebook (Windows XP Sp3). Mucking around in the IP domain, I have found that relative to my desktop:

1) The MAC address is the same in the Printer's self report "HP Network Configuration Page" and in the scan results from Advance IP Scanner. 2) The MAC address is associated with the IP address 192.168.1.4 in both utilities.

3) Ping and Tracert both run successfully on 192.168.1.4

The above tells me that the network between desktop and the printer are in good condition but then I have the below reports that confuse me.

4) From Devices and Printers the printer is (during hover time) reported to be "Status: Offline"

5) Devices and Printers / right click / Printer properties / Ports / has one item checked Port: 192.168.1.2 Description: Standard TCP/IP Port Printer: HP Officejet 6300 series.

NOTE the IP address is not 192.168.1.4. I cannot find a way to change that Port: 192.168.1.2 address.

6) Ping and Tracert both fail on 192.168.1.2. Both respond with "Destination host unreachable"

The IP address differences bother me as potential causes of my inability to print from desktop's Word 2010 or from the printer properties General / Print Test Page path.

7) I entered into the printer properties General / Location field 192.168.1.4 which was the Registry's CurrentControlSet IP address.

8) I did a hard shutdown - cold boot - and rechecked the printer properties both General and port. There were no changes from the state of the system between before and after the cold boot.

I still cannot print. Again: Is my printer now a boat anchor?

Thanks for any help.

For me to believe is insufficient for you to know. - rodalsa

Answer 1

If the printer has IP address 192.168.1.4 then the port should also be set to 192.168.1.4.

First check that you can ping 192.168.1.4. If you can, go to Printer Properties and click the Ports tab. Click Configure Port and you should be able to change it's address. If you cannot, click on Add Port and create a new Standard TCP/IP port with the printer's address.

If you cannot ping 192.168.1.4, then check what address the PC has. To do that, bring up a DOS prompt and type IPCONFIG /ALL . If it's not 192.168.1.* then you need to change the printer's IP address to one on the same subnet as the PC. For example, if the PC is 10.0.0.2, change the printer to something like 10.0.0.199.

So no, I don't think it's a boat anchor!