I have a 25 PC Workgroup and a PC on the Workgroup keeps printing.

[Guest]

I have a Computer on a 25 PC Workgroup (no servers) that keeps sending the
same print job to a HP 4200N Laser Printer over and over. I walked into
the room which this Workgroup is located and an entire reem (500) sheets of
paper had processed through the printer.
I have used the Cancel Job Button on the printer itself. After canceling
all jobs in memory; within a 2 minute time frame the printer is off and
printing the same job again and again. This particular job consist of only 2
pages to text.

I have tried to use the process of elimination with little to no luck.
Is there a utility that I can use to aid me in locating the PC that is
continually recreating this job?
Is there any way I can quickly find the source of this problem?
I greatly appreciate any insight and help on this issue.

 

[Ron Lowe]

I have a Computer on a 25 PC Workgroup (no servers) that keeps sending the
same print job to a HP 4200N Laser Printer over and over. I walked into
the room which this Workgroup is located and an entire reem (500) sheets
of
paper had processed through the printer.
I have used the Cancel Job Button on the printer itself. After canceling
all jobs in memory; within a 2 minute time frame the printer is off and
printing the same job again and again. This particular job consist of only
2
pages to text.

I have tried to use the process of elimination with little to no luck.
Is there a utility that I can use to aid me in locating the PC that is
continually recreating this job?
Is there any way I can quickly find the source of this problem?
I greatly appreciate any insight and help on this issue.

Unplug the network cable from the printer in the meantime.
Since there's no server, each machine is presumably printing directly using
a standard TCP/IP port set up locally.

With only 25 machines, the simplest and quickest solution would be to just
go to each machine and look. Check the print queue icon in the systray,
beside the clock.

Or stomp around the office with a ream of waste paper asking who's print job
it is
You could also shut them all down, and then re-start them 1 by 1 to identify
the problem source.

The next most simple way would be to re-connect the printer for a short
while, and look at the lights on the switch whilst the offending machine
spools the job to the printer. Look to see which PC port is flashing in
sync with the printer port. Then figure out which machine is on that switch
port. Pull the network cable from that machine at the switch, and it's
owner will soon come bleating...

A heavier-handed but sure-fire way would be to hook an old hub ( not
switch ) between the printer and it's network port. Then hook a laptop onto
the same hub, and run a network siffer like ethereal. This will show the
source IP address of the offending machine.