Network print lost after inactive period

[GRS]

I wonder if someone can help me with this, please?

At home, I am connecting a laptop running XP Home and a Brother
multifunction printer via a Netgear 4-port ethernet hub. Both devices are
using Auto Private Addressing, subnet is 255.255.0.0, addresses do not
conflict. There are no other devices at present.

Immediately after bootup all is well. But if I don't print for a while, I
seem to be losing the connection; because when I do submit a job, it times
out with an unhelpful message to the effect that the document failed to
print. Nothing short of rebooting the laptop seems to reestablish the
connection.

So I have two questions, if someone would be so kind as to enlighten me:
1. What have I got set wrong that this keeps happening??
2. If it must time out in this annoying manner, is there some less radical
way than rebooting to get the connection back again? I have tried the Repair
button in Network status, and ipconfig /renew, but to no avail.

Any suggestions gratefully received!

Thanks in advance,

GRS

 

[Doug Sherman [MVP]]

Don't know whether this will solve the problem, but I have always felt that
DHCP and now APIPA support in a network enabled printer is more trouble than
it is worth. Try:

1. Configure the Brother device with a static IP. It can be in
the169.254.x.x range if you want, but make it a fixed address.

2. Use the Add Printer wizard. Select Local Printer and clear the auto
detect box. Add a standard TCP/IP port using the fixed IP address you set
in #1.

Doug Sherman
MCSE, MCSA, MCP+I, MVP

 

[GRS]

Thanks for the advice, Doug.

I switched the printer to static IP, with a 169.254 address. The printer
seemed already to be set up as a local printer, so I switched the value in
the 'Printer name or IP address' field to the IP - I'm assuming that this is
equivalent to setting up a local printer from scratch?

Results were not encouraging, though, as I could get no print out at all
after making the changes. Have eventually (not without some difficulty!) got
back to Position 1, though. I guess occasional printout is better than none!

Thanks anyway,

GRS

 

[harringtondale]

GRS- Does this unit have a "sleep" mode? I know devices that have an
"intelligent" sleep mode try to "guess" when to sleep and when to wake
up. If the device is "sleeping" and taking longe to wake up then the
Windows spooler wants to wait, it may time out. How did you install
the device? I think Brother uses an installer that "finds" the printer
on the network or the driver can be installed manually, so maybe the
Printer Control Panel is "hooked" to it incorrectly.

Dale