HP DesignJet 455CA / JetdirectEX Problem

[DeskJockey]

Hi there, Gang!

Thanks very much to the kind folks here who've helped me with my other two conundrums. You guys are the best! =) I have another question for ya...

For this next question, I was unable to find any help via searching the HP Tech forums site or old messages here.

At work, we have an HP Designjet 455 CA plotter, hooked up to our network via a JetDirect EX box.

I cannot connect to the printer via the network on either of two Win XP machines or any of the multitudinous OSX macs.

So far, I've tested it as follows:

1) Hook my laptop directly to the printer and print. (This works)
2) Hook the printer up via the jetdirect box. (This does not work)

I can see it using the browser-based Jetadmin interface. It finds and can monitor the printer and give me an IP Address, but when I try to use the Find Network Printer Wizard, or even just use IP printing in XP, neither can find the jetdirect card on the network.

All IP addresses involved are the same for the first three sets of numbers
(ie: 123.231.132.***) and all involved devices are in the same physical building and floor.

Has anyone had any experience with dealing with this? I'm sure I'm overlooking something frightfully obvious, but I'm not sure what.

Thanks in advance for your time and have a great day! =)
-Deskjockey

[glc]

Use Jet Admin to assign it a static IP, with the subnet mask and gateway (optional) to correspond to your network. Then run the add printer wizard in XP, tell it a local port but do NOT automatically detect plug and play printers. On the next screen you want to create a new port - select Standard TCP/IP Port. Put in the IP address of the Jet Direct and proceed. When it comes up to the pick printer screen tell it Have Disk and feed it the driver.

I dunno what to tell you about the Macs, but I'd assume it's similar.

[DeskJockey]

Hi GLC! Thanks very much for your reply.

I did try to add it using the IP printing option in XP, but that didn't seem to work. However, it was not a static IP address, I just checked it in Jetadmin and then alt-tabbed to set it up. I'll assign it a static ip and try the TCP/IP printing again, thanks. =)

As for the macs, I'm not that worried about them yet. I'll be glad to get one of the machines (pc pref) to recognize it so folks can use it, then I'll work on getting all the rest of the comps to play nice.

Thanks for your help and have a great day! =)
-Deskjockey

[glc]

I *always* assign Jet Directs static IP's so the standard TCP/IP port will work. With DHCP, it will no longer work if the IP changes.