Konica Minolta bizhub C250 confounds all attempts to print from computer, via IP network

Can anyone help me get this silly machine to print a basic test page from a
Windows XP Pro machine, via our IP intranet?
My friend's C250 has served for years as a reliable copier. Now we want to
use it as a network printer.

We have installed the relevant drivers, from the bizhub's CDROM collection,
to a new WinXP Pro computer named "Gamma." We installed into Gamma the
Windows capabilty to print to an LPR printer, first by adding "Print
Services for Unix" in the XP Control Panel; then by adding the printing
device "locally" that is an LPR with the relevant IP address... and
hostname. The "address of the server providing lpd" is 192.168.1.81. The
"name of the printer on that server" is KMBT560A94. I must wonder about
that hostname, which comes to us as a "given." I was not able to assign a
hostname into the bizhub, as I have successfully done with various
ip-accessible print servers that attach to printers.

I ping the ip address 192.168.1.81 successfully, every time, from the
computer.

When I print a test page to this LPR printer, there is a brief spooling
action under Windows Control Panel ...printers. The job seems to go through
perfectly...at the computer, at least. The document number rises from 0 to
1, and then goes back to 0. The document name flashes briefly in the
printer's queue, before disappearing, as should be the case when a job turns
into hard copy at a printer.

The only problem is that no print job EVER emerges. 100% failure.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

My friend, who owns the machine, and who is "non technical," wonders if he
might need to "log into" the bizhub, at its key panel, in order to get print
jobs to come out. Meanwhile, the machine works fine as a copier, without
any ip involvement.

P.S. Some time ago, I got into the keypanel of this machine, changed the
password, and entered the ip address shown above. I enabled the "ping"
reaction, too.

THANK YOU.

John B <jb@nospam.com> wrote:
> Can anyone help me get this silly machine to print a basic test page from a
> Windows XP Pro machine, via our IP intranet?
> My friend's C250 has served for years as a reliable copier. Now we want to
> use it as a network printer.
>
> We have installed the relevant drivers, from the bizhub's CDROM collection,
> to a new WinXP Pro computer named "Gamma." We installed into Gamma the
> Windows capabilty to print to an LPR printer, first by adding "Print
> Services for Unix" in the XP Control Panel;

That's unnecessary. All it gets you is a Microsoft lpr command-line
client and maybe an lpd server. XP lets you create a port that will
talk to lpd servers without needing the "Print Services For Unix" stuff.

> then by adding the printing device "locally" that is an LPR with the
> relevant IP address... and hostname.

Probably not a hostname that is needed (IP address is enough), but an
lpd queue name.

> The "address of the server providing lpd" is 192.168.1.81. The "name
> of the printer on that server" is KMBT560A94. I must wonder about
> that hostname, which comes to us as a "given."

It's not a hostname. lpd servers can have multiple queues, each
printing to a different printer. Naming of queues is haphazard.
Sometimes can be left blank, sometimes "lp", sometimes "raw", sometimes
something totally random, like a printer brand and model number.

> I was not able to assign a hostname into the bizhub, as I have
> successfully done with various ip-accessible print servers that attach
> to printers.

It really shouldn't matter if the job is making it to the printer. A
DNS entry for the printer would not be bad.

> I ping the ip address 192.168.1.81 successfully, every time, from the
> computer.
>
> When I print a test page to this LPR printer, there is a brief spooling
> action under Windows Control Panel ...printers. The job seems to go through
> perfectly...at the computer, at least. The document number rises from 0 to
> 1, and then goes back to 0. The document name flashes briefly in the
> printer's queue, before disappearing, as should be the case when a job turns
> into hard copy at a printer.
>
> The only problem is that no print job EVER emerges. 100% failure.

The most obvious option is that the print job isn't formatted in a PDL
that the printer understands. Could be PCL, could be PostScript if
you're lucky. Could be that the CDROM drivers are outdated, so try the
latest from their web site. Or it could be that the drivers support
different versions of the printer and the printer doesn't have options
the driver thinks it does.

You can use the lpr command-line client to send simple test files. I
can't remember the options, except that they're true to Microsoft and
therefore incompatible with any other lpr client.

For test files, start with a simple text file created in Notepad. Just
text, and more than 60 lines long to force a page eject.

Using Notepad, write this to a file, then send with lpr to test for
PostScript:

%!PS
/Courier findfont 20 scalefont setfont
72 72 moveto (I am a PostScript printer.) show showpage

> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> My friend, who owns the machine, and who is "non technical," wonders if he
> might need to "log into" the bizhub, at its key panel, in order to get print
> jobs to come out.

Entirely possible, the bigger printer/copiers are like that. There
should be options in the driver to activate that instead of just
printing directly, but I've not tried KM printers.

--
Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA

In article <slrnfot7j4.grf.wblock@speedy.wonkity.com>,
Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote:

> > We have installed the relevant drivers, from the bizhub's CDROM collection,
> > to a new WinXP Pro computer named "Gamma." We installed into Gamma the
> > Windows capabilty to print to an LPR printer, first by adding "Print
> > Services for Unix" in the XP Control Panel;
>
> That's unnecessary. All it gets you is a Microsoft lpr command-line
> client and maybe an lpd server. XP lets you create a port that will
> talk to lpd servers without needing the "Print Services For Unix" stuff.

I disagree. First off, you cannot create what Microsoft calls "LPR
port" without installing print services for Unix.

Microsoft's "Standard TCP/IP Port" can be configured to do lpr, but it
has proven to be anything BUT standard.

Installing the print services for UNIX and using "LPR port" instead has
solved many, many problems over the years.

Elmo P. Shagnasty <elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote:
> In article <slrnfot7j4.grf.wblock@speedy.wonkity.com>,
> Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote:
>
>> > We have installed the relevant drivers, from the bizhub's CDROM collection,
>> > to a new WinXP Pro computer named "Gamma." We installed into Gamma the
>> > Windows capabilty to print to an LPR printer, first by adding "Print
>> > Services for Unix" in the XP Control Panel;
>>
>> That's unnecessary. All it gets you is a Microsoft lpr command-line
>> client and maybe an lpd server. XP lets you create a port that will
>> talk to lpd servers without needing the "Print Services For Unix" stuff.
>
> I disagree. First off, you cannot create what Microsoft calls "LPR
> port" without installing print services for Unix.
>
> Microsoft's "Standard TCP/IP Port" can be configured to do lpr, but it
> has proven to be anything BUT standard.
>
> Installing the print services for UNIX and using "LPR port" instead has
> solved many, many problems over the years.

Okay. The lpr mode of the "Standard TCP/IP Port" never gave me any
trouble, but that was mostly talking to JetDirects. I'd expect that to
be the most common situation and the most debugged.

--
Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA

In article <slrnfotgh2.hjf.wblock@speedy.wonkity.com>,
Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote:

> > I disagree. First off, you cannot create what Microsoft calls "LPR
> > port" without installing print services for Unix.
> >
> > Microsoft's "Standard TCP/IP Port" can be configured to do lpr, but it
> > has proven to be anything BUT standard.
> >
> > Installing the print services for UNIX and using "LPR port" instead has
> > solved many, many problems over the years.
>
> Okay. The lpr mode of the "Standard TCP/IP Port" never gave me any
> trouble, but that was mostly talking to JetDirects. I'd expect that to
> be the most common situation and the most debugged.

Microsoft's "Standard TCP/IP Port" was designed SPECIFICALLY to talk to
JetDirects.

That it works with anything else is, frankly, incidental.

Thanks for your prompt replies. See below for my additional replies to
yours.

"Warren Block" <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote
>
> Probably not a hostname that is needed (IP address is enough), but an
> lpd queue name.
>
>> The "address of the server providing lpd" is 192.168.1.81. The "name
>> of the printer on that server" is KMBT560A94. I must wonder about
>> that hostname, which comes to us as a "given."
>
> It's not a hostname. lpd servers can have multiple queues, each
> printing to a different printer. Naming of queues is haphazard.
> Sometimes can be left blank, sometimes "lp", sometimes "raw", sometimes
> something totally random, like a printer brand and model number.

I will look again at a different system (my own office system) where I
employ a simple print server successfully all day long. It has a "name" as
well as a "number." And by now I am using LPR printing in my office,
instead of just TCP/IP printing. (Both work here.)
>
>> I was not able to assign a hostname into the bizhub, as I have
>> successfully done with various ip-accessible print servers that attach
>> to printers.

By now I have figured out how to log into the printer's administrative
screen. Yes, I could change that hostname if I cared to; it's right there
in all its glory.

I think I'll deliberately install a WRONG "name" somewhere, to see if that
changes the mode of failure. Maybe that will stall the spool. Right now,
it appears that the print jobs are going right through properly...until
someone inspects the hard copy hopper...only to find nothing is there.

Bear in mind that this bizhub printer is physically in a downtown law
office. I am accessing it remotely, via TCP connections. So I can't walk
in and look at the printer's hopper. I have the secretary do that when she
comes in during business hours.


>
> It really shouldn't matter if the job is making it to the printer. A
> DNS entry for the printer would not be bad.
>
('This can wait.)
Where should I place such a "DNS entry"? In the XP computer? I don't know
how to supplement a DNS list anywhere. I've never had to do that. There is
provision for entering ip addresses of DNS servers IN THE BIZHUB, which I
have ignored, because that seems relevant only for OUTGOING information. My
sole interest here is to push print jobs into the printer, and have hard
copy come out in the hopper.

>> The only problem is that no print job EVER emerges. 100% failure.

Such failures include the Windows XP test page. Said test page has never
failed me, as an adequate vehicle, in many many years. But I'm all ears to
your ideas of "proper" formatting.
>
> The most obvious option is that the print job isn't formatted in a PDL
> that the printer understands. Could be PCL, could be PostScript if
> you're lucky. Could be that the CDROM drivers are outdated, so try the
> latest from their web site. Or it could be that the drivers support
> different versions of the printer and the printer doesn't have options
> the driver thinks it does.
>
> You can use the lpr command-line client to send simple test files. I
> can't remember the options, except that they're true to Microsoft and
> therefore incompatible with any other lpr client.
>
> For test files, start with a simple text file created in Notepad. Just
> text, and more than 60 lines long to force a page eject.

I'll look into this today, during business hours. Thank you for your reply
and suggestions.

>
> Using Notepad, write this to a file, then send with lpr to test for
> PostScript:
>
> %!PS
> /Courier findfont 20 scalefont setfont
> 72 72 moveto (I am a PostScript printer.) show showpage
>
>> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>>
>> My friend, who owns the machine, and who is "non technical," wonders if
>> he
>> might need to "log into" the bizhub, at its key panel, in order to get
>> print
>> jobs to come out.
>
> Entirely possible, the bigger printer/copiers are like that. There
> should be options in the driver to activate that instead of just
> printing directly, but I've not tried KM printers.
>
> --
> Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA

John B <johnb@nospam.com> wrote:
> "Warren Block" <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote
>> It really shouldn't matter if the job is making it to the printer. A
>> DNS entry for the printer would not be bad.
>>
> ('This can wait.)
> Where should I place such a "DNS entry"?

In your DNS servers, or hosts file, depending on what you have.

> In the XP computer? I don't know how to supplement a DNS list
> anywhere. I've never had to do that. There is provision for entering
> ip addresses of DNS servers IN THE BIZHUB, which I have ignored,
> because that seems relevant only for OUTGOING information. My sole
> interest here is to push print jobs into the printer, and have hard
> copy come out in the hopper.

Some lpd implementations really want to be able to resolve their own IP
addresses and those of clients submitting print jobs. Since the job is
arriving, that particular lpd either doesn't care or already has DNS.

>>> The only problem is that no print job EVER emerges. 100% failure.
>
> Such failures include the Windows XP test page. Said test page has never
> failed me, as an adequate vehicle, in many many years. But I'm all ears to
> your ideas of "proper" formatting.

The Windows test page, nasty as it is, isn't really any different from
any other print job. No more--or less--likely to print. It will go
through all of the Windows spooler and driver plumbing. Using the lpr
client avoids all that, sending an unprocessed file straight to the
printer. That lets you at least narrow things down.

--
Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota * USA

On Jan 16, 3:01*pm, "John B" <j...@nospam.com> wrote:
> Can anyone help *me get this silly machine to print a basic test page from a
> Windows XP Pro machine, via our IP intranet?
> My friend's C250 has served for years as a reliable copier. *Now we want to
> use it as a network printer.
>
> We have installed the relevant drivers, from the bizhub's CDROM collection,
> to a new WinXP Pro computer named "Gamma." *We installed into Gamma the
> Windows capabilty to print to an LPR printer, first by adding "Print
> Services for Unix" in the XP Control Panel; then by adding the printing
> device "locally" that is an LPR with the relevant IP address... and
> hostname. *The "address of the server providing lpd" is 192.168.1.81. *The
> "name of the printer on that server" is KMBT560A94. * I must wonder about
> that hostname, which comes to us as a "given." *I was not able to assign a
> hostname into the bizhub, as I have successfully done with various
> ip-accessible print servers that attach to printers.
>
> I ping the ip address 192.168.1.81 successfully, every time, from the
> computer.
>
> When I print a test page to this LPR printer, there is a brief spooling
> action under Windows Control Panel ...printers. *The job seems to go through
> perfectly...at the computer, at least. *The document number rises from 0 to
> 1, and then goes back to 0. *The document name flashes briefly in the
> printer's queue, before disappearing, as should be the case when a job turns
> into hard copy at a printer.
>
> The only problem is that no print job EVER emerges. *100% failure.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> My friend, who owns the machine, and who is "non technical," wonders if he
> might need to "log into" the bizhub, at its key panel, in order to get print
> jobs to come out. *Meanwhile, the machine works fine as a copier, without
> any ip involvement.
>
> P.S. *Some time ago, I got into the keypanel of this machine, changed the
> password, and entered the ip address shown above. *I enabled the "ping"
> reaction, too.
>
> THANK YOU.

Take a look at "Chapter 3. Setting up Network Printing" in the manual
for this printer, available here (http://207.194.48.151/intranet2/
view.php?
sess=0&id=4915&parent=3793&action=pdf_show&expand= 1&order=name&sortname=ASC).
It clearly states that only the PCL driver will work with Windows.
Also later in the chapter, it explains how to configure it under
Windows.

Don't forget to configure it with a static IP address within your
router's network, but not within the DHCP server's range. See this
thread for a similar explanation (http://groups.google.ca/group/
comp.periphs.printers/browse_thread/thread/ba45e3624ccee016/
f6a8909631ae36b8?hl=en#f6a8909631ae36b8).

That should do it.
Phineas

The IP addressing is already as you say.
I will look into this PCL requirement. That's news to me.
THANKS.

<phineaspaine@yahoo.com> wrote

Take a look at "Chapter 3. Setting up Network Printing" in the manual
for this printer, available here (http://207.194.48.151/intranet2/
view.php?
sess=0&id=4915&parent=3793&action=pdf_show&expand= 1&order=name&sortname=ASC)
..
It clearly states that only the PCL driver will work with Windows.
Also later in the chapter, it explains how to configure it under
Windows.

Don't forget to configure it with a static IP address within your
router's network, but not within the DHCP server's range. See this
thread for a similar explanation (http://groups.google.ca/group/
comp.periphs.printers/browse_thread/thread/ba45e3624ccee016/
f6a8909631ae36b8?hl=en#f6a8909631ae36b8).

That should do it.
Phineas

I hit this link and it says "anonymous access." A username and password are
required. I couldn't guess correctly.
Can you advise?
Thanks.
John


Take a look at "Chapter 3. Setting up Network Printing" in the manual
for this printer, available here (http://207.194.48.151/intranet2/
Phineas