Printer connectivity

flares2

Hey guys, might be a stupid question, but yesterday at work we had an issue where multiple network printers were having connectivity issues. They had link lights, cables good, but couldn't print or ping. A quick fix was to unplug and replug the network cable and connectivity was restored. I didn't think much of it at the time, but this morning I'm getting calls about it again from the same sections.
Is there a fix for this, I'd think firmware update but it's multiple models of printers. Perhaps something over the network that can be fixed on the switches?

d4nmf

Have you tried plugging them into a different / spare switch or hub?

Mishra

You probably want to set the ports on your switch to 100/full and make sure it is hard set in your printer as well.

Sie

Are these network attached printers (NIC of their own) or connected and shared via another machine?

flares2

d4nmf - the issue is occuring randomly throughout the network on multiple switches, so it's not a problem with a single switch

mishra - switchports are already set at 100FDx as well as the printers

sie - these are network printers. they have their own nic and are not shared off a workstation

I checked traffic over these ports. It's very minimal and these printers are 'overly' used, so it's not the ques filling up.

Mishra

I would think hard about what changes you have made to your environment recently. More than likely it is at the network level. You might want to check the status of the ports on your switches when the printers disconnect. You might have a layer 1 connection but layer 2 could be having issues.

d4nmf

Do you have people connecting remotley using RRAS?

I've had it before where DHCP decided to issue out addresses even though they are reserved, all the printers were showing as offline..couldnt ping them or load the http gui. Checked the IP that a user had been issued when dialing in using RRAS and they had been given the same as the printer...disconnected the user, resetup the reservations and printers came back online.

Just a suggestion, i've never seen before or since..

flares2

No one's connecting through RRAS. We have a DHCP network, but the printers are all static.
Yesterday, when another one went down. I telnetted the switch. The port was showing "up and up", it was transmitting data but not receiving, and the MAC of the printer was no longer in the Address Table.
We're using HP Layer 2 switches. I'm not used to the HP CLI so trying to track down what happened was hard, plus I haven't used a Layer 2 switch in years. (If anyone's wondering why I'm working the switches without knowing about HP CLI or Layer 2, it's because our NetAdmin got fired and I'm just helping where I can till we get a replacement).
One theory is that because we're a 24/7 place, it turns out the switches haven't been rebooted in 8 months, also the counters were well into the trillions. I cleared the counters, maybe that'll help. Now to find a way to reboot the switches without compromising business functionality.

marco71

maybe printers are set for standby and power-off NIC when this occur

astorrs

Have a look at the event log on the switch (can't remember the menu location, but its there) also have a look under "Status and Counters" (I think that's what its called - you'll have to forgive me but its been about 2-3 years since I've been on a ProCurve switch) then "Port Statistics" (or is it counters?) and look at the specific port for alignment errors and other interesting tidbits (obviously you'll need to reset all the counters but I think you said you did this already).