How to install Officejet 4680 sfotware on W7 NAT VBox without USB

[martyscholes]

I admin a Solaris server with several users having VirtualBox instances of Windows 7.  We have found two curious limitations for users wanting to access the 4680 Officejet printer trying to install OJ4600_Fill_14.exe.

1. The software will not install a network printer if no USB ports are enabled on VirtualBox image

2. The software will not discover a printer then install if the VirtualBox image is behing a NAT vnic on another LAN from the printer

Issue (1) above seems strange.  Unless USB ports are enabled, which makes no sense because this is a virtual machine with, well, no USB ports, the software will fail after you select a wireless printer installation.  That's just weird.

Issue (2) above requires the creation and tracking of a new vnic for each and every OS instance that wants to install this software.  That's a lot of overhead for a user needing to print.

The first issue is annoying and strange.  The second issue seems overly restrictive.  Is there a way to install this software onto a machine that has no USB ports and is on a different LAN from the printer?

Many thanks,

Marty

[Binary_Zen]

Is the printer already connected to the network? I think the problem here is that since the software was not able to locate the printer over the network, it is falling back to the USB based setup of wireless option so that it can copy the computer's wireless settings to the printer. Of course this will not work if you do not have any USB port or if the computer is not connected wirelessly to the network.  What you can try is to connect the printer to the network first prior to running the software installation. See Step 5 on the linked document below on how to do this.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02290609

EDIT: Step 5 under Windows 7-Manually Resolve Issue.

[martyscholes]

Mr. Zen,

Thanks for the reply.

> I think the problem here is that since the software was not able to locate the printer over the network,

> it is falling back to the USB based setup

Ok, that makes sense.  I disagree with the philosophy, but it makes sense.

> Is the printer already connected to the network?

That depends on how you define "network."  Since the virtual machines are on a NAT virtual NIC, the "network" that the virtual machine sees a 10.*.*.* network which contains a virtual gateway/router to the real LAN.  Since the virtual machine is on its own LAN, the machine (i.e. Windows instance) cannot communicate with the printer via broadcasts (because broadcasts are not propagated across LANs).  I suspect the software is trying to find the printer via broadcasts and once the software does not receive a reply, it refuses to install.

Just writing this I am realizing that if the virtual gateway passed non-DHCP broadcasts, then the software probably would install.

Is there a graceful way to install the software when the printer is on another subnet?

Thanks again,

Marty