printer going offline

[a-kamau]

Printer network interface is up but the Printer is not reachable on the network. we can see its mac address on the switch but we can not see it in the arp table of the router. this continues to be the case until we unplug the network cable and plug it back.

[John_Getzke]

Print off a configuration page from the control panel of the printer.  This should confirm the printers current IPv4 address.  Type the IPv4 into a web browser and see if anything responds.  If you cannot access the IPv4 in a browser then nothing else will be able to chat with the printer on the network either.

Next troubleshooting step would be to perform a COLD  or NVRAM reset on the printer.  This will wipe out all of the networking configuration settings on the printer and set it back to DHCP and the default.  Boot the printer and print off a new configuration page.  Compare the results.  

If the printer cannot talk after it was COLD reset then there is either a problem with the network cable, switch or the printers NIC.  Rule out the patch cable first.  Rule out the switch by plugging the printer into a different switch port or switch unit.  Rule out the printers NIC by plugging a different printer into the same cable and switch port temporarily.

Swap and replace parts as necessary from there.

[a-kamau]

Simply by unplugging the network cable and plugging it back, i am able to bring the printer back online.

my question is, how do i prevent the printer from going offline every now and then?

[John_Getzke]

There are two explanations for your scenario in my experience:

- Your printer is going to sleep and something is blocking it from waking up over the network 

- Your printer is dropping from the network because one of your security systems sees it as inactive 

Checking on the sleep settings is easy.  After you reconnect the printer to the network check the Embedded Web Server.  Adjust the sleep timer settings and turn it off or extend it as much as possible.  Observe if there is an impact or not.

If the sleep settings on the printer do not have an impact then you will need to work with your network administrators to isolate down what is happening between the printer and the network when there is a disconnection.  Have them check logs to see if they are intentionally dropping the printer due to inactivity or unauthentication.  Trace the traffic before a drop occurs.  Narrow down and isolate the problem as much as possible.  

We had a situation like this happen with some of our printers.  The network saw them as inactive and removed their authentication.  This resulted in a machine that was powered on but disconnected from the network.  A reboot would bring it back online which the users were doing every day as a work around.  Eventually we found the setting, made an adjustment, and the problem went away.

If you are not in an enterprise environment then you might be using a home router to manage your network. Many home routers have similar features designed to clean up the DHCP addresses for active machines.  You could either disable the DHCP reallocation feature or try moving your printer to a static IP address so it no longer relies on DHCP.