OfficeJet 6500 Won't Connect to Network

[727887rei · Accepted solution]

OK -- I found the answer on the Apple website & boy is it simple: (1) delete the printer drivers from both machines, (2) turn off "sharing" on the host machine, (3) install drivers on the host machine, (4) install drivers on the remote machine, (5) turn on printer sharing. Voila! It's all a matter of the order in which you do things...

[kthomas531]

it won't connect for me when i use the printer icon.... but when i actually use the file print commands it works fine

[PrintDoc]

Use cmd-P.

[ergonoid]

Ha!  Apple helped solve the problem?  Not for me.  I still cannot connect to the Officjet 5610 printer and print unless I'm directly cabled to the Macbook Pro.  Frustrating since the Apple "genius" told me I'd have to contact HP.  Oh well.  So much for my praises of Apple. 

[PrintDoc]

Tell me how it is connected, what version of OS X is being used and where you got your HP software and I can help.

[Sandyg83]

I have a similar problem. I have a D-Link DIR-655 router. I have a new Gateway computer running Windows 7 and the OfficeJet 6500 is new. When I run the network diagnostic utility, the printer can't get through the firewalls. I am having trouble configuring McAfee firewall to let the printer through. I don't know much about networks or firewalls to answer the detailed questions to enable the printer to pass through. Can someone help? Basically, the printer can't seem to respond to the print command. It takes minutes and minutes to try and get something to print. I often have to use Task Manager to try and cancel print documents and restart the printer. Sometimes I get garbled pages like in computer code. This isn't normal for an HP printer but I am lost.

[PrintDoc]

You can test it by disabling the McAfee firewall temporarily.

[lmrutten]

Can you explain what is the "host machine" versus the "remote machine"? I have a similar problem- Officejet 6500 hardwired to wireless router, PC connected to router wirelessly CAN print with no trouble, but MAC (which is hardwired to wireless router but not connected to printer with USB cable) is giving me the same error messages described by the last subscriber (either "network busy", or "printer paused" or "copying print data"). HELP!!

[PrintDoc]

Host vs. remote has to do with a computer that is sharing its USB-connected printer (the host) with other computers (remotes).

On your Mac, let's reset the printing system:

- Go to System Preferences > Print & Fax
- Right (or control) click in the rectangle listing your printers and select Reset Printing System.
WARNING - this will delete ALL of your printers!
- Select the plus sign to re-add a printer. Look for the printer, select it and wait until the "Add" button becomes available. Click it.

[lmrutten]

So I did reset the printing system as you suggested, but when I clicked on the plus sign to re-add the printer, my printer was not there as an option to add- the box was blank. I tried to do a search with the printer's name, but nothing came up. Same thing happened when I tried to install the printer software on the mac- the printer did not come  up as an option to install, and when I tried to add it with its IP address, it gave me the message that the IP address was invalid (even though it was the IP address provided by the printer when I went into setup, wired network summaray). Interestingly, when I look at the devices on the network from my PC (which IS able to print wirelessly to the printer), I see both the printer and the PC computer, but not my mac. I am feeling sooo frustrated!! This shouldn't be this difficult... I just recently upgraded from an officejet 6500 to an officejet 6500A. My older version 6500 had no difficulty printing with this exact same setup- not sure why all the trouble now!