We have struggled with oddball printing issues several times. I think I may have posted about it here before. Yes. Here it is.http://computerhaven.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=643

Sometimes one computer would get the Printer Offline message, but not another, sometimes none of them. I messed and finagled for hours, and then we might have a few months where things went smoothly. Then it would happen again. A few days ago, we started getting a C000 error. We turned the printer off and back on, and occasionally something would print, but the error was happening most of the time. According to a search, that error seemed to be something with the printhead, so we went out last night and bought a new printer. We set it up, printed test pages, went to bed. This morning my husband tried print something and got a "Printer Offline" message. I printed something from my laptop just fine.

Now we are wondering if the whole issue with the other one was something entirely different and we bought a new printer for nothing? I realize that these are totally different error messages, but we just seem to have mysterious printer issues over and over, and have never figured out why. That's why I'm posting this in the network section this time. If it's not where it should be, I'm sorry.

On our home network, we have:

Desktop machine, running Vista
2 laptops, both with Windows 7
Our sons also both have computers, but never print, though I think one may have set his up at one point

Belkin router

Old printer was a Canon MP620
New printer is an HP 8600

With the old printer, the big computer was wired, others were wireless. Now all are wireless. Desktop and my laptop both print fine.

I remember that we have gotten, a couple of random times (not when printing was messing up, I don't think) a message on the desktop that there is an IP address conflict--could that be the issue?

Likely is the IP address conflict. Does your router allow you to assign "static" addresses to your various computers? Mine does, and doing so solved all sorts of issues here. (Not specifically printer ones.)

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock

I'm not sure how to fix that, which is why I kind of ignored it. Want to walk me through it?

Wondering if we should box this printer back up and take it straight back to the store? Except that we already put in the ink cartridges. sigh.

I can't walk you through it, as I don't have your router. See if you can find an online manual - though I doubt you can, and I doubt it would be any good.

You would go into the router, probably into advanced settings of some sort, and poke around. You're not going to turn off DHCP (Dynamic Host Control Protocol, which is what allows the router to automatically assign IP addresses) as far as I know; you're not changing your internet connection from your ISP to static either. Your router might give you the option to assign a static address to different devices on the network, it might call it static or it might call it reserved. You'll just have to see what you can find.

_________________
Patty MacDuffie
Computer Haven Administrator

Live Long and Prosper
Mr. Spock