I recently did an IT Service call to repair some printer issues on a network of Macintosh Desktops and Laptops.
Fortunately the problems themselves were relatively easy to solve. My only issue with Mac is the considerable time it takes to uninstall and reinstall printer drivers.
On the first computer the issue was the printer connection had apparently been repaired only to fail again. It was a network printer I was dealing with. It was using a DHCP client to retrieve it’s IP address and a network name was used to allow the desktop computer to connect to it. Unfortunately DHCP addresses tend to change.
My solution was to configure the network printer for a “static” IP address in some unused area of the network range (i.e. 192.168.1.250). Once this was done I configured the desktop to connect to the printer via this address directly rather than a network name. So far the connection has remained stable and I’ve not heard any complaints.
The Macbook was a different issue. Although I did use the “static” IP as I did the first problem. The issue wasn’t network related but rather the USB connection on the printer had failed. While considering what other printer could be used I stumbled across a bluetooth network option on the printer. The Macbook had a built in bluetooth adapter so I created a small local network between the Macbook and the printer using the bluetooth adapter and a static IP. The computer printed to the printer just fine.
I’ve never used bluetooth in this manner before so it was nice to know (for the future) that this could be an option if necessary.
Visit our IT Service page.
Contact Us for more information or to set an appointment.
