Hi there.

I have an Epson Stylus C61 Colour Printer. I connected it (via LPT1) to my sister's old PC which runs Windows 98. All worked fine. I then hooked it up to my new PC which runs XP home via LPT1 ... also good.

Then I created a small home network via a D-Link Ethernet broadband router. Network works good, internet connectivity is great but now when we print, the printer seems to acknowledge the info with a range of noises ... even starting to print the document, then stops.

Once we restart the printer, the printer will print all day long. But the most annoying thing is that the Epson has a "Status Monitor" which tells the user how much ink is left. This info is "unavailable", blank, nothing. It's as though the network will not allow comms from the printer back to the PC.

What do you reckon?

Thanks

Steve Mal, Penrith, NSW

In my view, it would be better to change two facets of your current setup. Firstly, it would be better to have the printer connected via USB rather than the parallel port, and secondly it would be better to have the printer connected to the Windows XP system.

I’d suggest you uninstall the printer from both systems, close down your systems, reboot the router, start the systems up again and reinstall the printer on the Windows XP system. Set it as ‘shared’. Ensure that you download and use the latest driver version from the Epson website, rather than the version included on the installation CD. Then add it to the Windows 98 system as a network printer. To do that, follow these instructions:

• Choose Start, Settings, Printers
• Run Add Printer, click on Next, and choose ‘Add Network Printer’.
• Choose ‘Browse’ to locate the printer on the other system. (The Windows XP system will need to be operating, of course, and your simple network already set up with File and Printer Sharing enabled.)
• Ensuring that the name of the network printer remains highlighted in the box, choose ‘Yes’ to set it as the default printer for the Windows 98 system, and follow the prompts to print a test page and verify that it is working.

I’d also suggest you uninstall and reinstall Status Monitor 3 on both systems, ensuring that you use the version for the particular Windows version as appropriate. There are different versions of the utility for Windows 9x and for Windows 2000/XP.


First, however, I’d also have to ask this:

Is the printer really not functioning when you first try to use it? Accessing a network printer is a slower process than accessing a connected printer. From my own experience with the Canon printer I use on my own home network, I’m well aware that initial communication can take so long that the network PC used to access it can even generate a “Printer not ready” error, even though the printer really is! Wait for the print request to be processed, and the error message goes away!

Also, if you are insistent on having the printer physically installed to the Windows 98 PC via the printer port, check BIOS Setup on that system to ensure the setting for printer port is ECP, EPP, or ECP + EPP, rather than LPT1. If the port is set to LPT1, it will not enable bi-directional communication, and that would stop the reporting utility from working. In this event, of course, you will need to add the network printer to the Windows XP system.

I hope that proves helpful, Steve. You’ll find further information in other HelpStation questions and answers if you need assistance with configuring your network.

Cheers,

Terry O'Shanassy