Brother MFC-4600 and network

  • Thread starter Thread starter cavin
  • Start date Start date
C

cavin

I have an older MFC-4600 which I'm trying to network in a
home network. I'm using a printserver.

The MFC-4600 has only parallel port access and I find
that only computer that have been connected directly to
the printer before, which activates plug and play, loads
the driver when I add the printer.

Unfortunately, I have a computer that has no parallel
port and the MFC-4600 does not come up as having a signed
driver in the 'add printer' although XP seems happy to
recognize it on the other machines that had been
connected.

The CD does not list XP as one of the options and the
Brother site only offers suggestions for plug and play
activation of inbox drivers.

Any suggestions on how I can add this printer to this
computer which lacks a parallel port and therefore cannot
be connected to the printer to activate plug and play?

Cavin
 
I Recently ran into the same problem. From what I can
understand, Brother and Microsoft have "built in" drivers
in Windows XP for many Brother Printers. I have the MFC-
8300.

At first I was like "cool" this will be easy to install
my MFC-8300 on a Print Server. However, when I went
through the process of Adding the port, I ran into the
situation that the driver is not "signed", or it was not
in the list, and Brother had no drivers I could download.

BUT BROTHER CLAIMS THEY ARE BUILT IN ????

So, what I figured out, was to plug the printer into the
computer (in my case the USB cable, in your case the
parallel cable) and let the Plug and Play take over.

This installed the Driver into the printer "Server
Properties". (IE do a Control Panel - Printers and Faxes -
File - Server Properties)

I was dumb founded to see a MFC-8600 in the list. (I am
not sure why MFC-8600 was there versus MFC-8300, but who
cares, I was able to print.)

Then what I did, was unplugged the USB cable, plugged the
Printer back into the Print Server, installed the port,
then somehow was able to keep the existing driver. (I did
this by somehow hitting the back button during the
install.)

Anyway, now my printer is on the Print Server, and it
works. I TOTALLY do not understand WHY Microsoft would
have "Built In" drivers, but NOT allow people to pick
from the list.

Hope this helped some, but I have a post out to see if I
can get an offical answer from Microsoft on this squirley
functionality.

Chris
 
If the printer is on the network and shared with correct permissions, XP
will automatically find it and share it.... therefore it will appear in your
Printers & Faxes pane in the Control Panel as AUTO Brother xxxx. It's
usually more of a problem when the network Administrator does not want a
particular network printer to appear on a particular PC.

Cari
www.coribright.com
 
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