Cannot Ping or Connect to Printer from Only One System.

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Guest

Windows 2003 Server, Windows XP. I have a very peculiar problem. All the
systems in my network, except two, can access (ping) two of my network
printers. I have a new Dell server and my desktop station that cannot ping
these two printers. The server and desktop can ping other addresses and
printers, just not these two. It is not the switch I am plugged into, as I
have tried my laptop on the same ports and can ping everything. What might
be causing this problem of two systems not being able to ping just two
addresses?

P.S. I ran into this problem as I was trying to connect my network printers
to my new server. Two of my four printers connected just fine, but two did
not. That is when I tried the ping and found it did not work for the two
printers. Help!
 
The problem appears to have been that the two printers in question had a
different subnet mask (255.255.255.224) than the rest of the net
(255.255.255.0). When I reconfigurred the printers (an HP 8100N and Lexmark
Optra L) to the proper subnet mask, then I was able to access the printers
from all systems. What baffles me, but for now is moot, is why only two out
of our twenty systems had a problem accessing the printers.

Lesson learned:

When you place a new server on your net, and you want to make the new server
the print server, make sure that your printers are configured with the right
subnet mask and that the printers have their default gateway set to the new
server's IP address.
 
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