Some of my network printers won't print

I came into work today and found that I can't print to three of my five network printers (two Oki printers and one HP). In fact, I cannot even ping their IP addresses. (I get "Request timed out" or "Destination host unreachable."

One of the printers that I can't ping is my main printer, and I verified its IP address using the printer's built-in menu (it prints out a page with the network status).

I re-installed that main printer's drivers using the manufacturer's CD. The program says that the drivers installed correctly, but I still cannot print. This printer normally has a static IP address (192.168.1.203). I used the printer's menu to obtain an automatic IP address and it came back with 169.254.92.26, which I think means that the printer can't communicate with my router.

The HP printer is wireless. The other four printers are plugged into a 16-port hub. The two wired non-working Oki printers are showing green status light as well as amber light at the point where the ethernet cable is plugged in.

I'm out of ideas so any assistance you could offer would be helpful. Could this be a new year's bug?

 

http://thedailyreviewer.com/windowsxp/view/connecting-printer-to-network-108270914

scroll down to answer 2 half way down that

 

Thanks for the link to that site. However I don't think I have the same issue as that person on that site. I am able to use the printer's menu to force the IP address to what I want it to be. The IP address is set to what I want, and the printer appears to be connected to the network (the ethernet lights in the back of the printer are on), but I can't ping the printer.

 

someone will pick you up there are some very good people on this site with networking totally geeky so hang fire

 

Update: Now when I ping the printer, some of the packets go through, so I'm not sure what's going on.


C:\Users\Mike>ping -t 192.168.1.203
Pinging 192.168.1.203 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.203: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.203:
Packets: Sent = 15, Received = 7, Lost = 8 (53% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

 

Update!

My printer can print now! The printer begain working on its own, without any intervention. As you could see from the previous message, first ping started to work intermittently. Then ping would work without dropping any packets. Then, a few hours later, I could go to the printer's IP address interface. An hour after that, I was able to print.

I didn't do anything in the meantime to fix anything. If anyone has any idea why this happened, please chime in to help anyone else who might come across this thread in the future. I'd also like to know, so that I can fix it more quickly next time, instead of losing half a day.