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I have an Epson Stylus Pro 9900 printer that is directly connected via ethernet. When connecting the printer directly to the second ethernet port on the PC via a crossover cable, it works fine. When connecting the printer to the router (tried cat6 and crossover), it's not seen on the network.

The PC's internal IP is 192.168.0.xx (router). The printer's is 192.168.100.xx (direct crossover).

First question, why is the printer on a different network than the PC when connected directly? Is that because of the direct-connection? The crossover cable? Both? I assume bypassing the router is part of the reason, but unsure about the implications of the crossover cable.

Second question, any ideas why the PC can't see the printer on the network when it's plugged into the router? Again, tried cat6 and crossover from printer to the router. Maybe this printer model is only able to function via direct connection?

Looking at the printer's front panel, there are no options to set (or even view) it's IP address.

Jeff
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  • You have two subnets running. Why? Did you connect a router to the modem and then use ports on both? For many years router and modem ports have been autosensing and so cross over cables tend to get in the way in normal use. – John Oct 17 '20 at 15:37
  • This is my step-dad's setup. The printer is *very* old and so is the PC (running WinXP!). The PC and printer have been through many moves and connection configurations, but apparently Epson tech support told him he *must* use a crossover cable to be able to connect via ethernet. I should note I tried connecting the printer to two different PCs on the network via the router: a Win10 PC and the old WinXP PC. Neither worked. EDIT: Shouldn't the printer use the same subnet as the PC when plugged into the router? – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 15:41
  • "Shouldn't the printer use the same subnet as the PC when plugged into the router?" Yes it should but really old printers and XP cannot deal with modern gear because SMBv1 has gone. – John Oct 17 '20 at 15:46
  • "really old printers and XP cannot..." Understood. If I understand you correctly, this must be a limitation on the printer's side because even the Win10 machine wouldn't see it. – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 15:48
  • It is common for Windows 10 not to see really old printers. If possible, it is time to modernize the system: New printer for the Windows 10 machine, get the files from the XP machine and decommission it. – John Oct 17 '20 at 15:52
  • @John I totally agree. If this weren't a very expensive commercial printer, I'd take your advice. Need to try this first. Goal = plug printer into router, have Win10 see it. Easy peasy! I wish. – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 15:55
  • I feel your pain, we have a 9800 & 7800 pro stylus here. To be perfectly honest with you, these are a hassle to use the nic expansions. We wound up just using USB to RJ-45 adapters to have faux direct connections to them. The two models mentioned didn't work as expected anyway when we did network them, hangs & restarts were common place. The final setup was direct connecting them to a "print slave" machine so everyone could print to them. – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 17:02
  • @Tim_Stewart Didn't even know usb-to-rj45 was a thing, but I see them online now. My goal is to get this 9900 connected to the Win10 machine. I could keep trying to get the router to work or buy a new nic card and do the crossover direct connect. What do you think? – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 18:10
  • Well, I don't want to tell you that the Network expansion card is the way to go. Because if it performs for you how it did for us on the earlier gen printers, you are gonna want to kill me. Why not share it from the the XP machine to win-10? The USB adapters have been working fine here for the last 5 years or so. It really comes down to your setup and how you would prefer it to be connected. (BTW) don't listen to people about XP with these machines. Win-7, win-8 etc all treat photoshop files differently. We have the XP machine there because it has the original drivers for these machines. – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 18:20
  • So the original files that were created with xp, and xp drivers **do not** treat colors the same as ones created in win-7 and above. The best way to deal with that is just keeping the drivers around for those files that were created with them. I.E we remote desktop into the XP machine to print things that were created in XP, and use the network share from newer computers to print newer files with the newer print drivers. – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 18:32
  • Good info. My plan was to clone the XP machine to a VMware virtual machine, then install it on the Win10 machine. My thought was that if I could get the printer recognized on the Win10 machine, I could share it with the XP VM and retire the old XP box. The main goal is to retire the old XP box because it's going on 20 years old. So some kind of connection to the Win10 machine is required in my situation. Maybe I'll buy a NIC and an RJ45-to-USB adapter, although I didn't want to spend all day on this normally simple step. – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 18:36
  • Can't really comment on the VM. I had the same idea to consolidate some of the machines in our office to virtual. But for now, "don't fix what isn't broken" approach seems best. I'd love to hear how that works out for you though. You should only need one or the other, USB or NIC. Like you said, the new stylus series is $10000+... For us that's 18-20k to get rid of xp, doesn't really make sense. – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 18:45
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    I will definitely let you know. We also have a 7900 which also connected directly to the Win10 box via crossover with an off-subnet IP. Lots o' money. – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 18:56

1 Answers1

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First, for instructions on setting the IP address of the printer from the front panel, reference the Network Guide for this printer (I found it here:[https://files.support.epson.com/pdf/pro79_/pro79_ng.pdf] 1) on page 39. I strongly recommend trying DHCP configuration first.

The crossover cable (vs. straight-through / patch cable) should not impact the IP addresses usable by the printer. It may impact whether the two devices are able to communicate at all, however.

When you connect the printer directly to your computer, you may have configured the second ethernet port ("interface") on the computer (that the printer was plugged into) to have an IP address and network setting that permits communication. Alternatively, if you did literally no configuration, it may be that both (computer and printer) interfaces would auto-configure, and it does appear that the printer can afford some function in such a state.

Slartibartfast
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  • Great answer, thanks. "It may impact whether the two devices are able to communicate at all, however." This is the crux of my question. Why would Epson tech support tell me that it must be connected via crossover cable? Is this printer even capable of being plugged into a router and detected or *must* it be directly connected? I only ask because it's so old and am clueless. – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 15:53
  • Because the network expansion ports do not support mdix. It was the same way with the 9800 & 7800. These things are glorified x-y plotting machines. It's not all that old for these guy, our 9800 has over a million feet printed on it! They last for a long time if you take care of them. – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 17:22
  • Thanks @Tim_Stewart, can you tell me if this thing will work plugged into a router? Or must it be direct-connect? – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 18:03
  • I've been told that the next ones up are better with their peripherals. Do you get a link light on the router when you plug in the cross-over cable? – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 18:06
  • I did *not* get a light on the router when using the crossover, but I *did* with the cat6. – Jeff Oct 17 '20 at 18:10
  • So use the cat6, you should be able to set the the printer NIC to DHCP in the front menu. – Tim_Stewart Oct 17 '20 at 18:55
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    The printer is designed to connect to a router with "normal" (straight-through / patch) ethernet cable. So is your computer. When you connect two devices designed to connect directly to network equipment instead, you need to use a crossover cable. Essentially, the ethernet port in the router / switch is wired differently than your computers ethernet port. Modern computers / network cards support MDI-X (which @Tim_Stewart mentioned) which permits patch cables and crossover cables to work interchangeably. – Slartibartfast Oct 17 '20 at 19:37