Vista can't keep up with network printer

[John in SFValle]

I have a network printer. Five of my computers, with Windows XP, can print to it just fine. My computer running Windows Vista Home Premium gets confused and thinks the printer is "offline".
The network assigns an IP address each time the printer is started up - I know that is the cause of the problem. The XP computers are all able to find the new IP address each time, and have no problem printing to the network printer. But the Vista computer cannot keep up with a change in IP address.
Each time I have this problem, Vista reports that the network printer is "offline". Then I uninstall the printer (on Vista computer) and reinstall it as a network printer. Then it works fine, until the next time I turn the printer off and back on (at which time it gets a new IP address).

It's making me crazy, please - does anyone know why it's doing this?

[renegade600]

exactly what netwok printer? Did you install the proper printer vista drivers?

[John in SFValle]

It is an HP 2430dtn network printer. Not hooked up directly to any computer ports, only installed on the wired network as a network printer. All computers on the network access it through an IP address. It had to be installed on each of my networked computers.

On my new Vista computer, I have also installed this network printer. Vista has built-in drivers for it, and it has no problem finding the network printer and assigning an IP port to it from the Vista computer.

But, I have not reinstalled the network printer itself on the network. Is there something that i need to do with the HP printer from its internal menu?, independent of the Vista computer?

[Murf]

Make sure that NetBT is Enabled consistently.
Make sure that any third party firewalls are properly setup.
Make sure that name resolution is consistently setup.


By default, computers running Vista will set the Broadcast flag, in the DHCP Discover packets, On. If your DHCP server (NAT router, or non-Microsoft dedicated server) doesn't support DHCP Broadcast, you'll have a problem. To make your Vista computer compatible with Windows XP, (KB928233): turn the DHCP Broadcast flag Off (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/). Besides the DHCP Broadcast difference, be aware of an interesting (KB931550): timing difference between the Windows Vista and XP DHCP clients (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931550/).