problems setting up printer

[Vogon]

Hi,

I cannot get the printer server to work on my WL500g. The printer is a Brother HL1250 (USB connection), which is one of the approved printers.

I have followed the instructions in the manual; the printer setup wizard does not detect the printer (just the printer server), and I have to select it manually. The wizard then finishes without complaint, although the test page does not print. The printer is not detected in the "printer" column of the device discovery program, and does not register in the router's status page ("offline").

Can anyone suggest anything to try? I am using official 1.7.5.6 firmware. I haven't tried the customised versions as I am wary of experimenting with such things, but if they are likely to help, I will give them a go.

Lastly, if I ever do manage to get this to work, my next question would be whether it is possible to share the printer to the WAN as well as the LAN? The WAN input of my WL500g is connected to a port on my principal router (which has an ADSL modem and connects to the internet). All of my computers come off the main router; I only use the WL500g for the wireless connections. Is it possible for all the computers to have access to the printer?

Many thanks in advance for any help.

[Oleg]

Probably you will never get an answer for official firmwares... Nobody knows how thier printing stuff does work - there is no sources available for printing stuff. Personally, I've fixed several ASUS errors in the published USB printing module, which affected several printers, including Brother.
You may want to try custom firmware, at least Brother 1430 does work with custom firmwares. There is also a how-to available here.

[Styno]

Hi,

I cannot get the printer server to work on my WL500g. The printer is a Brother HL1250 (USB connection), which is one of the approved printers.

I have followed the instructions in the manual; the printer setup wizard does not detect the printer (just the printer server), and I have to select it manually. The wizard then finishes without complaint, although the test page does not print. The printer is not detected in the "printer" column of the device discovery program, and does not register in the router's status page ("offline").

Well, that shoud've worked *if the printer is OK by Asus*, but I don't have experience with that as I've allways used the curstom firmware which uses a more general printing method.

Can anyone suggest anything to try? I am using official 1.7.5.6 firmware. I haven't tried the customised versions as I am wary of experimenting with such things, but if they are likely to help, I will give them a go.

I would like to recommend a custom release (Firmware v1.7.5.6 CR2 or CR3 [Oleg]) because there's very litte risk in updating while the printer is most probably going to work (better and faster) with the customized versions than with the original firmware.

Lastly, if I ever do manage to get this to work, my next question would be whether it is possible to share the printer to the WAN as well as the LAN? The WAN input of my WL500g is connected to a port on my principal router (which has an ADSL modem and connects to the internet). All of my computers come off the main router; I only use the WL500g for the wireless connections. Is it possible for all the computers to have access to the printer?

This might work allright if you just forward the nessesary ports to the LAN-side ip address of the router using the websetup of the WL500g.

[Vogon]

Thanks for the replies.

I've now tried the latest firmware (CR5) and it didn't make a difference.
I also tried switching off the WinXP firewall & it made some difference - I now get an error message when I try and print as follows:
"Can not create connection with server
Please check your connections
Attention! This print job will be deleted"
Before, there was no error message.
The printer still doesn't show up in the device discoverer or on the router status page. I am running out of ideas.....

[Oleg]

Please DO NOT USE ASUS printing programs with custom firmware. It will not work until you strictly follow custom firmware printing how-to. I'm really disappointed with the fact that everyone tries to invent own way in printer setup, while I've already said several time NEVER USE ASUS PRINTING STUFF, you need to setup you printer differently, just like described in how-to and/or linux router page.
If you can't follow these instructions it's better not to use custom firmwares at all.

[Vogon]

OK, sorry, I have now installed the printer as per the how to.

Still no good. The printer is still not listed in the status page or in the device discoverer. When I print, there is an error message "The document failed to print" and in the print queue the status cycles between "Printing" and "Error - Printing - Restarting".

[Oleg]

If you printer is not listed in the test page you will not be able to print. Can you please post system logs here? Probably you've problems with cabling.

[Vogon]

Oleg, I think you must be right about it being a cabling problem - thanks. I tried using a parallel cable connection to the printer and it worked fine! Odd, since I have used the USB cable for some time without any problems. I am happy using a parallel cable, so that's fine.

Since I am using the WL500g within an existing network and want all computers to be able to share the printer, I have changed it to "access point" mode, which seems to work fine - all my WinXP computers can now print, whether they are connected to the WL500g or to my main router.

The only remaining problem I have is one computer which is running WinMe. The Add Printer dialogue boxes are different, and I can't see how to set it to print to the WL500g as per your how to. Can you help with this?

Thanks

[Oleg]

See linux router project page or make a search on axis print monitor.

[Oleg]

Also, you may want to return to official ASUS firmware, it should work also. But remember to reinstall printer according to ASUS instructions.

[Vogon]

Thanks Oleg, it all works fine now, using Axis print monitor and the customised firmware.

Hooray!

[wpte]

Hey oleg, I got a litle different problem with my printer..
the printer shows up for just a few secs on the status page, after that it just dissappears with a timeout:

Jan 8 00:16:27 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 01:03.0-2, assigned address 11
Jan 8 00:16:27 kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Jan 8 00:16:27 kernel: hub.c: 2 ports detected
Jan 8 00:16:27 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 01:03.0-2.1, assigned address 12
Jan 8 00:16:28 kernel: usb.c: USB device 12 (vend/prod 0x43d/0x7c) is not claimed by any active driver.
Jan 8 00:16:28 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 01:03.0-2.2, assigned address 13
Jan 8 00:16:28 kernel: printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 13 if 0 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x043D pid 0x007B
Jan 8 00:16:28 kernel: printer.c: usblp0 Device ID string [104]='MFG:Lexmark ;CMD:CPDNPA001;MODEL:X1100 Series;CLASS:Printer;DES:Lexmark X1100 Series;COMMENT:030305-1;'
Jan 8 00:18:28 kernel: printer.c: usblp0 Device ID string [104/max 1552]='MFG:Lexmark ;CMD:CPDNPA001;MODEL:X1100 Series;CLASS:Printer;DES:Lexmark X1100 Series;COMMENT:030305-1;'
Jan 8 00:18:28 kernel: printer.c: Parsing USBLPID...
Jan 8 00:18:53 kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout

The fixes you made... is it possible that you made a litle bug with that? because the printer works fine on the official asus firmware (however nearly everything doesnt...)
I have firmware 1.9.2.7-7g for the premium
any idea?

p.s. thanks for saving my router, wich I nearly smashed out the window thanks to the asus people