Sharing printers

[Edu-IT]

We've got a printer that is connected directly to a computer and sharing is enabled. At 4pm the printer becomes unavailable but no restrictions have been set. Any ideas why this?

[contink]

Stupid question but it's got to be asked...

Is the computer it's connected to being turned off?

[Ryan]

That'd be the obvious one! The printer has to be turned on (can be on but logged off) to serve the printer to the network.

[Edu-IT]

No, the computer is left on. That was the first thing I checked too.

[contink]

No, the computer is left on. That was the first thing I checked too.

I assumed it would be but it's always the "obvious" things that leave us looking red faced

Ok... next up..
- is anything else in that room/area becoming "unavailable"
- is a cleaner unplugging the printer every evening to use the socket
- have you checked the local permissions for the system
- is it always bang on at 4pm?

I'll be honest I'm guessing like fury here but it might shake something free.

[Gerry]

Can you ping the PC it's connected to? Can it print after 4pm?
Is PC going into standby?

[dave.81]

*Dam my slow connection****

[Michael]

The obvious one is right click a printer > Properties > Advanced tab.

Check no time limits have been set. I can't see what else is causing this behaviour unless there's some third party software installed?

[Edu-IT]

I'm not usually here at the time so I can't answer some of those questions however I will probably hang around one night and see it for myself. It is happening regularly though. It's weird.

I will check to see whether the computer is set to go into standby. I know for sure that no time restrictions have been set as I checked that before posting.

Ok... next up..
- is anything else in that room/area becoming "unavailable"
- is a cleaner unplugging the printer every evening to use the socket
- have you checked the local permissions for the system
- is it always bang on at 4pm?

No, the computers still function in the room as expected and they're connected to the network so I am assuming that everything else is unaffected.

I don't think the cleaners would unplug the printer as the socket isn't easily accessible. There are also empty sockets around the room which can be used.

What permissions should I be checking?

The screenshot I have shows that the printer becomes unavailable at 4.01pm and as I previously mentioned this happens frequently.

[Michael]

You could try deleting and re-creating the printer. As long as you share it using the same share name, your other workstations will still be able to print to it

You don't have anything along the lines of Print Manager Plus or some other printer management tool? If the printer allows you to connect to it by browser using an IP address, I'd check there's nothing on the printer firmware itself stopping printing after 4pm.

[Edu-IT]

I'll do what you've suggested, delete and recreate the printer. I can't think of anything else to check.

[eean]

An odd one...
Try connecting to the computer's admin share (\\computername\c$). Check this works before 4pm then try it after when the printer is not working. That might give you a clue as to whether it's something to do with the network.

It's there's not something daft like windows update or a virus scanner updating itself at that time (not that it should matter, of course).

[Edu-IT]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll take a lot tomorrow and try and hang around after school to see what happens at 4pm.

[Geoff]

Other thing that comes to mind is that you may be hitting the 10 connection limits in XP. You can verify this by checking the connections section of the computer management mmc. Also, there will be errors in the system event log complaining about it

[Edu-IT]

Other thing that comes to mind is that you may be hitting the 10 connection limits in XP. You can verify this by checking the connections section of the computer management mmc. Also, there will be errors in the system event log complaining about it

That's a good point and one which I didn't think about. I don't think ten people would all try to print at the same time though. I take it that they need to be printing in order to be counted as a connection?