HP P2055 reconfiguring themselves

[aellath]

Hello! For the last couple years my district has had a huge push to get laptops to each student and a printer and Promethean board in each classroom. they're doing it bit by bit, so this is year two. The hardware is the aforementioned Promethean board, Lenovo Netbooks, and HP P2055dn printers. If the rooms has a printer of an acceptable model, then we don't replace it, though. The servers run Active Directory and the print queues are hosted on each school's server and published in the directory, so we don't have to deal with installing drivers on workstations (which are locked down as tight as possible). This school year (started in 09/2010), we've switched to Dynamic DNS for addressing, as we are running out of IPs.

 

That's the background. Last year's batch of HP2055s had a party trick of what i called 'going walkabout' -- the printer would just suddenly lose its static IP and reset itself to DHCP. Annoying at first, then i could deal with it (i'm the one in charge of remotely configuring and managing the printers and queues) and came to expect it. A firmware update seems to have corrected the problem -- applied via USB by techs going out to each site and each printer with a laptop and USB cable. We discovered the hard way that me doing it remotely through WJA often caused more problems than solved (the printers - just this model! - would be left unusable until someone could go out and reapply the update). Those printers were the last of the static-assigned IPs. so once i knew where they'd wandered, i'd just corral them back to where they belonged and hey, presto - printing.

 

This year, we've switched to DDNS and all printing is done through hostnames. so i get the DHCP IP of the printers as they're installed, configure them with the settings and names we want, then i have to wait at least a day until the DNS server is aware of the hostname, *then* i can connect the AD queue and the printer hostname. Oh, joyous rupture.

 

This batch of HP2055s trick is to spontaneously switch to manual IP. The printers that do this *keep* their DHCP IPs, but because their IP configuration is 'manual', they never talk to the DNS server, which means the hostname never becomes active. At first i thought it was just an overzealous site tech wanting to keep control, but it happened too many places, too randomly (if it were a site tech, the entire batch delivered to that site would've changed, yes? not just a room here or there!).

 

So now i've had to add a step: IF hostname doesn't ping, THEN check last-known IP and TCP/IP configuration. Reset back to DHCP if necessary, check hostname next day.

 

Has anyone else had problems like this? i don't know if anyone else is using hostnames to print; i think you'd only notice this if you left the printer on DHCP but needed the hostname (if you're printing via Bonjour to Macs, you wouldn't notice, because manual or DHCP, the Bonjour name is immediately available on the network).

 

Other than last year's speciality and this year's new trick, these seem to be good printers. Just wish HP'd been honest about the fact that the toner it ships with is small-capacity; when they ran out much earlier than expected, many of our smaller schools did not have the budget to replace the cartridges! 8(

 

Thanks in advance for any ideas, assistance, comments -- whatever. 8D

[morganw]

When you say dynamic DNS do you mean each client is responsible for it's own DNS updates, or is the DHCP server updating DNS when addresses are leased?

You could try DHCP reservations rather than static IP addresses and then connect the printers to the servers with a standard TCP/IP port, then just leave everything else on DHCP with no reservations.

[aellath]

When you say dynamic DNS do you mean each client is responsible for it's own DNS updates, or is the DHCP server updating DNS when addresses are leased?

 

DHCP server updating DNS when the addresses are leased. i've discovered that the hostname will continue to map to the old DHCP IP until the DNS catches up (i know because the site will give me the current IP).

 

You could try DHCP reservations rather than static IP addresses and then connect the printers to the servers with a standard TCP/IP port, then just leave everything else on DHCP with no reservations.

 

i have no control over this. i just implement what i'm told to. >sigh<

 

i've also been told that it SHOULD NOT be at least a day between my configuring the hostname and it becoming usable, but hey, there it is. Now we're getting reports of broken printing because the schools turned their printers off over spring break last week -- they're coming back and turning the printers back on; the lease is up so the printer gets a new IP: either the DNS is still pointing to the old IP, or has forgotten about the printer altogether.

 

Again, i'm told that there should be only a momentary delay between the new assignment and the DNS knowing about it, but . . . >megasigh<

[plexer]

Is dhcp set to dynamically update a and ptr records?

 

You say apart from this the printers are ok but that is a major issue.

 

Ben

[aellath]

Is dhcp set to dynamically update a and ptr records?

 

You say apart from this the printers are ok but that is a major issue.

 

Ben

 

huh. beyond my ken. my concern is the spontaneous shifting of the printers to manual IP. i'll ask the guy who can tell me, though.

[plexer]

That could be your problem with dns not being updated with the new ip.

 

Dns should not take a day to update.

 

Ben

[morganw]

Our primary DNS and DHCP are on the same server and updates between the two are just a few seconds apart, if it takes a day to update DNS records then something is wrong with your configuration or something is interfering with it.

 

The only problems I've had were when clients actually tried to update DNS themselves and the reverse lookups got messed up as they were already set via DHCP (normal Windows workstations won't do this but things like Apple's AD directory services plug-in will).

 

Are your DNS and DHCP systems all windows based and integrated with AD?

(and are these under your control?)

[aellath]

Is dhcp set to dynamically update a and ptr records?

 

You say apart from this the printers are ok but that is a major issue.

 

Ben

 

From the guru: "Yes, it is."

 

hope that helps.

[aellath]

Our primary DNS and DHCP are on the same server and updates between the two are just a few seconds apart, if it takes a day to update DNS records then something is wrong with your configuration or something is interfering with it.

Are your DNS and DHCP systems all windows based and integrated with AD?

(and are these under your control?)

 

No joke. i keeping being told it shouldn't tak ethat long -- half-hour at most. Laugh.

 

yes, i believe they are and integrated with AD, and NO not under my control; that's Datacomm's purview. i'm just a hardware tech turned print magician . . .

[morganw]

Have you got some kind of service level agreement with them? There are a lot of services that can be broken and you can soldier on but if your DNS isn't reliable then your network won't be either.

[RabbieBurns]

Is this thread related?

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/36047-hp-laserjet-p2055dns-going-offline-not-responding.html

[aellath]

Have you got some kind of service level agreement with them? There are a lot of services that can be broken and you can soldier on but if your DNS isn't reliable then your network won't be either.

 

"Service level agreement"? Datacomm is another group in the same department. it's all in-house.

 

i'm constantly pestering them about this. My main focus here was about the spontaneous switching to manual TCP/IP settings from DHCP.

[aellath]

Is this thread related?

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/36047-hp-laserjet-p2055dns-going-offline-not-responding.html

 

read that whole thread. No, because the printers don't go offline, they're still perfectly functional *if* someone's printing IP to them (not through the AD print queue, which points to the hostname). It's just that they have switched themselves to manual TCP/IP, instead of the DHCP they start with out-of-the-box, and thus never register their hostnames with the server.

[morganw]

Try putting one on a UPS and see if it holds the settings.

[localzuk]

Try putting one on a UPS and see if it holds the settings.

 

This is generally a bad idea. You can seriously damage your UPS doing this, due to the current pulled by laser printers during startup. If you do wish to do this, make sure you research the power draw carefully to ensure you don't break anything.

[morganw]

Maybe try and get one on it's own circuit instead then.

[aellath]

huh. just happened w/a HP2055 i configured yesterday afternoon. fine then; now switched to manual. yaaarrrgh!

 

the dns dude is supposed to be on w/MS regarding DNS/DHCP issue sometime this week. Hopue it works out; got some printers w/new DHCP IPs but the DNS is still pointing to the old IPs. quite unhappy teachers!