[PLUG] Network Printer Debugging

[Richard C. Steffens]

Jason Martin wrote:
> On 5/24/07, Richard C. Steffens <rsteff at comcast.net> wrote:
>> What tool can I use to watch traffic on my LAN between my XP laptop and
>> my Brother MFC7820N printer? I'm trying to figure out if there is
>> something being sent to the printer that is giving it grief.
> 
> Wireshark (formerly Ethereal).  There is a Windows installer.
> 
> http://www.wireshark.org/

Thanks.

Last night I looked through the network tools available through YaST on
my SuSE 10.1 machine and found Ethereal. I installed it, but haven't
started reading the manual, yet.

I started this morning with the good old fashioned technique of
disconnecting all the cables, and then putting them back one at a time
until the problem showed up again.

First, I tried a crossover cable between my laptop (WinXP) and the
printer (Brother MFC7820N). Didn't work.

Then I tried just the laptop, the router (disconnected from the cable
modem), and the printer. That works.

When I added the link to the basement, the problem returned. In the
basement I have a switch connected to a Thinkpad 390 (Win98SE) and my
newly installed Slackware 11 machine. I disconnected the Slackware
machine and tried again. The problem went away. At least the problem
changed. I need to try again with only the printer, router, and laptop
and watch the LCD on the printer to be sure. But, at least printing
works again with the Slackware machine out of the picture. Getting real
work done has the priority at the moment, so I'll put off watching the
traffic with Ethereal, or maybe wireshark, until tomorrow.

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens