[PLUG] Printer IP address

[Michael Barnes]

On Mon, Nov 4, 2019 at 5:12 PM Galen Seitz <galens at seitzassoc.com> wrote:

> On 11/4/19 3:44 PM, Rich Shepard wrote:
> > I think that I've discovered why I cannot communicate with the Dell
> C1760nw
> > printer. Using the printer's control panel I printed out a page of its
> > settings and noticed that it has an apparently hard-wired IP address of
> > 169.254.98.111. No wonder I can't ping it using the LAN IP address!
> >
> > However, when I ping that address I see this:
> >
> > $ ping 169.254.98.111
> > PING 169.254.98.111 (169.254.98.111) 56(84) bytes of data.
> >  From 74.42.148.191 icmp_seq=1 Destination Net Unreachable
>
> FYI, the 169.254 address is a link-local address.
>
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-local_address>
>
>
> galen
> --
>
Galen Seitz
> galens at seitzassoc.com
>

Far from an expert here, but in my experience, most 169.254.x.x type
addresses indicate the DHCP client in the printer was unable to pull an
address, so it assigns one of these "dummy" addresses. While some printers
can have a static address assigned, every one I have personally dealt with
used DHCP and a dynamic address. Pseudo "fixed" addresses were actually
assigned by the DHCP server based on the printer (or other peripheral) MAC
address.
If the printer is giving itself a 168.254.x.x address, I would check the
network connections and be sure the printer can see the DHCP server to
request an IP address lease.

My $.0002

Michael