[PLUG] Printer IP address [UPDATE]

Ben Koenig techkoenig at gmail.com
Tue Nov 5 16:18:03 UTC 2019


Since he's running slackware, IP addresses are set by 1 of 3 functions:
1) /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 runs at boot time and manually configures network
interfaces
2) The system has been configured to run NetworkManager (meaning that
/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf is left at defaults)
3) WICD has been installed and is being used as a drop in replacement for
NetworkManager

The only other option is to manually run ifconfig/ip/dhcpcd/dhclient
commands when you want to connect to your network. Nobody does this anymore
since we run shell scripts that run the commands for us (e.g. rc.inet1).
This process is not hugely different from any other distro, so to be Frank
here, any other methods being used to configure IP addresses and subnets
are probably incorrect and should replaced with one of the options above.
Of course, there are fringe use cases where the word "incorrect" becomes
very subjective.


On Tue, Nov 5, 2019 at 7:24 AM Michael Barnes <barnmichael at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 5, 2019 at 5:51 AM Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com>
> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 4 Nov 2019, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> >
> > > In all my years of printing from computers to printers over a network,
> > > I've never run into a printer whose IP address could not be changed
> > > from the printer's control panel.
> >
> > John,
> >
> > My experiences over the past couple of decades is the opposite: I've
> never
> > had a printer with a built-in IP address. Of course, the Okidata
> dot-matrix
> > printer wasn't network-enabled, but the laser and inkjet printers all
> > were/are and the IP address is set in /etc/hosts, not on the printer.
> Then
> > again, my printers have been HP (and a Brother which I gave to a new
> home).
> >
> > Rich
> >
>
> I'm getting really confused here. The /etc/hosts file is not for setting IP
> addresses on devices. It is to translate domain names to IP addresses (DNS
> function), usually for local testing. For example, if I want to test a web
> page at foo.bar, I would make an entry in my /etc/hosts file like:
>
> 172.16.2.10    foo.bar
>
> Then I could go to my browser and point it to foo.bar and it would take me
> to the host at 172.16.2.10 and display the web page there. Or I could
> connect to the host with ssh foo.bar instead of remembering to ssh
> 172.16.2.10.
>
> You could also use it to give names to your devices:
> 172.16.2.30     Printer1
> 172.16.2.31     Printer2
> 172.16.2.32     Camera5
> 172.16.2.33     Refrigerator
>
> This means that these devices must have static addresses for this to work.
> If they had dynamic addresses and their lease changed to give them a new
> address, then your /etc/hosts file is toast.
>
> Static addresses are set one of two ways. The device itself (printer,
> computer, refrigerator, whatever) is programmed in its own configuration
> for its IP address. Or, the address is assigned by the DHCP server in its
> config file by MAC address, so any time that MAC address comes on line
> requesting an address, it is always given the same one.
>
> Again, it has been a while since I set up networking. If any of this has
> changed, some one please educate me.
>
> Michael
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