Why cant my acer timeline connect to epson wireless printer

[widget2012]

Works:
I have a Dell Dimension (XP Pro) Ethernet-cabled to Thomson router, which is my wireless network access point. Ipad and phones connect to this Thomson wirelessly no problem. I, also, have an Epson BX305, and this is successfully connected wirelessly to the Thomson router. The Dell Dimension prints to this printer no problem. Finally, I have an Acer TimelineX (Windows 7) wirelessly connected to Thomson router no problem.

Does NOT work:
The Acer cannot see the Epson printer on the network. I absolutely must be able to print from the laptop, but I can't get it to even see the thing.

 

[MikaelO]

Try pinging the router from the Acer to make sure that the router connection is healthy.

Then go into the router and look up the printer IP address. Then try pinging that IP from both the Dell and the Acer.

You should also try to ping the Dell laptop from the Acer, just to make sure they are on the same subnets.

These things are not going to fix anything, just establish wether or not you actually have a connection and help you to the next troubleshooting step.

Looking up the BX305 on the web, I wonder if it behaves the same way as eg HP c7280 - for that printer it is not enough to have the IP address, you actually have to install their software package which, during installation will do the work of finding and connecting to the printer. Could ity be that simple?

 

[widget2012]

Try pinging the router from the Acer to make sure that the router connection is healthy.

Then go into the router and look up the printer IP address. Then try pinging that IP from both the Dell and the Acer.

You should also try to ping the Dell laptop from the Acer, just to make sure they are on the same subnets.

These things are not going to fix anything, just establish wether or not you actually have a connection and help you to the next troubleshooting step.

Looking up the BX305 on the web, I wonder if it behaves the same way as eg HP c7280 - for that printer it is not enough to have the IP address, you actually have to install their software package which, during installation will do the work of finding and connecting to the printer. Could ity be that simple?

Thank you for your reply, MikaelO!

Here are the ping results (from the Acer to the router):
Pinging 192.168.nn.nnn with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.nn.nnn: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.nn.nnn: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.nn.nnn: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.nn.nnn: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.nn.nnn:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 2ms


Before I submitted this problem, I had used the BX305's disk to load their software and find the printer. Meanwhile, in my attempts to do that, I lost wireless printing from the Dell desktop. I now have it USB-cabled.


I can access the router from the Acer laptop, via its URL address, but I do not know how to "look up the printer IP address." I got an IP address from the printer's Network Status printout, but when I try to ping it, I get:
Pinging 192.168.nn.n with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.nn.n: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.nn.n: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.nn.n: Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.nn.n: Destination host unreachable.

Ping statistics for 192.168.nn.n:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),


Thx, again.
Guy

 

[MikaelO]

To look up the printer IP in the router, you need to log in as admin. Probably the first screen you get to will have a list of all devices connected to the router. Getting the IP from your printer is a start, but you also want to make sure that the router sees the printer - i.e. that the IP exists in the router table.
Since you masked the last two groups of the IP, we can't see if the Acer and the printer are on the same subnet. Just FYI, the IPs your router assigns are not public, so even if you share them here, there is no security risk to you.
What we need to understand is if your Dell, the router, the Acer and the printer share the same first three groups in the IP address. If they are different, that is your problem.

 

[MikaelO]

I just realized something: you wrote that you now have the BX305 connected to the Dell via USB. This could very well be the problem - a lot of printers that offer multiple ways to connect, only allow one mode of connection a time, so when you connected it via USB to your Dell, you probably disabled the printer's wifi. I tried finding the BX305 user's guide on-line but I couldn't - otherwise I could have said for sure whether connecting the USB disables wifi.
If you are OK with having the printer connected to your Dell, you may mitigate your problem by making the printer a "shared printer" in the printer configuration.

 

[widget2012]

Thx. I already had configured the printer to be shared. The USB cable was not the issue as I had the connection problems before that came into the picture. I am going to shut everything down and try from scratch. This time, though, I might try to set up the printer from the Acer laptop.