Printer appears offline even it’s alright

Hello

Most of our customers have print-server in their environment. They mostly install all network printers on one server and then use this print-server as a central point for printing. Windows does great job.

Problem: From time to time I find some printers in “offline” mode even they are allright. When you ping printer, it replies back to you. When you connect to its web, it’s working fine. But you still see it as “offline” printer. Restart of printer itself doesn’t help.

Solution: Problem is with SNMP protocol between printer and Windows server. Windows checks all information about printer (toner status, online/offline mode, paper out,…) using SNMP protocol. When you create network printer you normally use “Standard TCP/IP Port” and it sets, by default, SNMP protocol. It checks printer status using “public” community name and “1″ SNMP Device Index:

Standard TCP/IP port properties

So you can either debug what’s wrong with SNMP protocol between printer and print-server or you can just disable it and lose all detailed information about printer itself.