Ricoh Copier with Fiery Print Controller

Okay, here's what I've got -

My company recently bought a Ricoh Africo 551 copier, with a Fiery EB-70 print controller. Since it's able to print, it got dumped in my lap, being the IT guy and what not.

Anyway, the company that sold it to us came over and attempted to get it to work on Tuesday, but that didn't happen. The copier connect through a standard cat5 cable to our network, where it is then recognized just as an HP jet direct printer would be.

I've assigned an IP to it, set up the submask & the gateway, and I'm able to ping it from our any station on our network. I have attempted to install it & configured an LPR port on several different workstations, with no success. All stations will resolve the IP & the que name, and one running Windows XP will even recognize that it's an Africo 551 & install the proper drivers. But I can not print to this thing from anywhere on the network. It just sits there spooling the job endlessly, and will eventually time out.

We've got a 10/100 network here, everything connecting through an HP ProCurve 4000M switch. I've tried several different IPs and versions of the Fiery driver to get it to work, and got nothing. Even the "experts" from the company that sold it to us are stumped. They're sending their service guys out next week to try to install another print controller.

Does anyone have any experience with the Fiery EB-70 and/or the Africo 551? Just looking for some ideas...

I have seen some printers that have to have their own Print Utility running on each computer or the printer would not print. Not too familiar with your model though. Its just an idea....

Yeah, I kinda figured that too, at first...but the thing is, the software that came with it is only to be used in a 9x environment. Won't even attempt to install under any NT based OS. It uses standard TCP/IP printing services.

So I guess I'll just wait for these retardeds to take their sweet time getting here and see what they can figure out with it. :mad:

if you get this figured out cobra, can you post the solution? we're having the same problem here

Yeah, I'll post the solution here if and when this gets sorted out. This is very, very, very frustrating. :mad:

we've been on with the tech support from the copy place we bought it at and we can't get anywhere.

Since you're going thru an HP ProCurve 4000M switch, have you tried the <a href="http://www.hp.com/cposupport/swindexes/hpprocurve15966_swen.html" target="_blank">latest software from HP</a> ? Looks like a couple of different versions available.

That's all I've got...hope you guys get it figured out...Good Luck!

Well, that's better than anything I've got Don. Might be something to take a stab at tomorrow...

Okay, finally found a version of the admin utility for the Fiery that works under XP. I notice that the Fiery isn't getting a MAC address.

Also, I tried the newest firmware for the Procurve, and that didn't work. BUT I did take a laptop, and link directly to the Fiery via crossover cable, and was able to print.

So...I've got a few more things to try. Just out of curiosity, Buddy, what type of hub/switch are you using?

Just wanted to bump this back up with the solution.

2 things, the cable has got to be TOTALLY fault-free and perfect, with no interference whatsoever. I tested the cable I had going down there with laptop, and data transfer was fine, but apparently not good enough for the Fiery. I dropped another cable with the same results. Ended up having to use shielded cat 5.

Second, if using a set of stacked hubs/switches, the cable must be plugged into the same hub/switch the computer that will be hosting the LPR/TCP printing port is located on.

What a pain in the ***. And the sales company and Ricoh were no help whatsoever. :mad:

Well I'm going to try this with our Ricoh tomorrow, if it works I owe ya a beer bro.
When I was trying to get ours to function the tech guy they sent out could get it to work just like you did, with a laptop and a cross-over cable, but getting it to print from the server was a no go. And yep, we have stacked switches so that might just be it...I wonder if putting a DHCP proxy on that section would work??

Here is something you got to do to be able to use the fiery-Ricoh stuff.

You have to change your settings to be able to communicate with the UNIX operating system on the Fiery.
Right click on Network connections, at the top click Optional Networking componets. Other network file and print services must be checked.
Without this done, it won't work!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arkansasfish

Here is something you got to do to be able to use the fiery-Ricoh stuff.

You have to change your settings to be able to communicate with the UNIX operating system on the Fiery.
Right click on Network connections, at the top click Optional Networking componets. Other network file and print services must be checked.
Without this done, it won't work!!!

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the previous post was over 2 1/2 yrs ago ,,,

figued they might have fixed it or replaced it by now;

I had been sitting on one of my problems for 6 months. Just got it fixed this week. Now am working on the next problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by arkansasfish

I had been sitting on one of my problems for 6 months. Just got it fixed this week. Now am working on the next problem.

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Should have asked here Arkanfish, LPR printing is the best way to print to an older Fiery Rip, or use acits lpr spooler for older os's like 98.

Could've saved you 6 months ;)