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Printers - Scanning & Printer Issues
Printers - Scanning & Printer Issues

What to do if you have printer issues or issues with scan to email.

colin jones avatar
Written by colin jones
Updated over a week ago

Please note: essensys are not responsible for end user devices, including printers. This is simply a guide to assist in troubleshooting the issue. It may be the case that the issue needs to be raised with the clients IT Team or the printer supplier.

Generally, the two most common printer issues are:

  1. Scanning (Scan to email)

  2. Printing

Firstly, before troubleshooting the above issues, we need to make sure that the printer is set up on the network correctly and is obtaining an IP Address. 

There are two types of connections for printers. They can either have a wired connection or a wireless connection (if the printer has a wired connection, please disable Wifi on the printer).
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Scan to Email 

If your printer has a "Scan to Email" feature, this will require an email address to set up.  The information you require for this will be available through your email provider.

For the "outgoing email" field you would need to use the essensys SMTP relay address which is: 

post.essensys.tech 

Please note that you do not need any authentication to use this outgoing email service.

If an issue persists after the SMTP relay address has been input, the client will need to raise the issue with their IT Team or the printer supplier.


Printing

Static IP Address:

  • We highly recommend assigning the printer a static IP address. A static IP address is an address chosen from the clients IP address range that has been assigned manually on to a device. The reason being is simply that the IP address will not change and cause future issues. It also helps when users are adding the printer to their PC's. 

  • To find the static address range, please see the clients Service Guide, which can be found on Connect. See this article for assistance - Connect Service Guides

  • The first 20 addresses in the range are reserved for static assignment for devices like network printers, servers or network storage. The range will be under the title "Your Private Network Addresses", as below:

  • From the above example,  an address you could use from the above range for the printer is 172.18.246.5 (it may need to be entered as 172.018.246.005 on the printer) 

  • Once the address has been added, try connecting again. 

Printer is connected, but users cannot print:

If the printer is obtaining an IP Address, but users cannot print, it may be due to the printer not being added on to the PC. To do this, please follow the below steps: 

Instructions for Windows 10:

  1. Click Start and select Settings

  2. Select Devices 

  3. Select Printers & Scanners

  4. Select Add a printer or scanner - The PC will scan the network for devices and the printer should come up in the list. Once it does, click it and select Add Device

  5. If the printer does not populate, try adding it manually on the PC with the printers IP Address. First, obtain the IP address from the printer (under the network status on the printer)

  6.  Once you have the IP Address, select The printer that I want isn't listed

  7. Select Add a printer using a TCP/IP address or hostname and then Next

  8. Select TCP/IP Device from the drop down

  9. Input the IP address of the printer, e.g. 172.18.246.5 and click Next

  10. The PC should pick up the printer. If it doesn't, please contact the printer supplier or the clients IT Support Team

Instructions for Apple Mac:

  1. Select System Preferences from the Apple menu

  2. Double-click on Print & Scan (Print & Fax)

  3. In the Print & Scan (Print & Fax) window, click on the plus sign button

  4. Click on the IP tab in the Print Browser window

  5. Set Protocol to HP Jetdirect - Socket

  6. For Address, enter IP Address of the printer 

  7. Leave the Queue field blank

  8. The Name and Location fields are for your reference to keep track of your printers and differentiate between multiple ones

  9. For Print Using, do not select Generic Postscript Printer.  OS X will try to locate an appropriate driver but if it cannot then It is recommended to download the correct driver from the manufacturer

  10. Click Add. The printer will be added to your list of printers

Wired Connection

If the printer is on a wired connection, you will need to set up a switchport for the client as LAN only. For instructions on this, please see this article - Introduction - Connect Switch Management
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Wireless Connection

If the printer is on a wireless connection, you will need to add the printers Wi-Fi MAC Address on Connect.
This address can be found on the printers network settings. Usually printers will have a printer status page that you can print, below is an example of a printers network status page:

The above example is a printer set up on and connected on a wireless connection.

To add the printer on Connect, please follow the steps in this article - Using Wireless Printers / Devices with Connect

Once the printer is set up on Connect and you have attempted to connect to WiFi MAC, and this has failed to connect, please make the following checks:

WiFi MAC Address:

  • Please ensure that the MAC Address has been input correctly on Connect. It is a common mistake to have a typo on the MAC Address. The MAC Address will always be hexi-decimal, meaning it will contain any number between 0-9 and any letters between A-F. 

  • Printers can have two MAC Addresses, one for a wired connection and another for a wireless connection. Please make sure you are adding the Wifi MAC Address. This should be clearly labelled in the Network Status page of the printer (document above).

Raising a case with essensys

If you wish to raise a case with us, please ensure you provide the following information so we can troubleshoot the issue:

  • MAC Address of the printer

  • Whether it is on a wired or wireless connection (provide the switchport if a wired connection)

  • A PDF of the network settings of the printer (document above)

  • Description of the issue

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