Hi,
Thanks in anticipation for your help. I’ve read the documentation and, not being a techie, it looks overly complicated. You might be able to clarify what needs to be done.
I work from an office, from my home office and on the go (travelling). At home, I have 2 LANs: 1 for work and one for the family (only I can navigate across both LANs). Everybody needs to print to the home printer networked). I also wish to print to the home printer from various internal and external locations; this includes situations when colleagues or guests visit with their laptops and wish to print.
For accessing my DSL modem/router from external locations, I now have a static IP address and use a VPN. My problem is that I cannot get my work LAN to print (neither the server nor the clients), whereas the family LAN users can all print.
Here is the configuration (not all devices are showing below because there is not much space on this page):
??????????
?????-Wi-Fi
->DSL Modem/Router
?????-Ethernet port#1——–>Windows Server 2003
?????-Ethernet port#2->Printer???????????????(work LAN)
?????-Ethernet port#3->Switch#1????????????????
??????????????????????????????(family LAN)??????????????
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Switch#2
???????????????????????????????????Desktops???????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Desktops
In the configuration above:
(a) I can print from the laptops (Wi-Fi) and desktops in the family LAN. I can even print if I connect a computer directly into one of the Ethernet ports in the modem/router instead of going through switch#1.
(b) I cannot print from the server or the clients on the work LAN. In fact, I cannot even see printer (I gave it a fixed IP address but pinging the printer from the server shows no connection).
(c) Note that none of the devices in this entire configuration has a problem connecting to the Internet and receiving/sending e-mails.
However, if I connect the printer to switch#2, I can print from the server and from the clients on the work LAN.
I wish to retain the configuration showed above because it enables me to separate family from work and also means that if the server is down, then everybody else can print.
Questions:
———-
(a) What do I need to do to make this work?
(b) Is there a better way of structuring things physically?
Note:
(a) I have downloaded and installed the latest drivers for Windows Server 2003 for that printer. But, despite installing the drivers, I cannot add this printer.
(b) All my devices use the same subnet mask (255.255.255.0).
(c) The server has no restrictions on the IP addresses it can lease (from 192.168.1.1 to 254).
(d) The modem/router is 192.168.1.254, the server is 192.168.1.10, the printer is 192.168.1.64 and the IP for the other devices are all dynamically generated.
Thanks in anticipation.
Best,
Fred
