Hello,
We have an MFD (network printer) issue and it is a real doozy. There are 7 users in one office with a network printer. Only 4 of the users can print and ping the printer. The other 3 cannot print or ping the device. All 7 have network access, email, etc. They are all on the same VLAN and are connected to a 4507 in a Layer-2 setting. From the user's/printer switch we cannot ping the printer. However, we can ping the printer from the Router. And the printer IS connected to the network.
We have never had this type of issue before. Usually printer issues are due to incorrect IP settings or something simple... We do not know what the issue can be BUT, these are the only things we have found that it could possibly be.
When a show mac-address table is done we see the port for the printer with the protocols of dynamic, IP, IPX, other. But the users with the printer issue only have dynamic for their ports. (On a side note there are a whole slew of other ports with all of these same random protocols on them.) As far as we know there is not a need for multicast on our network so we do not know why there would be IPX and multicast commands on the network.
Also, when we enter our 6500's we attempt multicast commands and receive the reply that multicast is not currently running on the network. However, we have compared the 4507 configs with another 4507 config and we found multicast commands on the 4507 with the printer issue. After removing the multicast commands we do another sh mac-address table command and the IPX is missing from that port with the printer. BUT if we wait a minute and do another sh mac-address table command the IPX returns on its own. It's as if there is other multicast issues on the 4507 or our network that automatically renables it on that port.
Like I said, I don't know if IPX or multicast is the issue with the 3 users and the printer but this is the only reasoning that we can come up with. Hopefully my description isn't too confusing.
Thanks for your help.
