Why is a computer whose IP address ends with .127 unable to reach only one of our center printers

Walter A Nicholes · July 21, 2021

Orem Utah Sunset Heights Family History Center (3341267)

Parent: Orem Utah Sunset Heights Stake (506095)

We have noticed for the last year or so that whenever one of our computers in the family history center is assigned the IP address ending with .127, it is able to print to one of the printers in the center but not to the other one (which is a Lexmark MX 611dhe the one with the .2 IP address.)

We have used ping to verify that from .127 the address of the unreachable printer does not respond. even as it does respond from any other computer in the center.

When we assign the .127 address to any of the computers, that computer inherits the problem.

We contacted FHC tech support and they looked at everything in the setup and operation of the center and no obvious problem manifests itself.

Our workaround it to assign this address to the computer in the center that is nearest to the printer that works, and hope that a patron doesn't try to print to the Lexmark MX 611dhe.

We are looking for any information that might explain why .127 is thus afflicted, and whether any other centers have experienced a similar problem. (We wouldn't mind if another center tried this to see if it was a problem anywhere else.)

Walter A Nicholes July 22, 2021

Wrote: We did a test assigning a workstation to .126, .127, and .128, each trying to ping the .02 printer... Both .126 and.128 both worked, and .127 still didn't

Printer Issue: (Added 24Jul2021)

This printer is NOT accessable from a FHC computer using .127 address, Lexmark printer: MX611-1-3341267 IP: 10.178.149.2 MAC: 00:21:b7:5d:81:e2

Other printer accessable from a FHC computer using .127 address, Lexmark print: MS510-2-3341267 IP: 10.178.149.7 MAC: 00:21:b7:83:96:c8

Another networked device:

Netgear IP: 10.178.149.3 MAC: 9c:3d:cf:c5:44:20

Network:

Special Purpose :

Static: 10.178.149.2 - 10.178.149.31
Dynamic: 10.178.149.32 - 10.178.149.254

Meraki MX64 firewall:

Q2KN-XQGK-X884
Org: TmNorthAmerica 1 - NetworkID: L_600667600300543069 - Template: Meeting-PublicSpecialFac16

Porter Pete L Arnett Jr. · August 8, 2021

Walter A Nicholes July 29

Regarding the .127 issue at Sunset Heights Stake Family History Center

I got a message from Don Kimball at the center.

"I tried those two troubleshooting steps without success. Based on our earlier work of isolating .127 as being the problem and not a specific computer, I had the thought to take the .2 printer off the network and assign the .2 address to one computer while assigning .127 to another - they pinged each other successfully. After a couple more tests I confirmed that the .2 address wasn't the issue; Printer 1 has been the problem all along.

After some digging I found the culprit - the netmask was set to 255.255.255.128. (Could this have been the previous setting before the network was changed a while ago to give us more addresses?) After correcting this setting, .127 was able to print to .2 just fine. Problem solved. Please close the ticket with Family Search.

Earlier this week I did some research into why .127 could be special, and read a bit about network addressing. If I understand things correctly, with this incorrect netmask the printer would think that .127 is a broadcast address, not a computer. While I haven't been able to find information on exactly what would happen in this scenario, my experience with this problem tells me that since the printer was only expecting broadcast-type traffic from .127, it ignored other forms of traffic such as print jobs, pings, etc.

I saw that they closed the discussion in the community forum: “Your question will be forwarded to a specialty team for review and resolution. That team may contact you if they need to gather more information.“ They must be referring to escalating the ticket to the full-time employees for the Church. It is weird how they have have altered their speech to make it seem like the missionary support tiers is the only support available anymore."

If you could add this resolution to the original ticket and let those to whom it was escalated know I would be grateful.

Walt Nicholes

Assistant Stake Clerk Technology

Orem Sunset Heights Stake.

Porter (Pete) L Arnett Jr. July 29

Great job on finding a solution.

The normal DHCP Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0

Note: community question has been closed

genbug08 · July 24, 2021

try deleting the printer and then adding it back. Sometimes this resolves the printer issue.

Walter A Nicholes · July 24, 2021

I want to reiterate that if we change the IP address on the computer to any other address that printer works just fine. So the address in the devices table is not the issue.

And if we move the .127 address to a different computer then THAT computer can't see the printer. So it is somehow related to the .127 address itself.

Porter Pete L Arnett Jr. · July 28, 2021