How to troubleshoot network printing problems

Printers are great when they work, especially networked printers that allow you to print from far away in the building, or even in another building.  But sometimes a printer stops receiving print jobs, and then the fun of troubleshooting the printer networking begins.

When a printer won't print, there are many possible things that could have gone wrong.  The first thing to do is to narrow down the cause by eliminating as many possibilities as you can.

See if other computers can print to that printer.  If they can, then you can eliminate the printer itself as the source of the problem, and you can focus on your computer and your segment of the network.  If other computers can't print to the printer either, then the problem could lie with either the printer or the network, but you can rule out your computer as the problem. Check the printer for any error messages or warnings -- if none, try to ping it to make sure it's connected to the network. If you still can't isolate the source of the problem, there may be an internal problem with the printer, such as a faulty circuit board or firmware that needs to be updated.

If other users could print to that printer, try printing to another network printer from your computer (if one is available).  If you can print to another printer, then the problem is either with your computer itself, or with the portion of the network between your computer and the printer.  Try reloading or updating the print driver. You can check the network path using a command like "tracert" to see if any devices such as routers or switches lie between your computer and the printer.  Check these devices, and try swapping them out if you can to figure out where the problem lies.  If the devices check out, try switching network cables and see if that makes a difference.

If you can't print to any printer from your computer, you may just need to reboot your print spooler.  In Windows operating systems, you can do this by typing "services.msc" from the Run bar and when the Services window opens, find the Print Spooler service on the list and restart it.

If after restarting the print spooler you still can't print to any printer, check your IP address and other network settings.  If you use DHCP, try "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" to obtain a new IP address and new DHCP lease.  (You can also do the same thing from within Windows.)  Also try rebooting your computer.

A network problem could also prevent you from printing.  From your computer, see if you can access other network resources such as file servers or LAN faxes.  If not there's probably a break in the network somewhere, or else a problem with how your computer communicates with the network.

There are a myriad of issues that could prevent your computer and printer from being able to communicate.  By following the guidelines above and narrowing down the possible causes, you can work to determine the source of the printing problem and (hopefully) correct it.

(Originally posted in shorter form on Helium.com, Oct 2012. Image courtesy of OpenIcons from Pixabay.)