For whatever reasons-- I ended up getting our old MFC-420CN working againby
uninstalling it completely, Using a cleanup utility from Brother,
and removing the USB controller and port drivers for teh specific USB
controller and ports conected to it.
With the printer disconnected from everything but power, I rebooted the
problematic XP P/C, and allowed it to automatically reinstall the USB
drivers for the USB Controller, etc. (Then shutdown & restart/ Reboot) With
the printer connected to the LAN, make sure that it has a static TCP IP
address, and is at least functional by printing one of the menu or
status/log sheets using the printer internal capabilities.
Now, you should be able to install the Brother LAN driver & software
package, the printer should be recognized, etc.
The Brother utilities for LAN use should see the printer if the desktop has
the correct LAN options and capabilities loaded & properly configured.
Possible router related problems include assigning a static IP address that
is in the range of addresses dynamically assigned by the router.
You want teh router "switch" to pass traffic to/from the printer, but not
make it available to the outside world.
At one point, I had the Brother working with an ethernet connection to a
wired/"secured" wireless router, and my Vista and XP wireless computers
could at least use the printer.
The Brother status monitor should be disabled for reliable LAN operation.
(It can cause all sorts of problems)
You may have to configure the desktop for Netbios/Lanman support to get the
printer to be recognized, at least initially.
Getting the Fax functions to work over the LAN conection (as I remember) was
a maybe process.
Mine worked with XP up to SP2 over the LAN. I retired it before SP3, and
gave it to a grandson to use via a usb connection.
"sandals30" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> Hi all. I'm new to this forum, but thru searching I think I might get
> the help I need here.
> I have a Brother MFC-420CN that I had hooked up to our Fios wireless
> router for almost 2 yrs with no problems. We had to unhook everything
> for a while. When I went to set it back up tonight I tried to print to
> it from My Dell Desktop (Vista Home Basic) but it kept erroring out. I
> noticed that it said it was offline. I checked my router admin page and
> it showed the printer as active and enabled with an IP address of
> 192.168.1.100. I was able to successfully ping it from the admin panel
> and the comand prompt, but I was not able to view it in a browser
> window. I tried rebooting the router, PC and printer to no avail. I then
> tried printing from my wireless laptop, (Compaq- Vista). I successfully
> did a test print from the laptop, but then I tried to view the printer
> thru an internet browser and after that it did the same thing as the
> Dell. It will show Ready for the status, but if I try to print it errors
> out and goes to Offline. I tried it from one other laptop we have
> (Toshiba-Vista) with no luck. I tried deleting and readding the printer,
> no change. I found a thread that said to remove SNMP from the Port
> settings. I did that on both the Dell and the Compaq. The Compaq now
> prints, but the Dell still won't print at all. Haven't tried it on the
> Toshiba yet (limited access- teenagers pc :-)
> I don't see why unplugging it would make it stop working on all three
> pc's. I don't know why I can ping it, but not connect to it in a browser
> or print to it. I would really like some help to get it working again on
> all three pc's.
>
>
> --
> sandals30
> Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com
>