Assigning an HP Network Printer a Fixed IP Address

by Joe on July 2, 2009

This post assumes you have an HP network-capable printer connected to a router with a LAN cable. Instructions for wireless connections may vary.

Some time ago, I did a post entitled “HP Network Printer Going Offline,” in which I provided instructions on how to locate the printer’s IP (Internet Protocol) address and reset it in Windows. Unfortunately, if the printer has a dynamic IP address – an address that is assigned to it by the local server automatically, its address can change later, sending the printer offline once again. You then have to repeat the steps to have the printer setup use the right IP address.

A better way to proceed is to assign a static IP address to your network printer. The static IP address remains fixed, unchanged when the network server is restarted, so the printer remains online.

Identify Your Printer’s Network Settings

Before assigning a static IP address to your printer, first make sure the printer is online, as I explain in “HP Network Printer Going Offline.” This ensures that you are assigning an IP address that actually works.

To identify which IP address is currently assigned to the printer, do the following:

  1. On your HP printer, press the Setup button to display setup options for the printer.
  2. Press the right arrow button until Network Setup appears in the LED window, and then press the OK button.
  3. Press the right arrow button again until the Print Network Settings option is displayed, and then press the OK button. This prints the network settings, which include the IP address, Subnet mask, and Default Gateway (the address of your network’s router).

Setting a Static IP Address

Once you know your printer’s IP address, entering it is pretty easy. Here’s what you do:

  1. Run your Web browser.
  2. In the Web browser’s address bar, type the IP address of your printer and press Enter. Assuming you entered the right address, the HP printer control panel should appear.
  3. Click the Networking tab.
  4. Under Connections, click Wired.

  5. Under IP Address Configuration, click Manual IP.
  6. Enter the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway in the appropriate boxes.
  7. Click Apply.

You may need to restart the networked computers, so they can reconnect with the printer.

{ 0 comments }

Text-Selection Tips for Microsoft Word

by Joe on June 19, 2009

Everyone knows you can drag over text to select it in Word, but employing a few other text-selection strategies can help you edit more efficiently. Following are my favorite text-selection tricks:

  • Double-click a word to highlight it, including the space after it.
  • Hold down the Ctrl key while selecting other chunks of text, so you can perform a single operation on all of the selected text. (I often use this technique to make a bunch of words bold or italic – I hold down the Ctrl key while double-clicking each word and then click the Bold button, for example.)
  • Press Ctrl+A to select the entire document.
  • Ctrl+click anywhere inside a sentence to select the entire sentence, along with the space after it.
  • Triple-click anywhere inside a paragraph to select the entire paragraph.
  • Click at the beginning of the section you want to highlight and then scroll down and hold down the Shift key while clicking at the end of the section you want to highlight.
  • Hold down the Alt key while dragging over a column of text. This is very useful for selecting a column of text when the columns are separated by tabs. You can even use this technique to select a column of tabs.
  • Position the insertion point at the beginning or end of the section you want to highlight, and then hold down the Shift key while using the arrow keys to extend the highlight over the section; you can use the left, right, up, down, PgUp, PgDn, Home, or End keys to extend the highlight.
  • Move the mouse pointer to the left of a paragraph (so the pointer appears as an arrow pointing northeast). You can then…
    • Click to the left of a line of text to select it.
    • Click and drag down or up to select multiple lines of text.
    • Double-click to select the paragraph. (You can double-click, hold down on the second click, and drag down to select multiple paragraphs, but this is a tough move to master.)
    • Triple-click to select the entire document.

{ 0 comments }

Tweaking Your Blog Design with CSS

June 14, 2009

Behind every WordPress blog is a theme that controls the look and layout of the blog. As I explain in “Make a Website, Changing the Look and Layout with a WordPress Theme,” you can change the entire look and layout of your WordPress blog by installing and activating a different theme.
Every theme contains one [...]

Read the full article →

Cannot Connect to Workgroup Computer on Network

June 5, 2009

Network problems can be caused by all sorts of things, including aggressive firewalls, a faulty network installation, and even a defective or disconnected cable. Recently, however, I stumbled across a problem that didn’t respond to the usual solutions. Everything was installed properly and even without any firewall running, I couldn’t connect to other computers on [...]

Read the full article →

Changing WordPress Blog Title, Tagline, Permalinks, and Admin Nickname

June 3, 2009

After installing WordPress, one of the first things you should do is make sure the blog title and tagline are correct and that the author name for your posts is exactly how you want it to appear. In this post, I show you how to access and change crucial WordPress settings:

In your Web browser, type [...]

Read the full article →

Make a Website: Creating a Static Home Page in WordPress

May 29, 2009

In this series, I’ve been teaching the basics of making a combination website/blog using Bluehost, WordPress, and Thesis. Here’s what I’ve covered so far:

In Part I: Starting with Bluehost, I showed you how to open a Bluehost account, register your own domain name, and install WordPress.
In Part II: Changing the Look and Layout with a [...]

Read the full article →

Make a Website: Essential WordPress Plugins

May 27, 2009

In this series, I’ve been teaching the basics of making a combination website/blog using Bluehost, WordPress, and Thesis. In Part I, I showed you how to get started with Bluehost, register your own domain name, and install WordPress. In Part II, I discussed WordPress themes and showed you how to transform the look and layout [...]

Read the full article →

Slow Internet? Try Changing Your Domain Name Server (DNS) Addresses

May 22, 2009

Many problems can cause a slow or unreliable Internet connection, including the following:

Lousy Internet service
Firewall or too many firewalls
Defective Ethernet adapter
Router problem
Ethernet adapter speed setting
Corrupted communications
Overloaded DNS (Domain Name Server)

If you’re running a PC with Windows XP, I encourage you to check out a troubleshooting piece that somebody by the name of Belgarath posted on [...]

Read the full article →

Make a Website, Changing the Look and Layout with a WordPress Theme

May 21, 2009

In my previous post, “Make a Website, Starting with Bluehost,” I showed you how to sign up with Bluehost, register your own unique domain name, set up an email account on that domain, and install the WordPress blogging platform. With WordPress, you can instantly begin posting content on the Web and establishing your own Internet [...]

Read the full article →

Make a Website, Starting with Bluehost

May 17, 2009

You can take several approaches to creating and managing your own site on the Internet, starting with low-end stuff like creating a free blog on WordPress.com to high-end stuff like hiring a professional designer to set up everything for you. In this series, I lead you down the middle of the road. This series [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries