Office network printers keep disappearing when account is logged off.

RoyalSwish

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Nov 12, 2013
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The printers have been working fine and the computer had the printers installed for months without any problems.

Recently we moved offices, and the printers have followed us to our new location. However, since the move, the printers will now disappear and need to be added every time me and co-workers log into our PCs.

The proposed solution for now is to lock the accounts but I am a man who likes to switch off the PC in the name of energy saving and letting the PC cool down.

I have checked if the print spooler is on and automatic and it is. I feel the only differences made to the printers is the name of the printer and its new location.

What could be the problem?
 

RoyalSwish

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Nov 12, 2013
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I'm not sure since I don't know how Technical Services have set up these printers but they appear to be static, whether Dynamic DNS is used I don't know. But I don't they've messed about with the IP addresses since the printers are still connected to the same server as they were before, it just looks like they've changed the name of the printer and its location at face value.

 
Normally, you setup static IP addresses for printers, and the technical team would need to make sure that configuration is in place. When a printer is rebooted, if static IP addresses aren't set, the IP address would change and the printer wouldn't be available.

When you connect to the printer - do you connect directly, or is it a share on the server?

Share on server would be like \\SERVER-NAME\PRINTER-NAME
Printer would usually be something like \\192.168.0.1 or \\PRINTER-NAME (to do the printer name, DNS resolution is necessary in the local environment).
 

RoyalSwish

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Nov 12, 2013
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Unfortunately I don't know BUT to get the printers to come back to us they make us run this programme which comes up with a CLI simply saying "Updating Policy..." Perhaps they did, from what this programme says.

You have to run this programme every time you log off to get the printers back, hence they're telling us to lock our PCs instead.