I have dell dimension 3000 desktops and a 3100cn Dell Printer. Whenever I go to turn the printer off and the computers and turn them back on, the computers lose the network connection to the printer and I have to reinstall printer drivers to help the computers talk to the printer again. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong. I know there's gotta be a way where I can turn everything off then later, turn them back on and everyone (the 2 computers and printer) keep their network connection. www.hyperlinkz.com

How's your printer setup on the network? Locally attached to a pc and shared? If so, how is it attached, parallel or USB. If it's local and shared, via a parallel connection, try this: Open device manager and find the ECP printer port (LPT1). Right click on the port and go to properties, then choose the port settings tab. Make sure the Enable Legacy Plug and play option is checked. If this affects the behavior you described, then I would use USB to connect the printer to the PC.

It is a shared printer connected through ethernet cable into a wall cat5 jack. Everything will print to it until I shut the printer off. It's like the printer loses the network address or something because I have to reinstall drivers and re-establish the network settings. http://hyperlinkzservices.tripod.com/index.htm

Did you check to see if there is a patch? do you have XP with SP2? I no that Cannon printers have issues with SP2..

Well, this is a Dell printer and I have that patch. It's still not working... www.hyperlinkz.com

Ok, so there's a print server, and you must be on a network that has a dhcp server of some sort. If so, why not just reserve the IP address for the print device in DHCP? I'm not sure what you mean by "...I have to reinstall drivers and re-establish the network settings." WHat settings, the printer's, your pc's? If it's the printer's, then assign it a static IP address. Let us know what happens.