Cannot open port

[thewvsignguy]

The power in the shop went out this afternoon. I printed a few jobs in the morning and everything was fine. After the power came back on, the cutter, computer and printer all came back on with no issues.

Now when I go to print a job I get a "cannot open port" in Flexi after the file is rip'ed. I checked all the settings in flexi and checked the printer and everything looks to be as it should. I restarted the computer and the printer and still get the same message. I messed with this the rest of the afternoon but I'm not 100% sure I'm going about this correctly.

In Windows, I run the ipconfig and get different numbers then what I think flexi is looking for. I used the help section in flexi and those numbers do not match what he printer needs to communicate.

This is somewhat over my head, I can usually muttle my way through anything until I fix the issue but I have work to do this weekend.

I called SW tech support this evening and got no answer but left a message, they have been good in the past about helping me out of these little jams. I really hope this is nothing to serious and the printer hardware is OK. Any ideas or thought's for me to look at and try?

Computer is Win XP SP3
Flexi 10.1 Pro
Mutoh 1204

The computer is networked via a hub/switch. The printer is connected to the same hub/switch with a cross over cable. These are the only 2 items on the hub/switch other then the input. I even tried switching the cables around with no luck.

Thanks for any help.

 

[FTG]

Not sure but if you open production manager and double click the printer name you can look to see what port it is set on and the port number. You can try different ports and see if that fixes the issue. Maybe when you lost power your settings got tweaked....

 

[SightLine]

Sounds like your printer is connected via ethernet and it was not setup for a static IP address. If a network connected device is not configured with a static IP (using DHCP instead). Every time it or the router/server giving it an IP address is powered off, it will potentially get a different IP address. Flexi needs to know its IP address...

 

[thewvsignguy]

Thanks for the reply guys. I'm still getting the same issue.

I tried a few different ports but no luck, I would think I the first would be the default, It was set to 9100.

I run ipconfig and ping the ip address and all is good. (10.1.10.15)

When I enter the ip address (10.1.10.15) into production manager and into our printer I still get the "cannot open port" message. I have double checked the subnet and the gateway as well.

SW did call me back last night a 7pm, I tried them again this morning when I got in and left another message.

I'm starting to think a piece of hardware took a cr*p....

 

[Finishline Signs]

When I get this message I alway have to shut my printer down, unplug the print SEH print server from the printer, unplug the power and ethernet cable from the SEH server. Then plug the power back in to the server, then the ethernet cable, then plug the server back into the printer, and then turn the printer on. It usually solves the problem in Flexi. I don't know if this is the setup you are using but it might be worth trying.

 

[ddarlak]

this definatly sounds like a power-up-rank network issue. they are always the toughest to nail down becaue you usually figure them out with dumb luck and then forget how you fixed it the last time.

has happened to me countless times and still can't remember exactly what i did to get it working. rest assured though, there is absolutly nothing wrong with your hardware and tech support will get you nowhere....

start debugging your network

 

[thewvsignguy]

ok, thanks for the info. I hope a little dumb luck will come my way today.

 

[J Hill Designs]

so is your computer set to 10.1.10.15? if so, the printer needs a different one (10.1.10.16 or something...) that is the number you should be telling flexi.

but you should go into your router and set the printer as a static IP

 

[thewvsignguy]

it is hooked up through a switch. Can I assign a switch a static IP?

 

[J Hill Designs]

so its just computer -> switch -> printer? or is there a router somewhere in there? switches usually dont have DHCP capabilities

 

[Freese]

Does the printer have an option to change or view the IP address?

If so, ping the address in a "cmd" window.

ping 192.168.x.x or whatever it is. If you get no data loss, you should be good.

 

[Freese]

Trying to wrap my head around the setup

So the switch is the middleman...but what I don't understand is you said you have a crossover cable going to one of the components....should be standard ethernet/network cables.

 

[thewvsignguy]

yes, the switch that the printer is on is connected to another switch then connected to the router.

I did what was suggested above and now flexi will go to print then stop at 9%. So I'm getting somewhere.

 

[J Hill Designs]

the router is what you need to get to (they have an IP address usually that you type into a browser to get to their config) and set the printer up as a static IP instead of DHCP assigned

 

[thewvsignguy]

Yes the printer is connected to the switch via a X over cable. Been that way since we got the printer....

 

[J Hill Designs]

once you get a router or switch in the mix, it shouldn't matter if its an Xover cable or not...they negotiate either

 

[MikeD]

had this happen to me too

this definatly sounds like a power-up-rank network issue. they are always the toughest to nail down becaue you usually figure them out with dumb luck and then forget how you fixed it the last time.

has happened to me countless times and still can't remember exactly what i did to get it working. rest assured though, there is absolutly nothing wrong with your hardware and tech support will get you nowhere....

start debugging your network

This happens to us when the power goes out. We are running USB2 cables directly to some plotters, and we have to start re-assigning ports and it gets back in order after about 30min of tinkering... Dumb luck for sure.
With so much else going on, I usually just get it fixed and move onto the next project without documenting how I got it done. I agree, your equipment is most likely fine.
My advice to you would be to take good notes about how you finally get it fixed because it's gonna happen again! If I had taken notes the half dozen times I've encountered this, I'd pass them on to you, but, I blew it.
Good luck!

 

[thewvsignguy]

jhill, thanks. I tried to access the 192.168.1.1 on this computer but no go. I'll try on my computer, I guess because of the switch.

 

[J Hill Designs]

different routers have different IP's - could be 192.168.0.254

but, if your comp is 10.1.10.xx then it should be some variation of that

 

[thewvsignguy]

Yea that was it, 10.1.10.X now I need to call comcast to get some info.

Jhill, what should the gateway be if the IP was 10.1.10.15?, in windows ipconfig the gateway was 10.1.10.1

I set the gateway on the printer one down (10.1.10.000) now I get a "write port error"