"PORTS" smith

Have you ever figured out how to do something that everyone seeming knew already?  That’s how I feel about setting up a GP-C831 printer on a network.

Now you should know; I’ve added a lot of label printers to networks over the years.  But I’ve relied on our customer’s Network Administrators or “Navi’s” to do all the work for me.  For example, you can find the TM-C3500 Install Navi here: http://www.pos.epson.com/developers/techresdetails.htm?productpk=696

With the install Navi, it steps you through the process of adding a printer to the network, including discovering the printer.  The Navi works great if the printer and the computer are on the “same” subnet.  If the computer and printer are on different subnets, I have received various ideas on how to add the printer to the network; but I was never really confident about how to add a printer correctly.

Recently, however, I’ve ran into a Network potential issue with the C831; no Install Navi.  Epson has not posted an updated Navi with the release of their new driver which enables 8.25” wide printing on the C831.  You may remember my earlier post on this new driver.  http://colorlabelsondemand.blogspot.com/2014/11/gp-c831-surprise.html

At the same time, I started using a new computer.  Finally, I had to add the C831 printer to the office network in order to send out print samples.   We send print samples to customers most every day.  Not wanting to add the previous driver with the available Navi, I had to take a different tack.

To set up the printer on the network, I downloaded and installed EpsonNet Config Utility from this site: http://www.pos.epson.com/developers/techresdetails.htm?productpk=678

After downloading, I ran the EpsonNet Config and it discovered my printers on the network: 

By selecting Configuration, I was able to set my IP address:

Now that I had the IP address, I had to configure a port for this printer.  I added a port by right clicking on a printer, selecting the 4^th option, Printer Properties, then selecting the Ports tab and Add Port using the IP address of the printer I set. 

Once the port was configured, I could then download and install the driver. Now you can download the driver for the C831 printer here:  http://www.pos.epson.com/developers/techresdetails.htm?productpk=678

 You need to know if your computer is 32 or 62 bit to select the correct driver.

Once the driver is downloaded, you can run the driver setup until you get to the manual setup:

In the manual setup, you just need to select the available TCIP port that you configured earlier.  And the printer worked great.

But sometimes, EpsonNet config can’t discover the printer.  It may not be able to find the printer as the printer could be on a much different subnet than the computer.  If this happens, you can print the configuration of the C831 printer.  To print the configuration of the printer, you press the Load/Eject and Tear-Off buttons on the C831 printer panel at the same time:

And out pops a C831 Status Sheet with the IP address of the printer:

If you need the ID address of a TM-C3500 printer, press the button beside the Ethernet port at the back of the printer.

Once you have the IP address, you can access the printer by typing the IP address into the browser:

FYI: access to the printer is password protected by a super-secret password, “epson”.   Clicking on “Network Setup”, enables you to change the IP address of the printer.

With the IP address, you can search for the printer using EpsonNet config as well:

Or just add a port for this IP address as above.

I was very excited to figure out how to add a printer to the network without the aid of the install Navi.  Please remember while reading this post: I’m not a network expert.  But the EpsonNet Config tool and knowing how to find the IP address can assist you in setting up a printer on even a complicated network.

Guy Mikel

855-962-7670

info@colorlabelsolutions.com