HL-1440
 |
FAQs & Troubleshooting |
How can I change the IP address using the ARP and PING commands?
The ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) command is one possible way of setting an IP address on a Brother print server. You can also use:
-
Use the Printer front panel (if applicable)
-
Use the BRAdmin Professional Software
-
Use the an automatic IP address allocation method such as DHCP, BOOTP or RARP
Setting the IP address using the ARP and PING commands
To set the IP address of a print server, you can use the ARP command and also the PING command, however, before you use these commands, you must know the Ethernet address of the print server.
What is an Ethernet address?
Each network device must have its own unique identification. This identification sets it apart from all other manufacturers and ensures that no two network devices have the same address. Each manufacturer has to use a six digit numbering convention, the first three digits determine the actual manufacturer and the remaining three digits determine the serial number of the print server.
A typical Ethernet address (also known as MAC address - Media Access Control) from Brother looks like this:
00:80:77:31:B6:45
You can find out what the Ethernet address of your Brother print server is by printing a configuration page. Please refer to the User's Guide of your products to see how to print a configuration page.
Once you known the Ethernet address of the device you wish to change, simply use the ARP command with the correct parameters. For example:
arp -s 220.0.0.182 00-40-af-36-0c-38
This command tells the device that has a Ethernet address of 00-40-af-36-0c-38 to change its IP address to 220.0.0.182.
To actually change the IP address of the print server, use the PING command to send the ARP information just specified to the printer. To do this, simply enter:
PING ip_address
Where 'ip_address' is the IP address you entered using the ARP command. Using the above example, we would enter:
PING 220.0.0.182
This would then change the IP address setting of the device you are configuring.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter problems, it will probably be for one of the following reasons:
-
The device already has a TCP/IP address. Generally speaking, if the device that you wish to use, already has a TCP/IP address, then it is not possible to change the IP address using the ARP command.
-
The network is using DHCP, BOOTP or RARP. Many network administrators do not want to have to manually configure TCP/IP addresses. Which means that they use automated systems that do it for them, this means that if a device supports these automated services, and the network knows about them, then an IP address will be issued to your print server. If this is the case, the ARP command will not function as the device will have already received an IP address.
