Skip Navigation

Printer Zones

If your printer loses its zone ... here are some things you can try. Note that the default zone for campus is the top one: ACNS Servers. If a printer forgets its zone, or even it's entire identity it'll end up here. Occasionally network hiccups will throw several printers from their home zones to the default zone spontaneously. Also, when you first turn on a new printer it should show up in ACNS Servers with a generic name (like HP LaserJet 5).

  • If it's an HP printer, there's a handy little program called HP LaserJet Utility which can be found in the ACNS Archive. It's so very simple. When you run the program, you can choose to look at any HP printer and you can change its zone to pretty much anything you desire. This is pretty self-evident when you check it out.
  • If you're dealing with an Apple printer, there's a corresponding utility called Apple Printer Utility. This occasionally doesn't work (it looks like it's changing things but the printer doesn't actually change). In these cases you may want to try the older "Laserwriter Utility". You might also try changing the zone to a something other than the desired destination. This may get the printer in the mood to travel so that you can then move it to the zone you really want it in. It worked once anyway...

However, there is another consideration here. Some Apple printers seem to have a hardware switch that will not allow your average ACA to change the specified zone. You can try to change it with an Apple Printer Utility ... but, believe me, it won't work. However, the Apple Printer Utility will tell you if it has this pernicious little switch. If you choose to look at a specific Apple printer in the Utility, it will give you a whole bunch of stats on that printer. If in the columns toward the bottom you read "(fixed)" a whole lot. In this case you'll need to find the manual for the printer. Figure out where the switch is and physically flip it before you reset things.

But no one's making any guarantees. After these efforts have failed, get in touch with Dave Diehl.