How to ping a printer: As I have already explained to you in my guide on how to ping an IP, the ping it is a command through which the computer tries to send data packets to a specific destination to understand if it is able to communicate with the latter or not. It can be used to test the Internet connection (by pinging a website address) or the communication between the PC and a network device, such as wireless printers.
If you have a Wi-Fi enabled printer and are having trouble printing documents wirelessly, you can use the ping command to check if the computer and printer can communicate (and in how long). Find all the instructions in this guide at how to ping a printer on Windows and Mac OS X.
Before seeing in detail how to ping a printeryou absolutely have to find out which one is hers IP address. To do this, you can press the key dedicated to Wifi on the front of the printer and note the address that appears on the device display (eg. 192.168.1.7) or print the report page of the printer, which can be called up from the menu with the device settings (directly on the printer display, without using the PC).
If the printer does not have an IP address assigned, and therefore is not correctly connected to the wireless network, you must correct the problem by connecting the device to the computer via USB cable and repeating the procedure of configuration that you did the first time you installed the printer. For more information on how to connect Wifi printer to PC, see the guide I wrote on this topic.
For ping a printer on Windowsyou have to open the Command Prompt and use the command ping to send data packets to the printer’s IP address. Then go to the Start menu or the Start Screen of your PC (depending on whether you are using Windows 7 / Vista / XP or Windows 8), type the command cmd and press the button Enter on the computer keyboard to start the Prompt.
In the window that opens, type the command ping 192.168.1.x (where instead of 192.168.1.x the printer’s IP address must be entered, for example 192.168.1.7) and press the button Enter on the PC keyboard to ping. If the two devices are able to communicate correctly, you will receive messages like Reply from 192.168.1.7: bytes = 32 duration = 10ms ITL = 128. If not, your computer can’t get in touch with the printer and so you need to find out what’s wrong with your home network.
If you use a Macyou can ping a printer starting theUtility network located in the folder Other of the Launchpad and selecting the tab Ping of the latter.
Then type the printer’s IP address in the text field Enter the network address to be pinged and click on the button Ping to ping. If the procedure is successful, you will see a series of messages like 64 bytes from 192.168.1.7: icmp_seq = 35 ttl = 255 time = 8.528ms.
By default, the OS X Network Utility continues to ping the specified address until the button is clicked Stop. If, on the other hand, you want to make a predetermined ping number, put the check mark next to the item Send only and specify the number of pings to perform in the adjacent text field.