Konica Minolta printers sporadically lose their IP address

[stefan.w]

Hi,


We keep having problems with our Konica Minolta printers and the network connectivity of them.

Here are some key data about our network environment:
DHCP Server: 2x Windows Server 2016 (load balancing 50/50 - Leasetime: 1 hour).
Extreme Switches with DHCP Relay on every VLAN configured (arp timeout 30 min.)
Radius Server controlling the VLANs on the Extreme Switches.


1st problem
The Konica Minolta printers only ask the DHCP server for an IP address when the device is started. If you plug in the network cable after startup, the device will not get an address. Why is this the case? Every other network device always asks for an address via DHCP after the network cable has been plugged in....


2nd problem
The bigger problem is that the devices sometimes don't ask for an address at all. Not even at startup. I don't see any request in the DHCP Server log and also the DHCP relay counters in the switch don't increase. There I see per VLAN how many requests and answers the relay has processed.
The problem sometimes resolves itself by leaving the printer off for a day or two and then turning it back on.


The Radius server can't be the reason for the problem, because even if I set the ports to the printer VLAN and disable Radius on them, the devices don't send DHCP requests.


We still have Brother and Lexmark printers where this problem does not occur at all. Everything else runs very well in our network.


The problem also affects several model types of Konica minolta. However, the most common are ( KMC227,KMC250i)


I hope someone here can give me a hint in the right direction. I am already very desperate.

Best regards

Stefan

[rthonpm]

Are you using DHCP for your printers without setting a reservation? You may need to contact your service provider for any firmware updates to the devices as well as checking your firewall logs to see if the connection is being declined somewhere.

[stefan.w]

Hi rthonpm,

a reservation also needs the dhcp service. We don't need to have the same IP. We are using a print solution called Steady Print which control that. But I'm not deep into this printer stuff. I am responsible for the network part.
And we can't use static IPs because our printers moving a lot between different locations with different ip subnets all connected via mpls.

Best regards

Stefan

[mojorolla]

If these are the newer KM boxes, drop the network speed from the default GB speed and set to 100MB speed, reboot device.
Known issue on the newer boxes.

[stefan.w]

Hi mojorolla,

That actually sounds interesting. We'll give that a try. Where did you get this information? Or did you have the same problem with Konica Minolta printers?

Best regards

Stefan

[Drivee]

I think that they will change IP if printer restart. Do you restart pritners?

[stefan.w]

The course of the problem is as follows:


An employee calls us that he cannot print. We then try to ping the device which is not successful. Sometimes a normal reboot of the device helps and he gets an IP again. We don't care which IP the printer gets. It only has to be in the right VLAN/subnet. This is realized by a radius group.
But sometimes the printer gets only an APIPA address. On the switch I see that the device has authenticated itself correctly, the port is in the correct VLAN and the MAC address also arrives. Also the link speed is assigned correctly. At the moment, the only thing that helps is to leave the device switched off and unplugged for a few hours or days and then plug it back in. However, this is not a satisfactory solution.

Best regards

Stefan

[mojorolla]

Hi mojorolla,

That actually sounds interesting. We'll give that a try. Where did you get this information? Or did you have the same problem with Konica Minolta printers?

Best regards

Stefan

NIC speed.jpg