RIP Station 5000

[CaseyD]

I have recently received a RIP station 5000 along with an Epson Stylus Pro 5000. I am wondering how I can hook up the RIP to my computer? The computer does not have a parallel port on the back. There is a network in the office, but where would I hook up the the ethernet cable? And is that the only way to have it hooked up to the network?

Casey

[doubting_thomas]

Have you tried hooking the rip up to the network's switch, or hub? That's where
I'd start. Hopefully it came with a cd that has the drivers on it.

[urstwile]

Does the RIP have an ethernet port? If so, you'd hook that up to a network ethernet port, and then your computer should be able to see it.

[hewligan]

PDF manual is the first thing you get when you google it (http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.support.epson.com%2Fpdf%2Fp ro5k_%2Fpro5k_p1.pdf&ei=ksKJRrLFLofmgQPGrNXQBw&usg=AFQjCNEXGzkWnj3BTfsd3G4i9yVb_kBShw&sig2=XHUE7-h_kfR8BZt_W_dh7w).

The diagram on the back shows connectors for SCSI, USB, parallel, serial and ethernet. Ethernet is the only one you'd use to connect it to a network, the others you'd use to connect it to another computer.

[CaseyD]

Ok, I hooked it up to a workgroup switch in the office, but I can not find it on any computer. I started up the RIP, did all of the network settings, but I still can not find it. The RIP communicates with the printer just fine. If only I can get it to communicate with a computer! Any ideas?

Casey

[urstwile]

Check the PDF link Hewligan mentioned. What operating system are you using?

[hewligan]

Exactly what you need to do depends on how you've set up the networking and which operating system is running on the client computers.

You should have an install disk to run on the client (or, preferably on your print server, but if you don't have one of those, on the client will do). I'd guess you're most likely using TCP/IP over Ethernet, in which case, you'll need to know the RIP's IP address - this is available from its setup menus.

If you know the IP address, you can test that it's there and responding by opening up a command prompt and typing:

ping <IP address> (Works on Macs or Windows)

If you get a response then you know it's there and responding, which is a good start. Press ctrl-c to stop pinging.

If you don't have a driver disk, you can probably download it from the manufacturers site.

[Corys8646]

we had this same setup years ago, and I recall it being a PITA to get connected to our network..

I think the problems came from the fact that Appletalk wasn't enabled by default on it. I would see if you can in the menu system and confirm that appletalk is in fact enabled.

Appletalk would only be required if you are printing from a mac, from a PC, I would take hewligan's advice and try to see if it's pulling an IP from your network even.

BTW: that rip station was a combined Epson and EFI unit, so if you don't get any help from the Epson site - you might try EFI.


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http://www.prepressforums.com

[CaseyD]

I got the IP address, tried to ping it, no response. Tried looking for it under network settings, nothing.
Any ideas?

[CaseyD]

OS is Windows...

[Drazan]

You need to set up a new network connection and statically use that "IP" in your TCP/IP properties.

Also check the manual if you need to registar the IP address to the device to create an open network. Look for a command screen using "arp" in the manual.

We need to open a connection like this for our wideformat printer, don't know if it will be of any help to you though. The manual should have step by step on setting this up. Have you looked at it yet?

[CaseyD]

For some reason, the IP address I give it will not work. I can not get a response from it. How would I go about figuring out an appropriate IP address to give the RIP?
I have it hooked up to a workgroup switch, which is connected to the router. I tried messing around and gave the rip the IP address of another computer and that worked. So how do I go about making one specifically for the RIP? Would I just have to change the subnet mask number?

[hewligan]

You shouldn't need to change your subnet mask - it shold be something like 255.255.255.0.

If you look at the other computers on your network, they probably have IP addresses that look like either 192.168.something.something or 10.something.something.something. The first 3 number of any other computer or printer on your network have to match, while the last number can be anything between 1 and 254 - and all of the computers should have different ones.

For example, at home, my router has IP address 192.168.0.1, so my two computers have IP addresses of 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3.

[CaseyD]

Ok, Ill try that out, thanks. Is there an easy way to find a free IP address, or do I just check each computer? We only have 6, so it won't take long.

[hewligan]

Well, I'd do a ping sweep with Nmap, but if you're not already familiar with Nmap, it's probably just easier to check the existing computers. Or, pick a number you figure probably isn't used, and cross your fingers :D (That's not actually as silly a suggestion as it sounds. IP addresses tend to get allocated from the low numbers, and sometimes things like routers go for the high number - like 192.168.1.254, so if you were using the 192.168 type numbers, a good guess would be 192.168.1.250 - which is unlikely to be in use. You try it, and if nothing goes wrong, keep it, otherwise change it :D )

[CaseyD]

Everything works! Did exactly that, tried to ping an address, got no response, so I set that one in the RIP. Sure enough, when I pinged it after it started up, I got a response. Added it under my network, added the drivers, and everything works fine.
Thanks for the help!
Casey

[hewligan]

We aim to please ;) :D

[CaseyD]

Well, it works, but it prints blank pages. It will print test pages directly from the RIP, but nothing but blanks when I print from the computer. I tried printing from paint, Excel, Word, and a page directly from the internet... nothing. It sounds like it is printing, feeds the paper slow and everything.
Any ideas?