New Utility That Creates A Log Of Connected Disconnected Computers On Your Network

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Rancul Ratha

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May 28, 2024, 9:01:52 PM5/28/24

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A couple of months ago I bought a Canon MX920 series printer and after I installed it it worked perfectly fine, however, since a couple of days ago I'm no longer able to print. Every time I press the 'print' button I get the message 'The printer is offline. Please check if the printer is either connected or turned on' (rough translation, i'm using a dutch computer). After having done both those things the printer still doesnt work. The printer works fine for all the other computers in my house, except for the one i'm using. The computer system that I use is Windows 7.

New utility that creates a log of connected disconnected computers on your network

Download »»» https://t.co/V9JRl86ijE

Hi, MathijsMoonen!

So that the Community can help you better, we need to know whether your printer is connected directly to the computer or if it's accessed through a router. We also need to know whether the printer communicates with that computer or router via Wi-Fi or USB. That, and any other details you'd like to give will help the Community better understand your issue!

If this is a time-sensitive matter, search our knowledge base or contact our US-based technical support team at

Thanks and have a great day!

Unfortunately step 3 after opning the Canon IJ Network Tool to verify communacation didnt work. The program couldn't find the computer connected to the network. I am however certain that it is in fact connected to the network, as all the other computers/laptops are connected to the printer via our network. The printer was turned on while I was taking all the suggested steps.

I tried to follow on line insturctions but nothing works. Now my firewall is disabled and I don't know why it keeps going off line. Please advise. Of note. I am using Windows 10 so instructions need to be step by step, please. Thank you

I can't believe the long list of things to do to fix my problem. I have always bought Canon products but will definitely choose something else next time. This is the worst printer I have ever owned. I have followed these instruction when the printer was

So, connecting via the HP Smart app. I put the printer into setup mode (X and wifi button for a few secs). The printer is seen on the app. I click setup. It selects the printer and moves to the next stage (connecting to the printer). This is where it gets stuck every single time. After a while, I get a message that the system could not connect to the printer - check distance and all.

I've come to notice that at the stage where the app is "connecting to the printer", the PC/Mac disconnects from my router, and tries to connect to "HP_Direct...". Is this normal? This leads me to guess the printer is on wifi direct mode. Is there anyway I can disable the wifi direct mode?

One other thing that is worth trying it making sure that your printer firmware is the latest. You can check the current version by printing the Info page (just press the I button), the firmware version is in the upper right corner near the serial number. The version will have 4 numbers in it, something like 21nn or 22mm, the first two are the year 2021 or 2022 and the nn or mm will be a week number.

In order to apply this update, you will have to either temporarily connect the printer with a USB cable. OR connect the PC directly to the printer's Wi-Fi Direct network (DIRECT-xy-HP Deskjet 4100..) and then run the update utility.

If your current firmware version is significantly older than 2208, it would be worth updating and trying Wi-Fi setup again. You may be experiencing a bug that has already been corrected in the latest release.

Yes, when using HP Smart on Windows to perform printer Wi-Fi setup, it is normal for the PC to briefly connect to the printers WiFi Direct interface. This is how the credentials for your router are shared with the printer. In the normal case this happens quickly and the PC returns to your normal WiFi network (and the printer uses these newly received credentials to also connect to your network)

It sounds like something is going wrong here. Have you tried performing WiFi setup using HP Smart on either Android or iOS? On those platforms Bluetooth Low Energy is used to transfer the WiFi credentials to the printer. Perhaps this will bypass the problem that you are seeing.

If that still doesn't work, we may be facing an interoperability issue between the printer and your WiFi router. In this case, can you share the make and model of your router, as well as the security mode (WPA2, WPA3, etc)?

Setup here also prompted me to connect the printer via USB while setting up the wireless network. Did this. Got a prompt that my network settings were being transferred to the system. Also got a prompt that I had network sharing turned off. Turned this one.

The life of a sysadmin is hectic, rushed, and often frustrating. So, what you really need is a toolbox filled with tools that you easily recognize and can use quickly without another learning curve when things are going bad. One such tool is the ncat command.

The ncat command has many uses, but the one I use it for is troubleshooting network connectivity issues. It is a handy, quick, and easy to use tool that I can't live without. Follow along and see if you decide to add it to your toolbox as well.

Ncat is a feature-packed networking utility which reads and writes data across networks from the command line. Ncat was written for the Nmap Project and is the culmination of the currently splintered family of Netcat incarnations. It is designed to be a reliable back-end tool to instantly provide network connectivity to other applications and users. Ncat will not only work with IPv4 and IPv6 but provides the user with a virtually limitless number of potential uses.

Among Ncat's vast number of features there is the ability to chain Ncats together; redirection of TCP, UDP, and SCTP ports to other sites; SSL support; and proxy connections via SOCKS4, SOCKS5 or HTTP proxies (with optional proxy authentication as well).

You've just installed , and you can't connect to it from another computer on the same network. It's frustrating. The service is enabled. The service is started. You think you've created the correct firewall exception for it, but yet, it doesn't respond.

Your troubleshooting life begins. In what can stretch from minutes to days to infinity and beyond, you attempt to troubleshoot the problem. It could be many things: an improperly configured (or unconfigured) firewall exception, a NIC binding problem, a software problem somewhere in the service's code, a service misconfiguration, some weird compatibility issue, or something else unrelated to the network or the service blocking access. This is your scenario. Where do you start when you've checked all of the obvious places?

The ncat command should be part of your basic Linux distribution, but if it isn't, install the nmap-ncat package and you'll have the latest version of it. Check the ncat man page for usage, if you're interested in its many capabilities beyond this simple troubleshooting exercise.

Using the ncat command, you will set up a TCP listener, which is a TCP service that waits for a connection from a remote system on a specified port. The following command starts a listening socket on TCP port 9999.

This message means that you are now connected to the listening port, 9999, on the remote system. To disconnect, use the keyboard combination, CTRL + ]. Type quit to return to a prompt.

Disconnecting will also kill the TCP listening port on the remote (ncat) system, so don't attempt another connection until you reissue the ncat command. If you want to keep the listening port open rather than letting it die each time you disconnect, issue the -k (keep open) option. This option keeps the listening port alive. Some sysadmins don't use this option because they might leave a listening port open potentially causing security problems or port conflicts with other services.

The success of connecting to the listening port of the ncat system means that you can bind a port to your system's NIC. You can successfully create a firewall exception. And you can successfully connect to that listening port from a remote system. Failures along the path will help narrow down where your problem is.

Unfortunately, there's no solution for connectivity issues in this troubleshooting technique that isn't related to binding, port listening, or firewall exceptions. This is a limited scope troubleshooting session, but it's quick, easy, and definitive. What I've found is that most connectivity issues boil down to one of these three. My next step in the process would be to remove and reinstall the service package. If that doesn't work, download a different version of the package and see if that works for you. Try going back at least two revisions until you find one that works. You can always update to the latest version after you have a working service.

The ncat command is a useful troubleshooting tool. This article only focused on one tiny aspect of the many uses for ncat. Troubleshooting is as much of an art as it is a science. You have to know which answers you have and which ones you don't have. You don't have to troubleshoot or test things that already work. Explore ncat's various uses and see if your connectivity issues go away faster than they did before.