• WSD printer ports are evil

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    #2634207

    If you suddenly find the printer that you could print to yesterday not working today, check to ensure it’s not suddenly using a WSD printer port. I pe
    [See the full post at: WSD printer ports are evil]

    Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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    • #2634216

      Is this something that only affects networks and not a single PC connected directly (via Bluetooth or cable) to a printer ?

      Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

      • #2634225

        I’ve honestly never had good luck with bluetooth printers.  You would not see it with a usb cabled printer.  You do see it if your printer is wifi connected.  So if set up your printer on wifi at home, you may see it happen there.

        Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

        1 user thanked author for this post.
    • #2634254

      My WSD printer works fine. What’s the evil element?

      • #2634290

        Sorry b I’m not buying that you’ve never experienced a problem with your printers using a wsd port.  Once again you are being a contrarian.

        Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

        • #2634305

          I’m not, but you’re being extremely obtuse by not telling us what’s evil about WSD after using that headline. I can confirm that I’ve never experienced a problem with WSD printer ports, and I have no idea what such problems could entail which is why I asked.

          • #2634307

            First line in the post.

            Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

            • #2634310

              That never happens with other printer ports?

              It hasn’t happened to me with a WSD printer.

              (I was somewhat thrown by the missing “not” in the second half of that first sentence.)

            • #2634316

              When I set up printers via tcp/ip I don’t lose them.  Even in a home setting where I use wireless based laptops and wired or wireless printers, using tcp/ip ports and turning off the WSD in the printer settings make them robust and consistent.  They will consistently print.

              Just do a bit of googling on the term WSD printer port problems and you’ll see this has been an issue for a long time.  Clearly with the documentation and help forum posts, these issues crop up.  I’m sure that you may have something else in your home network that bugs you?

              Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

            • #2634318

              Can someone provide the exact steps to use for setting up tcp/ip ports for network printers that are wired to a router?  I checked and my 2 wired printers are using the WSD ports.  I’m using Windows 10 Home OS.  Thanks!

            • #2634383

              Hi Susan,

              I am with you all the way “set up printers via tcp/ip” each printer has its own static ip address. So you can ping it, use the web interface via IP address etc…

              As i always do in the router, set a static IP range for printers, and then DHCP has its own range.

    • #2634369

      I have an Epson printer/scanner (WF-3730).  It uses TCP/IP for printing and setting up a scan via the Epson app on my PC.  However, it appears to need WSD to send the scan data back to the PC.

      • #2634508

        I agree with Susan, I have had nothing but trouble with WSD ports.  I’ve not used Epson printers, I have a Brother printer, and as a consultant I support users who also have HP and Canon printers, among others.  I set my Brother printer up on day one on WiFI with a TCP/IP port and I send scanned data back to my PC just fine.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve fixed users’ scanning (and printing) issues by simply creating a TCP/IP port and switching it from WSD.

        • #2634558

          For scanning/printing it uses TCPI/IP to send commands via Epson Windows app. But to send scan data back it uses WSD.   I proved this by disabling the WSD driver and initiating a scan.  A scan was started, but nothing was sent to the PC.

    • #2634513

      We have two fancy Canon multi-functions attached to our network.  Originally, we set static IP addresses and had everyone print directly to them IPP.  Turned out IPP couldn’t handle “fancier” features of the print driver (larger paper sizes, duplexing, etc.).  So, we settled on RAW.  Everything was fine and dandy until some firmware update added or enabled WSD.

      Chaos ensued. Finally got WSD disabled, yet problems still existed.  I’m guessing the firmware update introduced some other “undocumented feature”.  As users printed, end of jobs were not being flagged correctly.  So a user’s job would finish, and hang the que leaving others jobs pending.

      After enough aggravation, ended up setting up a Windows print server to service both Canons, and pointing everyone and everything at it.  Things have been smooth sailing since.

      Casey

      Ask your Network Administrator if RAW printing using Windows Print Server is right for you.  Side effects may include reduced help desk calls, ability to print color duplex tabloid pages with offset collation.  Serious, sometimes fatal PrintNightmare reactions have been reported in poorly designed and secured Print Spooler services.

       

    • #2634548

      After reading this I decided to change my Brother HL-L-2350DW on all 4 of my computers to use an IP address.

      DellXPS8920 main driver (Win 11 Pro) no problem. FYI the printer is set to 192.168.1.9 and my DHCP starts assigning addresses at 100 so there won’t be any changes.

      DellXPS8700 canary (Win 11 Pro) it switched but every time I tried to print a test page it started throwing out blank pages and wouldn’t stop until I cancelled the job on the printer.

      I’ve checked all the settings and they are exactly the same on both machines.

      Now who’s evil? I’m not really sure as it was working fine with WSD.

      May the Forces of good computing be with you!

      RG

      PowerShell & VBA Rule!
      Computer Specs

      • #2634557

        After reading this I decided to change my Brother HL-L-2350DW on all 4 of my computers to use an IP address.

        DellXPS8920 main driver (Win 11 Pro) no problem. FYI the printer is set to 192.168.1.9 and my DHCP starts assigning addresses at 100 so there won’t be any changes.

        DellXPS8700 canary (Win 11 Pro) it switched but every time I tried to print a test page it started throwing out blank pages and wouldn’t stop until I cancelled the job on the printer.

        I’ve checked all the settings and they are exactly the same on both machines.

        Now who’s evil? I’m not really sure as it was working fine with WSD.

        Have you checked if your firewall might be blocking this IP address? Other than that, I’d try removing the driver and installing it again.

        César

      • #2634780

        Now who’s evil? I’m not really sure as it was working fine with WSD.

        Susan says that’s not possible:

        My WSD printer works fine. What’s the evil element?

        Sorry b I’m not buying that you’ve never experienced a problem with your printers using a wsd port.  Once again you are being a contrarian.

    • #2634869

      The problem with WSD is it won’t wake up the printer, which is bizarre for a protocol meant to ease installation.

      The more “evil” part to me is what Windows does depending HOW you set a TCP port for a printer. If you use the Add a printer wizard and add it by IP that way it will randomly change to WSD without warning.

      If you use “add a printer with manual settings”, the bottom option, then create a new port, Standard TCP/IP the settings persist.

      FWIW I have seen the scanning function require WSD to work and honestly it is for no good reason. Alternative software such as NAPS2 work on the same hardware over TCP.

      People want stuff to work and be reliable. WSD printing and scanning isn’t.

      These are my observations over the last 18 years since WSD was released and servicing 10’s of thousands of clients.

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • #2635524

      Can someone provide the exact steps to use for setting up tcp/ip ports for network printers that are wired to a router?  I checked and my 2 wired printers are using the WSD ports.  I’m using Windows 10 Home OS.  Thanks!

      I still need some help as referenced above.  My 2 wired printers have been set up with static ip addresses, but unfortunately, they are using the WSD ports.

      • #2635810

        From Control Panel>Devices and Printers>”Add a printer”

        add-printer

        1 user thanked author for this post.
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