Special Purpose Zone Missing

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
davereb
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Special Purpose Zone Missing

#1

Post by davereb »

I noticed today that the "Special Purpose Zone" used by family history centers is now gone. Is this on purpose or is it unexpected? (Well it is unexpected by me, but what about the network admins?) It was my understanding that this Special Purpose Zone was used so the PCs could be verified to actually be in a FHC and so the printers in FHCs could be monitored for service and toner needs. Are both of these purposes no longer needed?
russellhltn
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#2

Post by russellhltn »

Having visited some of the FHC Support meetings, this is expected. I'm not sure why, or how they plan to monitor the printers. In my case, the Special Zone disappeared, and a static IP was assigned to the printer, but nothing was done with the FHC computers. So, I got a surprise call that they couldn't print. I had to change the IP address of the printer on each machine.

So, no, it's not an accident. But it is a head scratcher.
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Biggles
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#3

Post by Biggles »

We in Europe were informed of the removal of the Special Purpose Zone, several months ago with the dates that this would happen in each country. For the UK that was November 29th. The notice we received asked us to make sure all computers/printers were set to DHCP. I only had to set the printer to DHCP beforehand and on the allotted date of the change the printer was assigned to a Public Network IP address! Subsequently the printer worked without any further intervention on my part! We haven't been informed of any other changes regarding printer monitoring.
russellhltn
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#4

Post by russellhltn »

Biggles wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 4:51 am We in Europe were informed of the removal of the Special Purpose Zone, several months ago with the dates that this would happen in each country.
Was this by email? I haven't seen anything in my inbox.

Biggles wrote: Sun Dec 18, 2022 4:51 amSubsequently the printer worked without any further intervention on my part! We haven't been informed of any other changes regarding printer monitoring.
How are the printers set up on the computers? As in what method do they use to connect? Mine have all been via a "TCP/IP port" with a fixed address. Consequently, when the change was made, all the computers could no longer print.
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lrmeyer
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#5

Post by lrmeyer »

I had the same surprise call last night, "there is something wrong with the printer.." It would have been nice to know about this ahead of time as I don't recall receiving any notification about this and the church is usually pretty good about that.
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Biggles
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#6

Post by Biggles »

lrmeyer wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 7:51 am I had the same surprise call last night, "there is something wrong with the printer.." It would have been nice to know about this ahead of time as I don't recall receiving any notification about this and the church is usually pretty good about that.
It would appear that the FamilySearch tech guys didn’t have the courtesy to notify you in the US, about this change.

Personally, until very recently, I’ve found that the FamilySearch tech support has been very haphazard on notifying us of any changes that affect the operation of the FHC computers!
russellhltn
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#7

Post by russellhltn »

As for printer monitoring, I was told there should be an app on the printer itself that "phones home" with the status. It should show up on the list of apps. So the printer no longer needs to be reachable from the outside, as long as it has a connection to the internet.

However, I can't find any "app" on my printer. Even the "Scan to FamilySearch" feature is gone.

Guess I need to call.
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davereb
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#8

Post by davereb »

Does anyone know how we can verify the "phone home" feature is working? I have 3 FHCs I'm the tech guy for that are each an hour apart from the other two. I'd like to know things are working so I don't need to make emergency trips. So an emergency trip to all three is more than three hours of driving. (I'm not complaining, just wanting to avoid emergency trips.)
russellhltn
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#9

Post by russellhltn »

davereb wrote: Thu Dec 22, 2022 1:18 pm Does anyone know how we can verify the "phone home" feature is working?
Open up a web browser and go to the printer's IP address. On the left side, click "Applications". You should see "Printer Configuration Agent". If you click on that, you can find the status.

The printer should be checking in with Lexmark Cloud Services. Based on Biggles's comments, it might not be available in all countries. Especially if the printer is not a Lexmark brand.
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marcogaertner
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Re: Special Purpose Zone Missing

#10

Post by marcogaertner »

Hi, how or who would I contact so I also could receive this type of announcement please? I am one of the stake tech specialists. Thanks!
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