Area is grayed out and will not permit any changes. Keep getting "bidirectional support disabled" error message.

Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and shared
the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared printer on
using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3. Everything
worked fine for a short period of time then started getting the,
"bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked settings on
both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is grayed out and I
cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits with most of them
already tried with no success and the others offered no solution. The D620
prints fine but about every five seconds the error message pops up. Any
help on this would be much appreciated!

On 6/8/2011 12:49 PM, 10_4 wrote:
> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
> printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3.
> Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started getting
> the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked
> settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is
> grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits
> with most of them already tried with no success and the others offered
> no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds the error
> message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!

My suggest to you is to go get a router, a print server and plug the
print server into the router and the plug the printer into the print
server. That way, no PC has to host the printer and both computers can
use the printer on the network individually, because of the router and
the print server.

On 6/08/2011, Big Steel posted:
> On 6/8/2011 12:49 PM, 10_4 wrote:
>> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
>> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
>> printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3.
>> Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started getting
>> the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked
>> settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is
>> grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits
>> with most of them already tried with no success and the others offered
>> no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds the error
>> message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!

> My suggest to you is to go get a router, a print server and plug the print
> server into the router and the plug the printer into the print server. That
> way, no PC has to host the printer and both computers can use the printer on
> the network individually, because of the router and the print server.

+1

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

10_4 wrote:
> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
> printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional
> SP3. Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started
> getting the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double
> checked settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the
> D620 is grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found
> many hits with most of them already tried with no success and the others
> offered no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds
> the error message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!

Error: "Bidirectional support is disabled"
Published 08/25/2010 11:38 AM | Updated 05/16/2011 05:15 PM | Answer ID 1294

http://support.en.kodak.com/app/answ...tail/a_id/1294

"If the error continues, and the printer is connected with a USB cable,
follow the steps below:

1. Disconnect the printer from the computer.
2. Delete the all-in-one printer icon:
3. Select Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Kodak > Kodak Printer Network Setup Utility.
Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the printer.
Connect the printer using the USB cable when prompted."

That web link will prompt you for country first, and after setting
your country, will display info on setting up the printer again.

That doesn't answer why it got fouled up, and it could well revert.
Perhaps some "update" will wander onto the computer, after you
reset things ?

Paul

"Paul" <> wrote in message
news:isojj4$2i8$...
> 10_4 wrote:
>> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and shared
>> the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared printer
>> on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3.
>> Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started getting
>> the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked
>> settings on both machines to find the bidirectional area on the D620 is
>> grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits
>> with most of them already tried with no success and the others offered no
>> solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds the error
>> message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!
>
> Error: "Bidirectional support is disabled"
> Published 08/25/2010 11:38 AM | Updated 05/16/2011 05:15 PM | Answer ID
> 1294
>
> http://support.en.kodak.com/app/answ...tail/a_id/1294
>
> "If the error continues, and the printer is connected with a USB cable,
> follow the steps below:
>
> 1. Disconnect the printer from the computer.
> 2. Delete the all-in-one printer icon:
> 3. Select Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Kodak > Kodak Printer
> Network Setup Utility.
> Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the printer.
> Connect the printer using the USB cable when prompted."
>
> That web link will prompt you for country first, and after setting
> your country, will display info on setting up the printer again.
>
> That doesn't answer why it got fouled up, and it could well revert.
> Perhaps some "update" will wander onto the computer, after you
> reset things ?
>
> Paul

Been there and did all of that as well as all kind of searching. The D620
is not physically connected to the printer so this information does not
satisfy the situation. Thanks anyway!

On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:33:43 -0700, Gene E. Bloch
<> wrote:

>On 6/08/2011, Big Steel posted:
>> On 6/8/2011 12:49 PM, 10_4 wrote:
>>> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
>>> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
>>> printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3.
>>> Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started getting
>>> the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked
>>> settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is
>>> grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits
>>> with most of them already tried with no success and the others offered
>>> no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds the error
>>> message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!
>
>> My suggest to you is to go get a router, a print server and plug the print
>> server into the router and the plug the printer into the print server. That
>> way, no PC has to host the printer and both computers can use the printer on
>> the network individually, because of the router and the print server.
>
>+1

On the other hand, I have a print server somewhere around here with
less than 20 minutes of use on it. I yanked it as soon as I realized
that it wasn't able to report ink status on my Epson printer. Have the
current print servers gotten around that by now? I sure hope so,
because it was a deal breaker for me.

--

Char Jackson

10_4 wrote:
>
>
> "Paul" <> wrote in message
> news:isojj4$2i8$...
>> 10_4 wrote:
>>> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
>>> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the
>>> shared printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP
>>> Professional SP3. Everything worked fine for a short period of time
>>> then started getting the, "bidirectional support disabled" error
>>> message. Double checked settings on both machines to find the
>>> bidirectional area on the D620 is grayed out and I cannot make any
>>> changes. Googled and found many hits with most of them already tried
>>> with no success and the others offered no solution. The D620 prints
>>> fine but about every five seconds the error message pops up. Any
>>> help on this would be much appreciated!
>>
>> Error: "Bidirectional support is disabled"
>> Published 08/25/2010 11:38 AM | Updated 05/16/2011 05:15 PM | Answer
>> ID 1294
>>
>> http://support.en.kodak.com/app/answ...tail/a_id/1294
>>
>> "If the error continues, and the printer is connected with a USB
>> cable,
>> follow the steps below:
>>
>> 1. Disconnect the printer from the computer.
>> 2. Delete the all-in-one printer icon:
>> 3. Select Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Kodak > Kodak
>> Printer Network Setup Utility.
>> Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the printer.
>> Connect the printer using the USB cable when prompted."
>>
>> That web link will prompt you for country first, and after setting
>> your country, will display info on setting up the printer again.
>>
>> That doesn't answer why it got fouled up, and it could well revert.
>> Perhaps some "update" will wander onto the computer, after you
>> reset things ?
>>
>> Paul
>
> Been there and did all of that as well as all kind of searching. The
> D620 is not physically connected to the printer so this information does
> not satisfy the situation. Thanks anyway!

They make it sound here, like "bidirectional support" is an error message
associated with a communications problem between the other computer and
its local printer. In other words, the "Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable"
has a local communications problem, and the remote D620 sees this lack
of proper functioning, and the error message results. So the problem
might well be with a setting on the Kodak 3250 host computer.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...7&locale=en_US

To me, a technical term like "bidirectional support", is something associated
with a parallel port or a parallel port emulation over USB. It's pretty hard
to figure out, why a networked protocol stack, would be using that in an
error message.

Paul

On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:11:14 -0400, Paul <> wrote:

>10_4 wrote:
>>
>>
>> "Paul" <> wrote in message
>> news:isojj4$2i8$...
>>> 10_4 wrote:
>>>> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
>>>> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the
>>>> shared printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP
>>>> Professional SP3. Everything worked fine for a short period of time
>>>> then started getting the, "bidirectional support disabled" error
>>>> message. Double checked settings on both machines to find the
>>>> bidirectional area on the D620 is grayed out and I cannot make any
>>>> changes. Googled and found many hits with most of them already tried
>>>> with no success and the others offered no solution. The D620 prints
>>>> fine but about every five seconds the error message pops up. Any
>>>> help on this would be much appreciated!
>>>
>>> Error: "Bidirectional support is disabled"
>>> Published 08/25/2010 11:38 AM | Updated 05/16/2011 05:15 PM | Answer
>>> ID 1294
>>>
>>> http://support.en.kodak.com/app/answ...tail/a_id/1294
>>>
>>> "If the error continues, and the printer is connected with a USB
>>> cable,
>>> follow the steps below:
>>>
>>> 1. Disconnect the printer from the computer.
>>> 2. Delete the all-in-one printer icon:
>>> 3. Select Start > Programs (or All Programs) > Kodak > Kodak
>>> Printer Network Setup Utility.
>>> Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the printer.
>>> Connect the printer using the USB cable when prompted."
>>>
>>> That web link will prompt you for country first, and after setting
>>> your country, will display info on setting up the printer again.
>>>
>>> That doesn't answer why it got fouled up, and it could well revert.
>>> Perhaps some "update" will wander onto the computer, after you
>>> reset things ?
>>>
>>> Paul
>>
>> Been there and did all of that as well as all kind of searching. The
>> D620 is not physically connected to the printer so this information does
>> not satisfy the situation. Thanks anyway!
>
>They make it sound here, like "bidirectional support" is an error message
>associated with a communications problem between the other computer and
>its local printer. In other words, the "Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable"
>has a local communications problem, and the remote D620 sees this lack
>of proper functioning, and the error message results. So the problem
>might well be with a setting on the Kodak 3250 host computer.
>
>http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...7&locale=en_US
>
>To me, a technical term like "bidirectional support", is something associated
>with a parallel port or a parallel port emulation over USB. It's pretty hard
>to figure out, why a networked protocol stack, would be using that in an
>error message.

To me, it's entirely related to printer communication. With printers,
you usually send data in one direction, from the computer to the
printer, but with inkjet printers, for example, you want the printer
to be able to send data back to the computer. Hence, bidirectional
support.

--

Char Jackson

On 6/08/2011, Char Jackson posted:
> On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:33:43 -0700, Gene E. Bloch
> <> wrote:

>> On 6/08/2011, Big Steel posted:
>>> On 6/8/2011 12:49 PM, 10_4 wrote:
>>>> Installed a Kodak 3250 on an XP Home SP3 machine via USB cable and
>>>> shared the printer. I have a Dell Latitude D620 that I setup the shared
>>>> printer on using the network settings. The D620 has XP Professional SP3.
>>>> Everything worked fine for a short period of time then started getting
>>>> the, "bidirectional support disabled" error message. Double checked
>>>> settings on both machines to find the bisectional area on the D620 is
>>>> grayed out and I cannot make any changes. Googled and found many hits
>>>> with most of them already tried with no success and the others offered
>>>> no solution. The D620 prints fine but about every five seconds the error
>>>> message pops up. Any help on this would be much appreciated!
>>> My suggest to you is to go get a router, a print server and plug the print
>>> server into the router and the plug the printer into the print server. That
>>> way, no PC has to host the printer and both computers can use the printer
>>> on the network individually, because of the router and the print server.
>>
>> +1

> On the other hand, I have a print server somewhere around here with
> less than 20 minutes of use on it. I yanked it as soon as I realized
> that it wasn't able to report ink status on my Epson printer. Have the
> current print servers gotten around that by now? I sure hope so,
> because it was a deal breaker for me.

OK, I really missed the "print router" remark...

I was thinking of a printer plugged into a LAN port on the router, or
connected wirelessly. Obviously if the printer doesn't one of those
capabilities, I'm all wet.

But do they make printers without some kind of LAN connection these
days? It's a serious question - I'm not paying much attention to
printers right now.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:56:44 -0700, Gene E. Bloch
<> wrote:

>On 6/08/2011, Char Jackson posted:
>
>> On the other hand, I have a print server somewhere around here with
>> less than 20 minutes of use on it. I yanked it as soon as I realized
>> that it wasn't able to report ink status on my Epson printer. Have the
>> current print servers gotten around that by now? I sure hope so,
>> because it was a deal breaker for me.
>
>OK, I really missed the "print router" remark...

Or print server, I suppose...:-)

>I was thinking of a printer plugged into a LAN port on the router, or
>connected wirelessly. Obviously if the printer doesn't one of those
>capabilities, I'm all wet.
>
>But do they make printers without some kind of LAN connection these
>days? It's a serious question - I'm not paying much attention to
>printers right now.

Most consumer-level printers, or maybe even all of them, simply come
with USB connectivity these days. It's a significant step up in cost,
usually, to find a printer with some kind of network connectivity,
whether wired or wireless.

Anybody seeing a different trend?

--

Char Jackson