Can't print to Ricoh Laser AP2600 even after proper driver installed. Help?

Question

Have a Ricoh Laser AP2600, and a new MacBook Pro with 10.6.3.
Connected the two with an Ethernet cable (the same Ethernet cable I've used successfully for years with this same printer -- it's the right cable). Turned printer on; "Ready to Print" it says.
At first just tried printing without making any downloads or installations, a simple TextEdit document, using the default "Generic Postscript Printer" as the selected printer "driver." Nothing happens -- the computer does not even seem to "recognize" that a printer is connected. Get the message "Connecting to printer..." and then "Unable to connect to printer; will retry in 30 seconds....", and it never succeeds.
Then I searched on the computer for a Ricoh Laser AP2600 driver that may have come with the 10.6.3 install: no such luck.
Then I found the page at the Ricoh site that supposedly has the proper driver:
http://support.ricoh.com/bb/html/drute/ra/model/p26a/p26aen.htm#MacOS%20X%2010.6
"MacOS X 10.6 PPD Installer Ver.1.3.0 24/04/2008"
Downloaded it, ran the installer, it was installed.
Went to the "Print and Fax" section of the System Preferences, then added the printer to the printer list by finding its IP address and manually entering it. Succeeded. Proper printer with an icon that looks exactly like my Ricoh Laser AP2600 added to the printer list. Selected it as my default printer. Closed Print SysPref dialog box.
Went back to random TextEdit document, tried printing again. My Ricoh Laser AP2600 appeared as the chosen printer, as hoped, and then I hit "Print," and the Printing Queue window opened. But once again, it was unable to connect to the printer.
Went back to the System Preferences printing pane, the Ricoh is listed on the left and has a green dot next to it, which supposedly indicates that it is OK and ready to print.
I went to Finder and the Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources to insure that the Ricoh Laser AP2600 PPD was there. It was definitely there, along with all alternate nearby variations ("AP2600 PS," "Aficio AP2600," etc.).
Tried printing again. No luck. Tried turning off printer and waiting for a few minutes, unplugged the cable, then turning it back on, replugging back in, printing again, no luck. Tried the same after re-choosing the generic printer driver, no luck. Tried the other kind of generic printer driver, no luck.
Help! This printer works GREAT when it works, and I don't want to have to buy a new one. It worked perfectly fine (and continues to work perfectly fine) when I connect to it with my old PowerBook running 10.4.11. Nothing's wrong with the printer, nor with my MacBook Pro -- all that is missing apparently is the right software or drivers or whatever to make it work.
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Hooray!
Using your instructions, I finally got the computer to recognize and "ping" the existence of the printer. Once I got that far, it was easy enough to do what was my original goal, to set up a "printer" in the System Preference "Print & Fax" pane and successfully print a document, which I did.
One of the glitch-y final difficulties was that the printer has no way to make any IP address with fewer than 3 digits per field, so that I can't actually make it have the address "14.22.33.44," but rather it must necessarily be "014.022.033.044." While that may seem like a completely unimportant and dismissable detail to an expert such as yourself, to a networking newbie like me it throws one final dilemma in my way: Are the zeros "ignorable" or are they an essential part of the printer's IP? I tried setting the computer's IP with and without the zeros, and then pinging the printer with and without the zeros, and finally on the last configuration -- printer itself with zeros, computer without zeros, pinging of printer's IP without zeros -- the ping succeeded. A little counter-intuitive, but who am I to complain?
So, for the record, to help all the world's Ricoh printer owners out there, assuming this thread will forever be archived: here is a summary of...
*How to make a Ricoh Laser AP2600 work with a 2010-era Mac running Snow Leopard 10.6.3*:
Go to Ricoh's "printer driver" Web page at one of these two URLs:
http://support.ricoh.com/bb/html/drute/ra/model/p26a/p26aen.htm
or
http://www.ricoh-usa.com/downloads/downloads.asp?tsn=Ricoh-USA&path=http://suppo rt.ricoh.com/bb/html/drute/rc2/model/p26L/p26Len.htm
...and click on "MacOS X 10.6 PPD Installer Ver.1.3.0".
Once downloaded, run the installer's "package" which will place the necessary Ricoh printer drivers in Finder>Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources (you can check to make sure, if you want.)
Turn on the Ricoh, connect it to your Mac with an Ethernet cable. On the Ricoh's little display/button area, press "Menu" and then using the "Up" and "Down" arrows buttons and the "Enter" and "Escape" buttons, scroll through its menus like so: Menu/Host Interface/Network Setup/IP Address until you find the IP address, which likely will be listed as 011.022.033.044. You can leave it as that or change it to anything else you want. But then go to Menu/Host Interface/Network Setup/(etc.) and scroll through the other options: Change "Subnet Mask" to 255.255.255.000, but make sure to leave all the other settings at 000.000.000.000. Escape back to the "Ready" state.
Turn of the Ricoh, wait a bit, and turn it back on, and scroll back to the IP Address and Subnet Mask to make sure the settings were "remembered." If they weren't for some reason, try again.
Then, on your Mac, go to "System Preferences> Network", click on "Ethernet" on the left column, and in the drop-down menu "Configure IPv4" choose "Manually." Then in the "IP Address" field type in whatever IP address you entered for the printer *but make the final number one digit higher*. Also, *leave off any initial zeros*. Thus, if you left the printer's IP at 011.022.033.044, then make your computer's IP be 11.22.33.45; and so on for any combination of numbers. In the "Subnet Mask" field, enter 255.255.255.0. Leave all the other fields blank. Click "Apply."
Then go to "Applications>Utilities>Network Utility," open the program, make sure the Ethernet cable is plugged in and the printer is on and the green "Ready" light is illuminated, and click on "Network Utility" "Ping" pane, and enter as the address to Ping your printer's IP address *lacking the initial zeros.* Thus, in our example, enter 11.22.33.44. Click the "Ping" button, and if the program shows pinging happening and a "0% packet loss," then you're connected. If not, go back to the beginning and try again, double-checking each step.
Once you have pinged successfully and are connected, go to System Preferences>Print & Fax, click on the "+" symbol under the list of printers to add a new printer. In the "Add Printer" window that pops up, leave it on "Line Printer Daemon - LPD" Protocol, and enter in to the "Address" line your printer's IP address, *leaving off any initial zeros*.
If the "Print Using" menu automatically detects and chooses "Ricoh Laser AP2600 PS" as the printer driver, then you're set to go; if not, and it remains on "Generic Postscript Printer Driver" or something similar, then in the drop-down menu choose "Select Printer Software" and scroll to near the bottom and choose the proper printer driver, presumably "Ricoh Laser AP2600 PS" (or whatever your exact model is). "Name" it whatever you want. Leave "Queue" and "Location" blank.
Click "Add" and your printer will appear in the list of printers in the "Print & Fax" panel. In the "Default Printer" drop-down menu, choose your new printer as the default. Close System Preferences.
That's it! You should be able to print now. Open a document, choose the "Print" command, check to make sure the Ricoh is the chosen printer in the print dialog box, and that everything is plugged in and turned on, then click "Print." Hopefully, the Ricoh will spit out your document in a second or two! If not, go back and go through the steps again. If it worked for me, it should work for you.