Solution to "Printing Error" with HP C4780

Question

Hi all,
Had a bit of a wrestling match with this printer today when I increased firewall security from "Low" (Allow all outbound connections that do not match a rule) to "Medium" (Dis-allow all outbound connections that do not match a rule).
This was using Windows Firewall, on a Windows 7 Ultimate 32-Bit machine.
No-where seemed to have a comprehensive list of protocols that needed to be allowed anywhere, so I thought I'd post my 2 cents here.
The HP Photosmart C4780, and most other printers from what I can tell receives print jobs on TCP port 9100, however the Solution centre and status monitoring programs communicate on UDP port 161,427 and TCP port 445, these must all be allowed in order for both the printing and status monitoring to work.
For me because I'm security concious I only wanted to allow communication between specific IP's, this requires setting your HP printer and your computer to a Static IP, a brilliant tool from PortForward.com can set your computer's IP static while HP have a guide on how to set the printer to Static via the setup program.
Once this is done in "Advanced Firewall Settings" set your computer's IP as the 'Local Address' and the printer's IP as the "Remote Address" for all the rules you create.
Again because my network is comprised of a router and 2 access points DHCP gets messy, this meant that for the TCP 9100 rule I had to define the remote port as 'Local Subnet' and the Local Port as a range of 192.168.1.0 - 192.168.1.254 - everything now works perfectly!
So to summarise;
1)
- Decide whether you want restrict communication based on IP addresses.
- Set your computer's IP address to static, either manually or using PortForward.com's utility.
- Set your printer's IP address to static using the HP setup program.
- Write down both IP's.
2)
- Open your firewall and add a new "Outbound Rule"
- Select the UDP protocol and input ports 161 and 427 as the remote ports to be allowed (specify remote and local IP's here if you wish too)
- Add another outbound rule, select TCP and input ports 9100 and 445 as the remote ports to be allows (again specify remote and local IP's here if you wish).
3)
A restart shouldn't be required, just close the HP Solution Centre program and open it again, then try a test print using notepad or word.
Your done!
Cheers.
H.

Answer 1

Hi @Maor-S 
I have a feeling the issue may be resolved with the following Microsoft Hotfix;  A wireless, high-quality print job to a WSD port is automatically canceled on a Windows 8.1 computer...
Details and other possible solutions can be found in the following HP document; Wireless HP Printer Prints a Partial Page or Fails to Print All Pages in Windows 8.
I hope this helps. Please let me know if this resolves the issue, thanks.
Please click the Thumbs up icon below to thank me for responding.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
Sunshyn2005 - I work on behalf of HP