Sudden Mac/PC Network Failure. Need Help

[AAGraphics]

I'm running a 2010 Mac Mini as my main workstation, connected through our office router to a Windows 2000 running a Highwater Harlequin RIP. We've been using AppleTalk for communication, and I'll be honest here, I don't know much about the setup beyond that. Today after a much needed reboot on the Mac to clear up some sluggishness, I was prompted for a bunch of passwords (iMessage, iTunes, etc) on startup. Not thinking much of it, I got back to work. When I went to send a job out of InDesign to the RIP, I got the bouncing printer icon in the Dock, and the printer status came up as "Hold for Authentication." I've only had this one other time, after installing Mavericks, but I haven't done any upgrades for this to happen now.

I hit the little circular arrow (refresh?) icon and was asked for my printer login info. I put it in and I got the same "Hold for Authentication" message again. So I did this a bunch of times and then went over to the Windows box and reset the passwords so I could be sure it wasn't just old age setting in (at 32?) - Still nothing.

None of my network settings were changed, and all the connections seemed to be working right up until the restart this morning. I ran BitDefender on the Mac to see if I could have possibly gotten a virus that messed with my network settings and it came up clean. I even created a new Admin user account on the Windows 2000 machine and tried to use that login info with no success. Rebooted the routers and the modem... still nothing...

I found something on some other forum about going into Terminal and messing with the printers in there, but kept getting asked for a system password. The problem is I don't have a system password, I always left it blank, but it wouldn't accept a blank return command. I'm also leery on messing with stuff in Terminal, so I'm not sure if I was confident enough to go through with it all anyway.

I was about to uninstall and then reinstall the virtual printer profiles on my Mac (even though I don't necessarily know how to set them up properly again, but I thought it was worth considering anyway), but before I deleted anything I wanted to make sure I could access the printers in the RIP. After going go System Preferences > Printers > Add > Windows I found the workgroup computer and the hqrip group nested inside, but when it went to look for the printers in hqrip it prompted me again for the system password. Once again, no combination would work, not even using the "guest" setting - the PW window just shakes and nothing happens.

I'm at a complete loss, and since 90% of what I do here is film, I can't get much done if I can't access my printers in the RIP.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance, this forum is always very helpful.
-Rob

 

[MacTwidget]

Are you certain that it is asking for the Mac Mini's password and not the username and password of the Harlequin RIP?
BTW, AppleTalk was discontinued in OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

 

[wonderings]

Have you tried looking in Keychain Access? It is located in Application>Utilities. You can view every username and password for everything you have ever connected to in there. You will need the admin name and password of the Mac Mini to show the passwords.

 

[David Milisock]

Now that you mention keychain there was a write up about 1 month ago about serious security issues with keychain and sandbox. The just about 3 days ago Malwarebytes reported that they had their first malware report exploiting the keychain flaw. Maybe a long shot but a possibility.

 

[Joe]

Windows 2000 is pretty old for communicating with newer Macs. What version of OS X is on the Mac Mini. And did you do anything other than reboot when you say that you "after a much needed reboot on the Mac to clear up some sluggishness"?

 

[kansasquaker]

Yeah, the prompts for iMessage and iTunes passwords sounds like maybe your os was updated when you rebooted. Have you checked? And you're almost assuredly being prompted for the login for the windows2000 box when you click on the printer.

 

[AAGraphics]

Thanks everyone,

Had a household emergency so I'm just getting into the office now and seeing these.

I only rebooted the system, I didn't do any upgrades. I'm running Mavericks on the Mac Mini, and have been for a while now, and this is the first time I'm encountering this problem.

I checked Keychain, deleted all the items for the printers, and tried entering it all by hand again when prompted, still nothing. I'm assuming it's asking for the printer/windows 2000 password. I did try the password for the Mac as well, though, and still nothing. When Windows loads and asks for the login it works on that actual machine, but connecting via the network just isn't happening.

I will look into the Malwarebytes thing you mentioned, David. Hopefully there's some kind of "cure" in their info as well. I'm essentially down right now and wondering if I should just bite the bullet and call a tech.

-Rob

 

[wonderings]

Thanks everyone,

Had a household emergency so I'm just getting into the office now and seeing these.

I only rebooted the system, I didn't do any upgrades. I'm running Mavericks on the Mac Mini, and have been for a while now, and this is the first time I'm encountering this problem.

I checked Keychain, deleted all the items for the printers, and tried entering it all by hand again when prompted, still nothing. I'm assuming it's asking for the printer/windows 2000 password. I did try the password for the Mac as well, though, and still nothing. When Windows loads and asks for the login it works on that actual machine, but connecting via the network just isn't happening.

I will look into the Malwarebytes thing you mentioned, David. Hopefully there's some kind of "cure" in their info as well. I'm essentially down right now and wondering if I should just bite the bullet and call a tech.

-Rob

I would not have deleted the items for the printers in keychain, with those items you would be able to see the username and password used to login in before. Maybe there was something different there then normal.

I am assuming you restarted the Windows machine? I have had a similar issue on a rare occasion, and restarting the machine solved my problem.

 

[AAGraphics]

Hey Wonderings,

The thing is that the passwords were never changed. I did look at them before deleting them and they were correct, but for some reason the PC won't accept the connection from the Mac, despite the passwords being right. I'm at a total loss. I've checked lots of troubleshooting sites and have tried nearly everything (everything that I felt competent doing without risking further issues).

-Rob

 

[AAGraphics]

Hey guys,

My mistake, and not sure if this changes things, but I double checked the connection and it's not AppleTalk, it's ScriptWorks.

-Rob

 

[wonderings]

Hey Wonderings,

The thing is that the passwords were never changed. I did look at them before deleting them and they were correct, but for some reason the PC won't accept the connection from the Mac, despite the passwords being right. I'm at a total loss. I've checked lots of troubleshooting sites and have tried nearly everything (everything that I felt competent doing without risking further issues).

-Rob

Sounds like something changed on the windows end of things. Either sharing preferences or some security setting. I do not know enough about Windows to say anything concrete, I just know Windows has been far more temperamental then OS X has. Are updates turned off on the Windows machine? My PC will do updates automatically when I shut it down at home. Maybe some update went through on Windows that has caused this headache? If everything looks fine from the Mac side of things maybe it is time to start looking at the other end.

 

[AAGraphics]

I've been looking at both ends, and everything looks right to me, that's what's so confusing. I don't have automatic updates turn on for the Windows computer, and it wasn't rebooted to begin with. All the the usual tips as far as reinstalling the printers, making new network connections, none of that will work because it just won't accept the login credentials. I even turned off the need for a PW at all and it still won't work, though I've read in the past that Mac won't let you connect to a computer that doesn't require a login as a security precaution.

-Rob

 

[David Milisock]

I've been looking at both ends, and everything looks right to me, that's what's so confusing. I don't have automatic updates turn on for the Windows computer, and it wasn't rebooted to begin with. All the the usual tips as far as reinstalling the printers, making new network connections, none of that will work because it just won't accept the login credentials. I even turned off the need for a PW at all and it still won't work, though I've read in the past that Mac won't let you connect to a computer that doesn't require a login as a security precaution.

-Rob

I do not believe this version of Windows will authentic without a password.

 

[AAGraphics]

I emailed a guy we used to use for tech stuff, he's the one who installed our SelectSet 5000 over 10 years ago. I'm going to get some phone support on Monday, but in the meantime he reminded me of the old USB Postscript file trick. It won't give me as many options as far as color separations go, but if I can manage most of our black jobs this way I'll be able to at least rip some basic stuff in the interim.

If you guys have any other networking ideas that might apply here I'll be more than happy to try them out.

-Rob

 

[benstarr]

Was the Mac OS Updated with the reboot? It sounds like it may have been to me.

This link may help, you may have to change the Mac OS to back SMB1 to reestablish connection. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5467191?tstart=0

We had a similar issue on with Windows 2003 not too long ago and made some change to how Windows authenticated passwords, this resolved the issue but unfortunately I can't recall what we did.

 

[AAGraphics]

Just wanted to update everyone. I am not aware of any update that was installed, but it seems as though either a security update was applied on that reboot I mentioned, or an exploit was patched accidentally. Basically, OS 10.9 should not have been able to communicate with Windows 2000 running a HQRip v.7 - However, somehow it was successful for years through Scriptworks and a NT Print configuration on the rip end. It suddenly stopped accepting login info even though it was all correct. So we bypassed everything by printing via socket connection. We just gave the printer profile it's own port number and used the rip's IP and the port number to connect and print directly.

I was also able to fix a pesky PPD version error that had existed since my last installation a few years ago. It never gave me any errors, but it's nice to know that I'm now running the intended PPD rather than a generic one.

Thanks again to everyone for your input on this.
-Rob