port connections of a type well known in the art computer workstation 12 also includes a network card 18 such as an ethernet card for providing a physical connection to network 16 computer workstation 12 is configured with software graphically depicted in fig1 including a printer driver 20 and an operating system 22 in addition computer workstation 12 includes a user interface 24 that permits user interaction via a crt monitor and an input device such as a keyboard and or a mouse user interface 24 includes graphical user interface software that allows a user to display information relative to networked printer 14 and to manually assign ip addresses to devices connected to network 16 where automatic address assignment is not feasible networked printer 14 may be an imaging device such as a lexmark u00ae ink jet printer networked printer 14 includes printer firmware 26 and a network adapter 28 which are communicatively interconnected all network traffic directed to networked printer 14 flows through network adapter 28 to printer firmware 26 printer firmware 26 is responsible for generating a printed page on networked printer 14 and printer firmware 26 relies on network adapter 28 to deliver printer control information and print data thereto for purposes of the present invention it is presumed that network adapter 28 is configured to communicate via network 16 network adapter 28 may be implemented as an application specific integrated circuit asic and may be a basic low cost network adapter lcna available from lexmark international inc network 16 such as a local area network lan provides communicative interconnection between computer workstation 12 and networked printer 14 and other devices adapted for.