Can't access Printers EASILY via IE 7 after new switches

Good Evening,

I access/manage a lot of my networked printers through IE 7 via their assigned IP address.

Last week we replaced all the old switches with brand new Cisco switches and everything is working perfectly except for the fact I need to modify the IE settings (Tools | Internet Options | Connections | LAN Settings) to view the printer management pages. I have to remove all check marks on this page. If I don't IE shoots my request (10.3.0.XXX) to the internet search engine. I have tried adding the specific printer IPs to the Exceptions list on the Connections | Advanced tab, but that didn't solve the problem.

I know I'm missing something, but what???

Some network details:
Domain, server 2003

Stephanie wrote: I have to remove all check marks on this page. If I don't IE shoots my request (10.3.0.XXX) to the internet search engine. I have tried adding the specific printer IPs to the Exceptions list on the Connections | Advanced tab, but that didn't solve the problem.

Have the LAN Settings settings always been like that (checked boxes) but you have been able to access the printer pages or did these settings start to show up after switch changes? I'd guess that the settings have always been there since those settings are generally set by policy.

Either way, here's a thought:
Being that you have to remove check boxes on that page, I'd think that initially, the check boxes are there to tell IE to use the settings specified, which are generally to use configuration scripts that tell IE how to surf or to tell IE to go through a proxy (these check boxes are probably placed by policy). I'd think that the settings tell your browser to go straight to the Internet, and being that private IP addresses aren't resolvable on the Internet, it defaults to a search engine. If this is the case, go to Internet Options > Security tab and see what you can find out on the Intranet settings...by default, IE is supposed to detect local intranet sites and direct you to the appropriate locations and not send you externally.