Ugh--Brother MFCJ430W Printer problems

I am at my wits end!! I'm new-ish to Zorin, and REALLY love this distro after playing the field for awhile, but...
My Brother printer has been a pain lately. It did work when I originally installed it, but stopped sometime around a large Ubuntu software update. I have been able to get it working once since, but unfortunately, it stopped again, and I have no idea what steps I took to get it working the first time I fixed it. *sigh*

I have been working the Ubuntu forums for solutions, and have been going around in a loop of installing the printer by various methods and it's still not working. I know that the printer works, since most of the house is Windows or Android, where printing works just fine.

I just think I need to start fresh. Two questions:
1. Besides uninstalling the printer and drivers, what else do I need to get rid of?
2. Can someone PLEASE help me get this printer to work once and for all? (or at least long enough to print ONE document) I also want to know what caused it to "break" in the first place, so that I can mitigate it in the future.

Go easy on me...I'm new to working in the terminal, but I can get around ok (with lots of command googling!)

Thanks!

Hi and welcome to the Zorin forum!

Open a terminal (Menu | Accessories | Terminal or Ctrl+ Alt+ T) and enter:

Code:

system-config-printer

This should open the 'add printer' user interface - as you already have the drivers installed see if you can get it back this way first!

Thanks for the welcome!

I forgot to mention something very important!! I have to set this printer up as a network printer, because it's attached to the router only, and I can't reach all the way. It has worked before. Sadly, I have tried system-config-printer...MANY TIMES. Everything looks ok, until I get a printer state as "The printer is not responding."
I have set it up with a device URI as LPD, and I tried both the IP address and the MAC address as BRWxxx... and BRNxxx...
Neither have worked. Maybe I'm doing that part wrong?

Is there any way you can physically connect the printer first to the machine like you do with some wireless printers under Windows to assign an IP address? Can you 'browse' the network and see if you can see the printer that way?