Wireless Printer Won't Connect

[glennhoffmania]

A few months ago out of the blue my computer and printer stopped communicating. Same thing with my wife's computer. I figured the thing had just died. We then got a new modem from TWC for other reasons and the printer started working again. The modem is still working fine, except the printer stopped communicating again.

The printer says it's online and connected to wifi. But when I go to print something my computer says the printer is offline. I've rebooted the modem and updated the drivers. Any idea what the issue could be?

 

[Harry Hooper]

It's connected to someone else's Wifi?

 

[glennhoffmania]

No I checked and it's connected to mine. Plus all my neighbors have secured wifi so it couldn't connect automatically.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Does the printer have a fixed IP address or does it get one assigned via DHCP?

 

[glennhoffmania]

I'll be honest. I don't know what that means. All I know is that for about 4 years I turned it on and it auto connected to my wifi since I had saved the password on it. Nothing was changed and now my computer doesn't detect it. How do I find out if it has a fixed IP address, and what is the significance in terms of my issue?

 

[Harry Hooper]

Every device (computer, tablet, printer, etc.) that is connected to your home (Wifi) network has a unique IP address, similar to different-numbered houses along one street. To continue the house analogy, if the printer was #34 but is now #55, the print jobs can fail since the computer is still sending them over to #34.

See if this guide helps, but first note the final post in an earlier thread here.

 

[soxhop411]

have you tried restoring the printer to factory settings, (thus you will be setting up the printer as if you just brought it home from the store?)

 

[AlNipper49]

My guess is that the software on the machine is looking for the IP address that the printer had on the old wireless network (that static, fixed, dhcp terminiology stuff).

The simplest route here would be to uninstall and reinstall the printer software on your computer first.

If that doesn't work, then I suggest:

1. turning off the printer
2. sticking your hand in the garbage disposal
3. turning printer back on

Lemme know how it goes

 

[glennhoffmania]

Thanks, guys. I'll try this stuff tonight, even Nip's last suggestion.

The weird thing is that it worked fine for like two years then just stopped out of the blue. Then it worked fine for about six months and stopped again over the weekend. I have no idea what would've caused an IP address issue to pop up or a signal strength issue to start happening.

 

[AlNipper49]

If you're going by the book I'd try to wire the printer to the router (or wireless access point) first, to eliminate wireless as a variable.

But we deal with this shit all the time. The next time I see decent wireless printer software will be the first.

Try reinstalling the POS software.