photosmart plus b209a won't connect to wireless router

[PrintDoc]

What security system are you using?

[gringuita_mary]

None that I'm aware off.  I have McAfee for viruses

[PrintDoc]

Aha, McAfee is your security system.   It has a nasty firewall.

Open the McAfee control panel and disable its firewall and try again.

[gringuita_mary]

we have mcafee 8.7.0i.  There doesn't appear to be control panel as you describe,  only the console and there is no options there referencing a firewall.  I had already disabled onaccess scan when I installed the printer

[PrintDoc]

OK, console :).  I found this on the McAfee site:

To Disable Personal Firewall Plus:

1. Right-click the McAfee icon by your system clock.
2. Click Personal Firewall.
3. Click Disable.
4. A dialog box appears. Click Yes.
5. The McAfee icon turns black in color until you re-enable Personal Firewall.

To Enable Personal Firewall Plus

1. Right-click the McAfee icon by your system clock.
2. Click Personal Firewall.
3. Click Enable.

[gringuita_mary]

Hi

I don't have that particular option but think it's OK.  I decided to continue with the install and ignore the error.  The install completed and all the printer functionality appears to work...print, scan etc.  This was on the XP laptop.  The Vista install was totally painless...no problems whatsoever.  Thanks for all you help 🙂

~Mary

[MacGruber07]

Hey everyone, I haven't seen anyone post under this topic in a while, but figured I'd post just to give my story in case it helps anyone.  I was having a lot of the same trouble as the previous posters on here and wanted to share my story as it may (or may not) help some of you who are still struggling with this printer.

I bought the HP Photosmart Plus B209 a-m a couple of months ago (on sale at Wal-Mart).  Couldn't pass it up.  I brought it home and it connected to my network flawlessly and connected several other printers to it without a problem.  It was working perfectly UNTIL I switched internet providers, thus new modem, network, etc.  Once that happened, neither of the computers in my household could connect wirelessly to the printer anymore (after several uninstalls then re-installs).  I was forced to use the printer as a USB printer, negating the reason why I bought the printer in the first place....TO HAVE IT RUN WIRELESSLY!!!

I spent a week or so trying to figure it out myself to no luck, so I called my internet provider and they said all connections looked fine and that it had to be the printer (but I highly doubted that since it used to work on my old network).  After 3 hours on the phone with an HP rep (from India) the conversation ended with again no luck.  The person I spoke with ended up setting up a network specifically for my printer.  So that I would have to disconnect from my internet network and connect to the printers network to print (a giant pain in the ass).  She said that I could stay connected to the internet network if I connected via an ethernet cable, again no help b/c I'm trying to be COMPLETELY WIRELESS here, hence why I bought an wireless printer.

I ended up figuring it out myself and here is one way to work around the problem.

-  My biggest problem was that during the setup from the CD that came with the printer was that once I got to the "search for your network" screen, my network would not come up.  No matter which way I went in the setup, I kept getting to stopping points to where I couldn't continue.

-  What you need to do is make sure that your router is set to WPA and not WEP encrypted.  You can access your router's webpage/settings by entering it's IP address in the address bar of your internet browser.  You'll need to establish a new password once you switch to WPA, but your connection will remain the same.

-  Once your router is changed to the correct settings, you need to go to the "Simple Configuration" part of that webpage and enable Simple Config (all router's pages differ so you'll have to play around with it and find it).  Once you reach that page and enable, you'll see something like "Connect with Push Button" and/or "Connect with PIN".  Connect with PIN worked for me.  What you'll need to do next is go to the touch screen on your printer and hit the right arrow to bring up the next screen.  Select "Setup", then select "Network", then select "Wi-Fi Protected Setup".  You can select either Push Button or PIN.  Try both as one may work instead of the other for you.  If you select PIN (as I did) it will display a list of numbers.  Take these numbers and enter them into the PIN field for Simple Config. on your router's webpage and hit enter or click to connect to start the process.  This is sending a signal from your printer to your network to establish a connection.  If they connect, you'll see a message pop up on your router's webpage.  To make sure the connection now exists, hit the back button on your touch screen 3 times to get you back to where you can select the "Wireless" button.  Here you will see that your printer is connected to the router's network, the signal strength and IP address specific to/for your printer.  Write this down b/c you may need it later during setup.

- Once this is all done, go back into the setup on the CD that came with the printer.  Once you're back to the point where it is searching for your network, the network that you just connected with the printer should be in the network listing during the setup.  If it is, you're all set and the setup will continue and finish and then you'll be good to go wirelessly.  If your network is still not showing up, maneuver your way back to where you can enter the printer's IP address to connect it wirelessly.  Enter the IP address that you wrote down from the touch screen as that should work.  The IP address that you enter is for the printer NOT YOUR ROUTER.  The IP address for the printer is it's address on your network, basically where your computer is looking for it each time it wants to print (wirelessly that is).

Also, you may want to uninstall any previous versions of the software if you are/were having trouble connecting wirelessly.  Then just start over from scratch to avoid any problems.  You may also need to "restore network defaults" under the "Settings > Networks" options on the touch screen of your printer. 

OK, so long story short:

- Enable WPA on your router; your computer won't be able to find your computer when your router is using WEP encryption.

- Use PUSH button or PIN for your computer to locate and connect to your network (do this on the touch screen AND on your router's webpage).

- Once connected, run the setup program on printer's CD to find your network OR enter your printer's new IP Address.

I did everything on here, step for step, and now I can print wirelessly from 3 different computers (once I ran the setup and network setup from the installation CD on each of the other computers I wanted the printer to connect to).

Also (just an FYI) on the homepage of your touch screen on the printer, on the far left of the screen (where it is black), you can hit BOTTOM, UP, BOTTOM, BOTTOM to completely restore the computer back to its factory settings (like right out of the box again).  However, you'll have to go through printer prep., print alignment, etc. all over again.  Use this as an absolute last resort.

This may not be the best way to go about it, but it was the only way that it could work for me.

GOOD LUCK!

[arf7ea]

I just spent a beautiful Sunday afternoon trying to reconnect my HP c4780 printer to my wireless, using all of these tips and others online to get it to work.  My advice: Don't waste your time!  HP's printers and software are {Content Removed: Language Filter Evasion} worthless!!

[Allysonmd]

Just wanted to thank you for posting these steps for help.  I just printed a page after the test page, and I am SOOOOO excited to be able to print without having to plug in the USB cable.

Thank you!

[tomfree]

TalkTalk (my network provider) recently replaced my router with a new, supposedly better one (Huawei HG633)

Now I can no longer connect my HP B209a printer to the wireless network.  With the old router, I could connect without problems, and the printer was working fine.

I have tried the methods on the HP support page, using WPS (both PIN and Push Button), but they both just time out without connecting.

I know the printer can see the wireless network, because when I print the Network Config page from the printer, it shows all the nearby wifi networks, including my own, at the bottom of the page, under "networks discovered".

Even stranger, when I try to connect my printer to my iMac using a USB cable, I cannot do that either.  The Mac does not see the printer, so when I go to "Add printer" it is no listed.  I am not sure if it worked with USB before, because I think I have always printed using the wireless connection.

I have also tried connecting my MacBook to the printer, using both OSX and Windows (run under Bootcamp on the MacBook).  I cannot connect with any of them.

When I run a network test from the printer, it prints a Wireless Network Test Report which says

"Your HP printer cannot find your access point.  Check that your access point is powered on.  Check that your HP printer network name (SSID) matches your access point network name (SSID) exactly.  If they don't match exactly, run the wireless network setup to configure your HP printer."

I presume that "access point" means the wireless network of the router (which is running and working fine).

So where can I find the "HP printer network name (SSID)" and the "access point network name (SSID)" to check that they match?

And presuming that they don't, how do I "run the wireless network setup to configure your HP printer" ?

There is very little you can do on the printer display/control panel - cannot enter any data there.

When I click on the "Wireless" icon, it says, "No connection found"

Similarly when I press, "Set Up / Network / View Network Settings / Display Network Summary" - I get the same message.

Can anyone help?