Laser P1102W loses connectivity at every power down

[dbmamaz]

By the way, I'm finally ALL GOOD!  I pasted the printer's ip address in to the browser and found out where to remove its sleep/power down cycle, so its on all the time now (ok, thats of course less efficient, but it PRINTS) and . . . I also bought an extension cord so that my printer is no longer turned off every time we turn off the lights!! 

(but before that, I did assing a static IP address.  i was intimidated at first, but really, if you find the article on the website, it was pretty clear step by step for me)

[PrintDoc]

Yeah, cutting power to virtually any computer-related device is a really bad way to turn them off.  This includes printers, computers, scanners, hard drives, you name it....

[Frank_Muenster]

Same problem with my printer. Problem with my printer's wlan access in my case was wlan related. I ran 2 wlan APs with the same SSID. P1102w has severe problems with that. I renamed one of the AP's SSIDs - voilà everything is fine now. P1102w needs a unique SSID.

[bl2kna]

Got same problem after firmware update. Printer was working fine with power cycles before update. Anyone was able to revert back to old firmware? I believe the older version is 20110512.



This problem has been there since 2011 August update and HP has not provided a fix over 8 months which is really not acceptable. Several forum threads have this problem fully discussed.
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-Networking-and-Wireless/HP-P1102W-Forgets-Wireless-Credentials-...


The latest version 20120204 has no fix at all only to prevent modifying HP's FW.



HP should either provide a fixed new firmware or at least provide the old working version as a work around.

[rperitsky]

P1102w lost wireless security credentials every time powered off. 

Solved it (for me) by setting up wireless as follows:

Use 2 routers...1st is set up normally as DHCP server with Gateway IP of 192.168.1.1 (subnet mask of 255.255.255.0) and DHCP range of 192.168.1.100-149.  Set the wireless SSID to something like "Router1" with WEP/WPA turned "on".  Your computers will connect securely via wireless to this SSID.

2nd router is used as a wireless access point for the printer only.....use a cat5 cable to cascade from one of the LAN ports on "Router1" to one of the LAN ports (not the WAN port) on the second router.  Set up the second router with a local IP of 192.168.1.2 (static IP), SSID of something like "Printserver", and its DHCP server function turned "off".  Set up its wireless security as "disabled" (i.e. open access, no credentials).  Enable MAC filtering and enter the MAC address of the printer's wireless NIC.  Select the filtering option to only allow listed MAC addresses to connect.

When you use Smart Setup to configure the printer, tell it you want to manually set the configuration.  Tell it to connect to "Printserver" and give it a static IP of something like 192.168.1.10 and subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 (which will be assigned by the primary DHCP) router.  You're done.

If you power down the printer and restart it, it will connect to the "unsecured" access point and get it's static IP from the main DHCP server/router.  The system is not really "unsecure", since only that one printer's MAC address is allowed to connect to the AP.  Yes, the packets going from the AP to the printer are unencrypted, but I consider that a minor price to pay to have a reliable wireless connection.

[bl2kna]

Losing wireless credential is a bit different from lossing connectivity as discussed here. Though the result may be the same -  can't print. What is the FW version are you using? Did it work with older firmware without changing your router setup?

The problem I have with the new FW is not on the wireless connection itself, but it is related to how the printer get its IP address:

1. In auto IP mode that the printer suppose to get an IP address from router DHCP server would not work after power cycle. Yet every other device connected with my router is able to get an IP address without any issue. And with the old FW, this worked fine after power cycle as well.

2. in manual IP mode, the printer would not keep the IP address I set after a power cycle. This is obviously the printer FW issue. Though I did not try this with older FW as auto mode worked fine.

In both modes, the wireless config seems to be retained after power cycle and the blue led stayed on indicating wireless connectivity are OK.

The problem seems to be a simple DHCP and manual IP config issue with the new FW. HP should really have address it by now since it has been reported since Sept 2011. At least give a work around that allowing customer to revert back to older FW that does not have this issue as I don't need the new feature in the newer FW.

[rperitsky]

Either the printer came with the latest firmware (August date, I believe) or it auto-updated early on, so I can't say whether it worked with the previous firmware.  However, with the "open" router, i.e. no credentials, it maintains/receives its static IP assignment every time it powers up and connects.  If I attempted to do the same thing with either WEP or WPA turned on, it failed to reconnect.  The blue light is "on" but I get a message that it is unable to communicate with the network.  I can only assume that this means it is receiving the broadcast signal, but is being refused entry (and not being assigned a valid IP by DHCP) due to lack of credentials.

I agree that the problem may be firmware-version related.....however, the fact that everything works as-advertised with an "unsecured" wireless device but fails with a "secured" one does seem to point to the credentials as a probable failure point in the assigning of a valid IP to the printer.

[Myck]

I have the same problem.  Spent OVER an HOUR with tech support.  Spoke to a very courteous rep but was unable to solve problem, insisting that it was the router.  Well I changed router and same issue occurs!!!!!!!!

HP:  You guys REALLY REALLY need to fix this given that this is a known problem since last year (based on email thread in this forum).  I bought this printer solely for wireless feature which I now CANNOT use without some convoluted and asinine workaround.  

I have been an ardent HP supporter but if you don't fix this I will make sure to tell all my 1000s of friends and colleagues how broken the "HP way" reallly is.  The 1102W is a basic run-of the-mill printer and you guys can't even get it right, out of the box.  How am I suppose to trust you with large enterprise appliances???

Brother printers here I come!!!!!!!

[vikky13]

Why do you mark it as solved? Looks like it is still there, or probably I don't see something?

[vikky13]

Hi, All. Today is almost the last day of 2012 and the problem is still there. New firmware causes HP 1102w lose wireless connectivity after the power down cycle. (While it worked perfectly with old firmware)

Manual IP adress (out of DHCP range) and other tricks don't help. While blue light is on on printer wireless after printer power cycle, it is not seen in the network by IP and the only way to get it back to work is to connect usb cable and then to run hp install for wireless setup.

It is terrible! I do need to get old firmware back. Otherwise will never buy any HP equipment and wouldn't recommend it to others.