Network Not Found

[mshibit]

Printer: OfficeJet 4500 Wireless (CQ663A)

OS: Windows 7

Router: Netgear824v3

Channel: 6

Type: Infrastructure

Mode: Auto 108Mbps (b/g auto-select)

Security: WPA-PSK

SSID Broadcasting: Enabled

Issue: network not found.

two-week old Samsung Laptop (Win7) is on the network.

5 month-old Dell Desktop (Win 7) is on network.

PS3 #1 connects to the network

PS3 #2 connects to the network

Wii connects to the network

OfficeJet will not find the network.  It finds my neighbors, but not a network matching my SSID.

I have repositioned the OfficeJet to be 15ft from the router, 6 inches from the router and in another room from the router.  I have moved or shut down wireless devices, speaker systems, etc, to identify/avoid interference.  I am confused: WHy will the printer not detect my broadcasting SSID.  It can identify the secutirty type (WPA-PSK TKIP versus AES), but cannot find my network.  Ridiculous!

I downloaded, installed an ran the HP Network Diagnostic Utility.  It tells me the network is fine.  It lists the printer on its own network "hpsetup" but the printer will not find my network to connect when I run the USB setup or the manual setup or the wireless wizard.

Any help would be great.

[PrintDoc · Accepted solution]

This is certainly strange.  Here are a few ideas:

1. From the printer front panel: Setup > Network > Wireless Network Test.  This will self-test the radio to make sure it is OK.

2. Open your Netgear router (enter 192.168.1.1 into the address bar of a browser).  Make sure it has the latest firmware.

3. While you are in there, change the channel to 11.

[mshibit]

I had to change my router to 802.11b to use channel 11.  Using channel 6 is reserved for the 802.11g on this router.  Apparently the HP OfficeJet 4500 (C663A) only uses 802.11a or 802.11b,  It sucks that there is no info on the packaging or in the user manual tot ell us this.  Furthermore, now my router is set to run at a lower data rate than before, which will decrease the connection speeds for online gaming and downloads.

Thank you for your help; the problem is solved.  Why am I still sad?

[PrintDoc]

This does not sound right and the manual says that 802.11g supports channels 1-11.

Using 802.11b will drive you crazy - it is likely slower than your ISP service and locks you into WEP security (probably).

Let's keep working on this.  What error do you get when you try to set channel 11 with 802.11g?

[mshibit]

The 4500 simply says, "cannot find network".  Since the WiFi was so incredibly stupidly slow, I changed the settings on the router back to channel 6 with the 108Mbps connectivity.  The printer is still connected to the network and to the two computers.

Apparently, it would not install while on channel 6.  The USB connection sent the network info to the printer, but then would not connect to the network when I disconnected the USB cable.

Now that the machine is successfully installed, I changed back to the higher speed (my Netgear router only supports the higer speed on channel 6 for some reason).  It seems to work fine now.

I still have not figured out why the 4500 would not connect while on channel 6, however.

[PrintDoc]

The reason I suggested changing to channel 11 is that I have heard of printers ONLY initially connecting on that channel, but once connected, can work on any other channel.

I am glad it all worked out.

[AbbyA]

when i print the network test report, it tells me the thing that failed was the network name (SSID). How do I get my printer to find the network? It used to work, then our internet shut off and when we got a new one from the same company, it did the same thing it took me months to do when i first got the printer (B209) and for the life of me I cannot remember what i did, or if i even did anything. please help!

[PrintDoc]

On the front of the printer: Setup > WIreless > Restore Wireless Defaults.

You will then need to re-install the printer.  Look for the "Printer setup and software" app in the Hewlett-Packard folder.

[AbbyA]

That didn't work, i just got a new printer, thank you though!