WiFi Connection Issues

[Max820]

I'm currently using a printer for college. I've also subscribed my printer to Instant Ink. For some reason, the printer on the HP Smart platform says its not connected to a wireless network. However, the printer is connected to a network, the guest campus network in particular. I've tried to connect the printer to the main college network, but its encrypted and can't be accessed. I need to somehow get the printer connected to a network that satisfies both the printer itself and the HP Smart platform. If the printer can't connect to the network, Instant Ink won't be able to connect to the printer and HP Smart will shut down the printer all together until the issue is resolved. I've tried restarting the printer and connecting my devices to the guest network as well, but to no avail. 

[sandytechy20]

@Max820

Welcome to the HP support community.

I understand that you are getting printer connectivity issues, I am glad to assist you.

Let's try the below steps to see if that helps -

1.) Remove All Barriers: Certain building materials can get in the way of weaker signals like Bluetooth. Metal, bulletproof glass, concrete, and plaster are particularly bad, and marble, plaster and brick aren’t great easy. So if you’re really struggling with interference, your first step should be to move your Bluetooth devices away from these materials. That means no brick walls between you and your devices, and definitely no metal desks!

2.) Change Router Channel: If you have an Apple router and you’re constantly getting interference with your WiFi, try rebooting it. Upon restart, the station will search for a new channel. Specifically, a different channel than the one your Bluetooth devices is using to communicate. If you don’t have an Apple router, you may need to instead go into your router settings and try changing the channel manually. Experiment with different channels to see which one works best.

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: If you often find that you’re getting interference when talking on a wireless headset while on a WiFi call (you’ll know because you’ll hear static), try moving closer to your router. This will give you a more robust WiFi connection, so the Bluetooth frequency can’t overpower it.

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Both emit frequencies of 2.4GHz, and moving away from them will distance you from the source.

I'd like to know the following to isolate the issue further-

1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network?

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks.

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer?

4.) Is there an antivirus software installed on your Mac?

5.) Could you perform a ping test  and let me know the results? Use the printer IP address to perform a ping test, the printer IP can be located by selecting the wireless icon on the printer display.

Perform a ping test to check the connectivity

1. Click Applications > Utilities > Terminal.
2. type ping "IP address" and press enter

Wait until 10 pings have been performed and then press ctrl c on the keyboard and hit return. 

The results will appear.

Share the ping test results.

The wireless status menu on your Mac should also give us quite a lot of information that would help us identify the issue. You can press and hold option-click the WiFi icon and then use shift-command-5 to take the screenshot. Press the space bar when the icon turns into a camera. Share the ping test results and the screenshot with us.

Also, check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'.  Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. 

Keep me posted.

If this helps, please mark the public post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.