Printing wirelessly with Google Mesh

[sschickler]

I am having problems printing with Google Mesh. I have tried a few things and Google has told me that it should work to print wirelessly but when I change the network on my printer it still does not print. For reference I have a fairly old Office Jet Pro 8600. I am happy to buy a new computer if they might work better to print with Google Mesh, so for example the HP OfficeJet Pro 9015 All in One that one of your agents suggested and was wondering if this printer might be more compatible and allow me to print wirelessly? If not are there any other printers that might work better? A really good agent of yours suggested a laser jet printer that could search between 2.4 and 5 would be best?

Thanks

[TEJ1602]

@sschickler, Welcome to HP Support Community!

We'll have to isolate the issue to resolve it. Let us try to understand what is causing this issue. Also, there are printers in HP which can work on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz network. 

To be able to assist you better, I would like to know the following:

• Are the printer and PC connected to the same network?
• Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz?
• What is the distance between the router and the printer?
• Is there any antivirus software installed on your computer?
• Could you perform a ping test using the Mac Network Utility 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.

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 for further assistance.

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!

[sschickler]

HI and thanks so much for your help. Google  and HP agents have worked with me for several hours with no solution to this so far.

Before answering your questions, I believe the best solution of all for me may be to purchase a new printer that can connect to either 2.4 or 5 hz band? At least that's what a previous HP agent wrote to me. I believe Google mesh only supports 2.4. I would like to purchase a new HP printer that prints on both bands if you agree that that would help? As I looked at the HP website to look to purchase HP computers I don't see that these band specifications are listed, or am I missing that? Is that because all new printers use both bands now or how would I understand which of your printers use both bands? I currently use an Office Jet Pro 8600 Plus (an old one) but would purchase pretty much anything that would cure the problem. Can you let me know what printers use both bands? Google agents tell me that the issue is  my type of printer and that other people readily print wirelessly with Google Mesh and I think I believe that.

1. Yes, the printer and MacBook Pro are connected to the same network. It is the Google Mesh Network. It is connected through an Xfiniti Gateway (Modem/router). I have been toggling back however to another network (an Xfiniti network on my Xfiniti modem/router) when I need to print wirelessly since of course I cannot print wirelessly with Google mesh. An issue is that Google recommends that I put my Xfiniti network into "bridge mode" that removes that network and only leaves the Google network remaining because of intermittent dropped network connection due to interference between Google and the Xfiniti network. I have tried that but disabled bridge mode because I cannot print wirelessly on Google as I had referenced  and that is the problem . Sorry if this is so complicated.

2. I am told by Google and your agents that Google Mesh only connects to a 2.4 hz band. That, I am told by HP agents is the cause of the problem.

3. The router is a few few feet from the printer. To be clear, I have two different routers. I have the Xfiniti Gateway router and the Google mesh router as I referenced before. The issue is with the Google Mesh router. In any case both of these routers are about 5 feet away from the printer.

4. I have Malware Bites loaded on my Mac. I don't believe this an issue and it has never caused issues before and the Google and HP agents did not think it caused problems.

5. I really have no idea how to do this Ping test and it is beyond me. I have spent hours on this with Google and with HP senior agents and assume that along the way they may have done this but HP agents seem to have isolated this issue to the 2.4 vs 5 issue and I think Google agrees and says my old printer may be the cause. Thanks. If you think it essential to do a ping test perhaps an HP agent can call me to walk me through that.

I really appreciate your help!

Steve

[sschickler]

Hi, 

I did try the ping test on my Google wireless network. I think that is what you were asking? The response was:

Ping has started…

ping: cannot resolve f0:18:98:13:59:d0: Unknown host

Thanks

[sschickler]

Sorry, would just add that among the several agents I talked with at Google and HP, they did spend a lot of time looking at network connections and IP address etc. which I read to them. I remember reading the IP address on my printer to an HP agent.  I am not sure I can recount all of these conversations or tests but at the end of the day they seemed to end up with the main issue in their minds of the lack of compatibility of my printer and Google and the Bands.

Thanks again. I know there is a lot a detail here and past history.

[TEJ1602]

@sschickler

Thanks for replying with a detailed explanation.

This seems to be a little more complicated than what it appears to be. I will have to research the workaround/solution for this one.

I will write to you once I have a solution.

Thanks for understanding!

[sschickler]

Thanks very much for looking into this. I am very appreciative. 

[TEJ1602]

@sschickler

You're welcome 🙂

[TEJ1602]

@sschickler

This requires remote assistance and for further troubleshooting on the issue. Please reach out to the HP Support in your region.

Hope this helps!

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!