After power on IP is 0.0.0.0 for wireless connection

[rarog]

The new HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M479fdw is connected only via WiFi to the network.

The firmware is the newest and following:

CLRWTRXXXN002.1924A.00

After powering off and on the printer does connect to the WiFi network and has excelent connection quality but independent of the static IP or DHCP setting it shows 0.0.0.0 as IP. In both configuration variants there is identical workaround: after disabling and reenabling IPv6 settings it reconnects to the WiFi network and get the IP address (DHCP setting) or sets it manually correctly (static IP setting). After this I can configure the printer via the IPv4 address or print from my Android device. After I power the printer off and on I have to repeat the workaround steps which is kind of annoying and probably not the intended behaviour. It looks like something is buggy in the network stack logic (timing?) and that my workaround just corrects it while the printer is already on.

Meanwhile on Windows 10 printing works flawlessly, because it accesses the printer via IPv6 and probably Bounjour protocol.

Funny other bug: Resetting the network settings hides the wireless option entirely from the menu. It returns only after I power the printer off and on again.

IMHO the main and the side bug are problems in the firmware and community is probably not the right place to ask this, but I do not know how to submit the bugs to the developers or official HP support.

[Repairatrooper]

Interesting issue here. I checked my service bulletins and find no notes about issues like this on this model. Just to clarify one thing, Bonjour is an Apple only protocol so your Windows 10 machines would not be using that and if you have no Apple devices it is recommended that you disable this protocol. What type of device do you have handing out the DHCP addresses?  It could be that it is either slow handing out the address or there is some incompatibility issue between the printer and the device. Make sure that you have any current firmware or system updates applied to your networking device as well.

[rarog]

Ah, thx for clarifying with Bonjour. Probably it's then still there because of older iTunes installation and unrelated.

Anyway DHCP is handled by my AVM Fritz!Box router which has a current firmware. And as the problem is exactly the same with the static IP configuration of the printer, this shouldn't be the issue in this case.

And even with static IP configuration the printer is appearing with the correct IP on the network overview page in my router (I love those routers for extended settings and diagnostic help), so the printer tries to communicate its IP to the outside world, the printer doesn't show the IP and doesn't react to ping. Unless I do my IPv6 setting workaround, then the IP appears on printer display, pinging and printing from Android works.

To make sure it's not just a faulty network card of the printer, I'll try to reproduce the scenario with exactly the same settings with a friend of mine who also bought the same printer as me today. Both devices were definitely factory new. If I can reproduce it, it's definitely a firmware and not an accidental hardware thing.

If it should be just my device I could exchange it at the dealer. In German we call such things "Monday devices" - the nearest equivalent seems to be the term lemon from the car industry.

[rarog · Accepted solution]

Okay, now I feel like I'm going crazy.

1) I tried factory reset - the problem persisted and the trick with IPv6 off and on still helped.

2) I changed on the configuration page the connection mode from 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz only. And the problem was gone. Then I tried 5 GHz only and it was still gone, then I tried 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz and it stayed gone. Then I did another factory reset and the IP problem was gone.

Changing the 5 GHz setting via built in LCD where I can just switch it off and on didn't help before. I'm not sure which of the modes from the configuration page it corresponds display offers 2 modes vs. 3 modes on the page.

Changing the mode via the configuration page seems to have solved it permanently. I tried pulling the power cable for a minute and then powered it on - the IP problem seems to be gone. I will definitely try pulling the power cable for like 12 hours, but this probably won't return the problem.

And now my thoughts about the situation:

1) For some reason having a factory fresh device and perhaps the initial firmware update borked some setting in the configuration that obviously did survive network and factory reset. (Why? Was the borked setting in the memory of the network card?)

2) Changing the 2.4/5 GHz setting solved the problem by fixing (?) internal configuration permanently and safe for factory reset. (Why?)

And this is frustrating. I'm a professional programmer myself and being able to reproduce bugs is at least a way to help developers fix bugs. And it's nice to be able to fix bugs by accident with the setting. But not being able to reproduce the bug afterwards can't help devs identify the initial cause. 🤣

[rarog]

I'm marking this as solved. Everything works now as expected, I tried another factory reset and still it works.