Fix - R7800 DHCP Lease Expiry / HP LaserJet 400 - Printer Offline / Dropping Network Connectivity

[AlyJG]

Hi Everyone,

Found a fix for my HP LaserJet 400 printer (wired ethernet) repeatedly dropping offline every few hours, after establishing an IP address on the R7800 Nighthawk router.  Having dropped offline you could not print from any networked computer.  

All other standard Hewlett Packard printer connectivity troubleshooting techniques had been tried and this turned out to be the underlying issue after four days of diagnosis.

Problem Solution

Extend the DHCP & fixed IP address lease times from the standard 24 hours to 7 days (or longer).

There is no built-in GUI (Graphical User Interface) with Netgear routers to do this, much as it has been requested by other community members in the past, so you have to use Telnet backend to update the router settings.

All credit for this solution provided here goes to Andy & jlewter (thank you both so very much).  There are a lot of "Do so at your own risk" provisos given in the message thread that I advise you to read very carefully but on a small home or home office network with just a few devices connecting extending the time should not be a big issue.

Windows 10 by default has Telnet turned off so you have to enable it.  A good how to is shown here.

Excerpt from solution thread:

This is an extract from an archived thread, posted by ‘jlewter’ about five years ago. I’m not sure if the change is persistent through a 
router power cycle / reboot, and I’m not entirely sure if it can be applied to all routers (in the case below it was a WNDR3700).

"do at your own risk.

telnetenable
log into router
# cd bin
# config backup /tmp/configbackup.bin
(use a usb stick to copy it off)
# config set lan_lease=604800
(this is 7 days, 60*60*24*7 in seconds)
# config commit

Notes here.. 
*Tinkering with these values are done at your own risk.
*Rebooting will NOT reset this value.
*Editing the LAN / DHCP page in the router will NOT reset this value.
*If you have a lot of different devices coming on and going off then this could slow the router down.
*If you ever change your lease time DOWNWARDS then you need to reboot ALL devices on the network because the lease will EXPIRE on DHCP server and not the client.
*3 - 7 days is the ideal lease time. Setting it for a few mins will be deadly to the router ;P. Setting it for 3 years (nearly) will just be silly.
*Tinkering with these values are done at your own risk.

Side Notes here..
*Settings are exported as plain text (this might be useful for other things).. 
*If you dont know how to copy files from the prompt then the command is "cp" and the usb drives are usually mounted under mnt1 or mnt/mnt1 (not gonna check it's late)
*Dont try to enable local DNS caching by changing the values, I did, It still doesnt work..
*Tinkdering with these values are done at your own risk. "

Problem Definition

After power resetting, the HP LaserJet 400 M401dne (wired ethernet printer to router) would appear within the R7800 router Attached Devices table with a valid IP address, then after several hours (it varied) drop off the Attached Devices list. After dropping off the list you could no longer connect to the printer via the network, to wake it up and print, with the printer being reported as being offline.

At that point only a full power off (uplug/replug - 30 sec) reset would allow the printer to re-establish a new IP address with the router.

Bringing the printer out of sleep mode by pressing the printer power button, did nothing to re-establish a new IP address.  On the printer setup, the power off never setting was turned on, so the printer never fully powers itself off.  You can not turn the sleep mode option off with this model only select how long before it goes to sleep but it does have a wake on LAN feature.

Router Setup

As recommended in the HP Community forums the the printer was setup with a fixed IP address (printer control panel) and outside the DHCP LAN range setup on the router.  You can use whichever DHCP range you wish and whichever fixed IP address works for you, this is just my setup.

LAN Setup

LAN TCP/IP Setup

IP Address:  192.168.1.1

IP Subnet Mask:  255.255.255.0

Use Router as DHCP Server

Starting IP Address:  192.168.1.11

Ending IP Address:  192.168.1.254

Address Reservation

Printer IP Address:  192.168.1.10

Printer Device Name:  LASERJET400 (device name setup in printer control panel)

Printer MAC Address:  xxxxxxxxxxx (MAC address of the device)

In theory with a fixed IP address outside of the DHCP address range set on the printer itself (not within the router), you don't need to do the DHCP address reservation but it just made things clearer and reminded me on returning to the LAN Setup screen what was going on.  The address reservation doesn't cause a problem as 192.168.1.10 is never used by DHCP anyway. 

This is just a visual reminder and not necessary as part of the solutoin.

Troubleshooting

Working through the very helpful troubleshooting tips in the Hewlett Packard printer forums didn't fix the issue.  Tried the HP Print & Scan Doctor utility and the more modern Windows 10 HP Smart application using all their diagnostic features to check and fix connectivity and port issues.

Background

Then as a last resort I tried extending the DHCP lease times via telnet, since the R7800 router lacks a graphical interface to extend lease times. After extending the IP lease times to 7 days, the printer no longer drops off the network, even after the printer drops into sleep mode (power off never setting is set) and the wake on LAN successfully wakes up the printer.

Note:  If I have to reboot my printer after 7 days that is a fine compromise, I can always extend the IP address leases to a longer time like a month if becomes an annoying problem.

The issue appears to be once the printer has dropped into sleep mode it can no longer renegotiate the IP address lease with the router so then the router drops the device after a few hours from the Attached Devices table.

In theory, the IP lease times (don't know for sure) with Netgear routers are set to 24 hours before expiring.

Half way through the set time (12 hours) the device will attempt to renegotiate the lease with the router.

If the device's network card is not online and responsive (printer sleep mode) then the lease is dropped.  Once dropped no comptuer on the network with the printer driver installed can communicate with the printer as the IP address is no longer in the routing table.  The address doesn't exist so the print job cannot be delivered, making the local computer's printer driver report the printer as being offline.

Hope this background and solution helps someone frustrated in the same situation.

Aly

[AlyJG · Accepted solution]

Just a small correction to the solution.

Correction:  Once the printer had dropped off the router attached devices table of IP addresses, you actually need to power cycle BOTH the router & printer at the same time for the printer to establish a new IP address.  Just power cycling the printer alone does not establish a new IP address.

This whole issue mystifies me for the printer in sleep mode, every so often does check in with the router, as witnessed by the flashing LAN Ethernet cable light on the router itself.  So why is the printer unable to renew its IP address lease is beyond me.  This appears to be a synchronicity (bug) of the Netgear R7800 router.  I am not sure if it is a manufacturer wide issue or just this particular Netgear router model.

Wake on LAN  works just fine as long as the IP address remains in the routing table so network connectivity is definitely present.

Aly

[AlyJG]

Alright, the plot thickens...

First off I need to correct my mistake of suggesting adding the printer IP address to the reserved IP address list. 

Reserved Addresses

Reserved addresses are only intended for DHCP issued addresses NOT fixed IP addresses.  If you add the fixed IP address in the reserved list, you may possibly block the fixed IP address from being assigned correctly, depending on your router.

Second, I found a way to get the printer to be recognized without having to power off the modem & printer simultaneously, which really helps.

Fixed IP Address 'Ready'

When you power on the HP 400 LaserJet printer, it has to initialize ( a couple of minutes) and then it can take up to 10-15 minutes for the fixed IP address that was programmed into the printer to show on the printer's Ready screen.

Example of printer's display screen:

     Ready

    192.168.1.10

Note:  Until the fixed IP address shows up on the Ready screen, the printer will not successfully negotiate an IP address lease with the router.

Here's the Strangeness

However...often as not even once the fixed IP address is showing on the printer's Ready screen it still won't acquire the lease successfully.  How to fix the strangeness?

Re-seat the Network Cable

So the fix is let the fixed IP address appear in the printer Ready screen and then simply re-seat (unplug/re-plug) the network cable either into the printer's network adapter or at the router itself.  You need to break the network connection in one place or the other.  The printer then nearly always correctly acquires the lease from the router without needing the router to be rebooted.

Song & Dance

What a song and dance just to get the printer to be recognized by this router...but there you have it everything I know on how to get a HP LaserJet 400 network printer to be seen and establish an IP address lease with a Netgear R7800 router.

[Gregina]

I work for a large health organization where we have been using HP printers for a long time. We have got all sorts of printers in our production environment. Recently, we have purchased HP LJ M401 printers and having some IP address issues. We use DHCP to assign an IP to this printer (not a static entry), printer gets the IP. We also give name to this printer and everything is fine UNTIL IP address lease expiry time arrives.....Printer loses its given name, IP lease get DELETED (DHCP logs) and never get renewed. However, printer itself keeps the IP address but I don't see any records of this printer on our DHCP server. I can login to printers web interface using its IP but can not print to it!!! Only way I get this working again, power off the printer and turn it back ON again. Then printer gets new IP and everything fine again until IP lease expires. Anyone has an idea what is going on? Why ONLY this model of printer have this behavior? Thank you

After lease expires, THERE IS NO DHCP REQUEST MESSAGES FROM PRINTER-noticed in Wireshark logs. Only thing that we see on DHCP server is basically removal of IP address.

[AlyJG]

Hi Gregina,

Sorry to hear of your DHCP connection woes and I entirely sympathize with your situation, knowing first hand how frustrating this is to have the printer keep dropping off the network.  You have my human empathy and its genuine.  Now let's get onto some strategies for you to try...

Firmware Update

First check out the firmware update notice by HP (from 2013) for your printer model that addresses loss of connectivity & incorrect response to network router advertisements.   https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04243855

If you have older firmware, this may be the most likely way to fix your issues.  Perhaps this is unlikely as you said the M401 was a recent purchase but worth checking none-the-less, in case the printer had been hanging around in someone's stock room as old stock.

Your - Latest firmware for M401 (as of today 09/30/2019)  is 20180318, April 2, 2018.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-laserjet-pro-400-printer-m401-series/5096252

Our - Hardware Specifications

Our exact printer model is HP LaserJet 400 M401dne that has USB and wired Ethernet connectivity but not wireless.

Our - Software & Drivers

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-laserjet-pro-400-printer-m401-series/5096252/mod...

I updated our printer's firmware to the latest version:

• HP LaserJet Pro Series Firmware Update Utility
• v20180318
• April 2, 2018

This firmware appears to be the same as for your model of printer but we still had the DHCP dropping issues even with the latest firmware.

Wireshark

If Wireshark is showing no DHCP request then this is similar to the behavior we were seeing but I hadn't used Wireshark to confirm the protocol negotiation just used observed behavior.

UPS Solution

I ended up putting our printer on an APC UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) and extending the DHCP lease to last 12 months.  As long as our printer doesn't suffer a power loss (brown out or loss of power momentary glitch) I can usually get it to reconnect to the router by disconnecting and reconnecting the network cable.  Only when it loses power completely (even for a moment) do you need the complete hard power cycle.

Hint of Underlying Issue

As the printer will successfully reconnect with a network cable disconnect and send a new DHCP request, this hints at the underlying issue.  When the printer first has a hard power cycle the DHCP requests are correctly sent and remain being sent as long as the printer doesn't suffer a power outage.

Could it be a power outage is not correctly handled by the printer firmware and causes a software glitch that dumps the printer out of the loop of making new DHCP requests?  This is pure speculation based on observed behavior patterns but is the best though I can come up with on the underlying issue.

As you are on a corporate network so likely using a high end switch, your situation is different from mine with a residential grade router/switch combo.

Work Around the Problem

If there is a connectivity issue with this printer series where it doesn't automatically seek a DHCP renewal without manual intervention, can you simply work around the problem by extending the DHCP renewal lease date to a year or some other long period.  At the end of the day this was the only way I could reliably get this printer to stay on our home network.

Hope these suggestions help, I don't know of an actual permanent fix for this issue, you will need to raise the problem with HP tech support directly if you need further assistance.

Good luck.

Aly

[AlyJG]

Hi Gregina,

Here's one other troubleshooting step you can try...

Another possible cause of the  issue might be the built-in network adapter card of the 400 series printers.  If either the built-in network card hardware (or card driver) has DHCP connectivity or renewal issues this could be the source of the problem.

One way to test this is to try an external Jet Direct Print Server https://www8.hp.com/us/en/print-servers/view-all-print-servers.html. Hook this up to your HP 401 printer via a USB port and connect the Ethernet cable into this device and see if the printer stays on the network and can renegotiate its DHCP lease.

By using the USB port you are bypassing the built-in network card.

Just a thought it would be an expense but test out the theory the built-in printer network card/driver is the source of the issue as opposed to the printer firmware.

Aly

[Gregina]

Good idea...I need to find a print server to test it out. I am sure it has something to do with NIC in the printer. However, we purchased more than 5 or 6 these printers and they are all behaving same way!!!!

[AlyJG]

Hi Gregina,

I'm not sure if the firmware updates/controls the Jet Direct NIC card drivers but it seems likely.  So either a NIC driver update is needed or a replacement NIC card.  Could be a manufacturing fault if all your printers have the same issue but our printer also has this issue and its several years old.

More likely a NIC driver problem or interaction between NIC and firmware controller.  Again I'm no expert on HP gear, just an end user but if the firmware signals to the NIC driver/card for the DHCP renewal request it could be a combo issue.

Alternatively, it could be our router/switches with a communication issue with the Jet Direct NIC.  Sometimes only the Networking Gods know.  So much work to track the problem down...

Good luck!

Aly 🙂

[Gregina]

I appreciate your input in this matter.

[AlyJG]

Hi Gregina,

I slept on this problem and read again your initial problem description.

You say the the printer:

1. Loses its given name

2. IP lease gets deleted (in the router DHCP table)

3. Printer itself keeps the DHCP address

4. No records of the printer on the DHCP server

5. Can login to the printer's web interface via the printer's DHCP address

All this points to a different problem than I thought.

Our Situation Different than Yours

When our printer lost its DHCP record on our home router, we could not access the printer's web interface via the dropped IP address. The fact that you can still access the printer's web interface via the dropped IP address, even though that IP address is not showing on the DHCP table is puzzling.  

Question:  Are you sure you have not granted the printer a fixed IP address?

Printer Control Panel / Setup

When you grant the printer a fixed IP address via the printer's setup panel, then the IP address would continue to live, even after the printer's IP address is dropped by the DHCP server.  So that makes sense IF the printer created fixed IP address.

Question:  How is the IP address being maintained by the printer?

You say the printer is maintaining the IP address granted via the DHCP server even after the address is dropped by the DHCP server itself.  So have a look at the printer's configuration screens to check the IP address setup screens and see what your settings are, fixed or DHCP.

DHCP Requests Not Needed

Sounds like the printer is not requesting a new DHCP address because it thinks it doesn't have to.  The printer already HAS an IP address so the Jet Direct NIC isn't going to request a new one over the network to the DHCP server for why would it need to? 

You have network connectivity, proven by the fact you can get to the printer's web interface so its not likely to be the switch, cabling or a bad port (though changing the port or switch segment is a good test)

Grant a Longer DHCP Lease (workaround)

I keep tending towards just telling the DHCP server to give the printer a year long address and not have it expire if you can't find out what is really going on.  This is a fudge and workaround when you can't find a true diagnostic answser but sometimes working around an issue is less time consuming and easier allowing you to get on with business.

Printer Setup

All things point to a printer setup configuration issue.  That's where my thinking goes.

Aly