WiFi will not connect with multiple APs active

[brokamonster]

Hello,

My printer, MFP 277dw, will not work since we've added multiple IPs to our SOHO network. What's going on here? I've seen the issue reported with other printers but have not seen any solutions posted.

Did anyone solve this issue?

Thanks!

[John_Getzke]

Additional IPs should not impact the 277 unless you happen to be overwriting the current IP of the printer.  If there is a problem then it should be on the network side, not the printer.

Print off a configuration page from the printers Control Panel.  Verify what the current IP address is.  Check your network to see if anything else has that IP.  When in doubt migrate your printer to a static IP so that there are no guesses with the DHCP feature of your home router. 

Another thought is that perhaps you have hit a limit with your home router and the number of devices it can support at one time.

[brokamonster]

I checked all of these things already. Verified the IP that was assigned to the printer, set it to static, reserved the IP on the network.

The printer network config page gives this error: "More than one access point/wireless router has been found that matches your wireless network's name (SSID).  If this is unintended, your HP printer might connect to the wrong wireless network"

All SSIDs and 2.4/5ghz channels are using the same name and password so the devices and access points can optimize connection preference.

Since a hard reboot of the printer, it's just stuck in initializing the wifi connection. I'm running a Ubiquiti Security Gateway and Ubiquiti Pro access points, there are no netwrok limitation or config issues affecting the printer.

The printer worked flawlessly on the identical setup with one access point, as soon as I added two more access points, it shows the error message above. So strange, every other device in my home can negotiate this network. Any other ideas?

[John_Getzke]

Something about the home network configuration doesn't work well with what the HP Laserjet is expecting.

Try splitting one of the APs into 2.4 and 5.0 GHz networks and see if the printer has a problem manually connecting to one or the other.  The printer might not be able to distinguish between so many competing SSIDs on the different frequencies.  We have some laptops that have similar problems with certain home routers too.  Our only solution is to advise users to split the networks into unique 2.4 and 5.0 GHz SSIDs.  Then our laptops appear to connect without a problem.

Or try turning off one AP to see if it can handle 2 APs instead of 3.  If that works then consider turning down one APs broadcast power so that it is not in contention with the others in the printers location.

Also, try splitting up the channels between the APs so that they do not overlap.  On 2.4 GHz you should use 1,6 and 11 for the best results.  Prioritize the quietest channel of the 3 over the printers closes AP.

If you hit some kind of hardware/firmware limitation then you may have to find a way to wire this printer instead of relying on WiFi for your environment.

[brokamonster]

Thanks, I'll run through these recommendations.

Out of curiosity, are your laptops with this issue older? I've had no issues with our standard network setup which  I'm using in our three offices, I think our oldest wifi client is an 802.11g.

[John_Getzke]

Lenovo Yogas with Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 WiFi adapters.  We have issues with Nighthawk home routers for some reason.  They work perfectly fine with stacked SSIDs everywhere else they go.

[brokamonster]

Hmm. I'm still a bit stumped here. After disabling all APs except the one nearest to the printer, I can get it to connect and it removed the "multiple aps" warning from the wifi test.

The router gave the printer the IP i expected but now I can't reach the printer in a browser and when trying to re-install the drivers, it can't be found on the network. So, now something's blocking it totally on the network. Yikes.

[John_Getzke]

Printers have ICMP/PING enabled on them.  You should be able to ping the printer as a quick communication check before attempting anything in the browser.  

Try to COLD RESET the printer to wipe out its network configuration.  This will set it back to DHCP and allow it to negotiate a new IP with the network.  This will help us confirm if the printer is getting an IP Address from the network or not.  There are lots of videos on how to perform this special reset on Youtube for this model.

If your printer can connect to WiFi but cannot pull a DHCP address then something on the network may not be configured correctly when you turn off the other APs. You might be taking down the DHCP server or the static IP address you assigned to the printer may not work unless the PC is on the same AP at the time (local static IP routing should always work).