"So I explained the problem to management and they said Don't buy any more HP printers."

[Heretofore]

Our two new Laserjet Pro M201dw printers are not recognized on the office network.   I've spent hours trying to figure this out and posted questions on the HP Support forum, but with no response. They have become more trouble than thay are worth.  And enough is enough.  So I explained the problem to management and they said "Don't buy any more HP printers."

[Heretofore]

Here is my reply. (Sorry, I replied right away butmissed the note saying I need to post it.)    Hello Heretofore,

You've received a private message in the HP Support Forum.

From: JeffHelp
Subject: Re: "So I explained the problem to management and they said Don't buy any more HP printers."

Note:

Hello Heretofore,

 In order to assist you further, can you please reply back providing the following information requested below. Once I have received your response, I will forward it to my colleagues in your region.

Please include:

- Your full name: Bruce Berkow

- Country location: NYC, USA

- Telephone contact number: 212-669-8131
- Email address: bberkow@manhattanbp.nyc.gov
- Model and Serial number of your unit:

      Printer 1: HP Laserjet Pro M201dw   SN: VNB3F90627

      Printer 2: HP Laserjet Pro M201dw  SN: VNB3F90632

- Brief description of your problem:

Network not recognized.  DHCP defaults to a 169.x.x.x ip address on a different subnet (250.250.0.0  - - our enterprise network subnet is 255.255.255.0). 

Manual settings also do not work. 

Network jack and cable are working (we swapped it with a working printer that is on the desired network).  

Network printing support administrators have even reserved an ip addresses with the MAC addresses of the printers. Still cannot see each other.  

Thank you.

By the way, Two days ago I installed a brand new HP color Lasejet M750 with no problem. It was almost too easy.  But these two Laserjet Pro M201dw printers are a nightmare.

- Any HP Case numbers or HP Service Ticket numbers you may have been provided by Hewlett-Packard: No

- HP Support Forum Username: Heretofore (displayed name)

 I look forward to your response.

Best regards,

Jeff Christopher
Executive Customer Relations
HP Inc.
Palo Alto, California

[davidzuts]

Not sure but have you made sure wireless networking is turned off. I do not think you can have both wireless and wired networks at the same time. If wireless is turned on it may disable the wired network. I could be wrong but since it appears to be happening on two printers and other printers work on the same line that is the first thing I would do.

[sabretooth04]

Thought I would elaborate on the above. If the wired connection (LAN) is used, the wireless is turned off automatically. Or at least it is supposed too.

[Heretofore]

That was a great idea, and I was hopeful - - but no, the wireless is turned off and still the lcd screens show a generic ip addresses (eg - 169.254.73.249 on a 255.255.0.0 subnet) presumably because the network and printers do not see each other.

[davidzuts]

One I can see but 2 of them does not make sense. Here are a couple of other things to try. Go into the tools menu and then click on service and restore factory defaults and see if that helps.  If not go into the network settings and turn off ipv6 and also change ipv4 from dhcp to bootp and see if that makes a difference.  I assume you are getting link lights on the network interface on the printer.  The only other thing I can think of is you are on a government network and sometimes those networks require MAC address of anything connected to the network to be registered by the network administrator or they will not be given a valid ip address.  In other words if your network does not recognize the MAC address of the network card of the printer it will not allow it on the network.

[Heretofore · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the suggestions.

I tried to BootP and turning off ipv6 on one printer and at first it worked (finally).  But then, after unplugging and restarting, it reverted to the non-connection ip address.  

So finally I noticed and changed the Link Speed setting from "Automatic" to "100TX Full" - - and that appears to have resolved the intermittency problem.  I've turned it off and back on, unplugged it, etc, and it retains the connection and the ip address.  

Not wanting to play with something that works, I cannot say for sure if the Link Speed alone would have resolved the problem (probably not),  but it does appear that while your excellent suggestions finally established a network connection, the explicit Link Speed setting was required to maintain the connection .

Thank you for your assistance in this matter!!!