HP 1102w won't connect wirelessly to Mac

[Beth-A]

Mac OS 11.6.3 Big Sur

HP 1102w

I can print just fine via USB.

But no way, no how can I set up wifi printing. Believe me, I have tried everything. Unplugging then plugging back in - cables and power supplies, reinstalled drivers. I am close to the router and everything else works.

I went to System Prefs > Printers & Scanners > HP 1102w > Utility > Printer Utility > HTML config. I get different pages when click on HTML config. Sometimes it's HTML code, sometimes it's just an image. Eventually I get the page I need. Go to Networking > Wireless and make all the appropriate settings. I click APPLY - NOTHING HAPPENS. I reset my printers in System Prefs. I held down both buttons on the printer itself and restarted it. I waited. NOTHING. I get a message that it can't connect to the localhost.

It can't be that hard to set this up! What happened to Plug & Play? I got this printer expressly to print wirelessly. There has to be a way... or is the printer so out of date that it is no longer possible? If this is the case, it would save all of us a lot of time, if this was just stated somewhere.

[Beth-A]

I figured it out after HOURS and HOURS. I hope this might help someone else...

I connected my 1102w via USB, and this printer shows in my list of printers under System Prefs. Next I logged into my router, which happens to be Comcast. Clicked on CONNECTION > Wi-Fi and chose ADD WI-FI PROTECTED SETUP (WPS) CLIENT. On the next page, click ENABLE. It will take a few seconds to set up. Click on PAIR.

At that point my 1102w finally showed a steady blue light, indicating a Wi-Fi connection. I unplugged the USB cable and deleted the HP printer in the list of printers. Then... 

System Prefs > Printers & Scanners > Add Printer. The HP Printer shows up as Bonjour, and select AirPrint as the protocol. 

After that I could print wirelessly. I almost gave up, but I saw on one of the pages I googled, the mention of WPS. Oh... make sure you disable WPS and then logout of your router.