Unable to print with dual band wifi router

[bbaisley]

I have a Verizon FiOS dual-band Gateway router (G1100).

Since I got it, it broadcasts 2 unique SSIDs. One for 2.4GHz band, and one with "-5G" appended for the 5GHz band. Most of my devices default to the 5G WiFi network. When our laptops are connected to that SSID (ie -5G one), I am unable to print. It cannot see the printer. I have to manually change to the 2.4GHz band SSID, then I can print.

I decided would rather have just one SSID for my network, for both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. I set them both in the router to broadcast the same SSID, and let the devices connect to the one it has the best signal for. 

So far, everything work, except for the printer. If our laptops happen to connect to the 5GHz band, it cannot print. No matter what I tried, I will not work. If I do nothing but disable the 5GHz band, so only the 2.4GHz is active, all pending print jobs will print.

I don't understand why this is, or how to fix it? If I connect all devices to the same SSID, its on the same "network" and I can see/access all other devices, regardless of what band they connected to via WiFi. Why doesn't the printer work the same way?

Does anyone know how to get this to work when both bands are sharing the same SSID? I rather not go back to the 2 SSIDs if I can avoid it.

Thanks

[greenturtle]

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Hi,

Thanks for using the HP Support Community.

Suspect that the printer only supports 2.4 GHz, hence  all devices need to be on 2.4GHz in order to print (as you've found out)

FYI, there's only a handful of printers out there that supports Dual Band.

Thanks.

[bbaisley]

Yes, the printer only supports 2.4GHz, but I still don't understand why it matters. Shouldn't the router translate cross bands as needed?

If I have 2 computers, one on 2.4GHz and one on 5GHz, I can still communicate with them, send files across the network, etc. So I am not seeing why a printer would be different. I guess I don't understand networking principals, but I would have expected if you are connected to the same wifi network, regardless of which band, you should still be able to print.

If printers mostly only support 2.4GHz, and with mesh networks becoming more popular (Google Wifi and Eero, etc.), are all of these people having printer problems? 

[bbaisley]

It seems I have gotten this to work. I set my router to broadcast the same SSID for both wifi bands. I then did a complete reset of the HP printer. I reset everything I could back to the factory defaults. I then connected it again using the web admin page to my Wifi network, and ever since, it has been working. I'm using the 5GHz band on my laptop right now, and I just printed. I also tried from the desktop, which too is currently using the 5GHz band, and it worked as well. I was able to print from my iPhone, but I can't find a way to confirm what band its currently using.

The only thing different is I removed the FiOS gateway extender. I had one of these in the basement to boost coverage, and the printer is in the basement, so I'm sure it was connecting through it. I didn't plug it back in yet, I plan to test that out later today. Assuming that "breaks", then I need to see what solutions are available for that to work properly when the extender is enabled.

[greenturtle]

Hi @bbaisley,

Glad to hear that your issue is resolved and all is working well now.

Spoiler

The only thing different is I removed the FiOS gateway extender

This could have been the issue,  If you have a chance to confirm that, do let us know the outcome.

Have a nice day!

[bbaisley]

I plugged in the extender again yesterday morning. Its been well over 36 hours since. It picks up its settings from the main router, so that should have been plenty of time for everything to sync up agian. So far, everything is working. I just printed again from my laptop, while the printer was still in power saving mode. It woke up and printed fine. So I guess the reset of all network and general settings did the trick.

[greenturtle]

Hi @bbaisley

Thanks for letting us know. 

Have a blessed Christmas!

[daughtkom]

I have printer model Office Jet 8710 and have had the same problem forever and it frustrated me that I could not print when connected to the 5G band from the my home network.  I could still see the web admin interface of the printer, but not print.  I thought it was crazy that the printer wouldn't allow jobs from another band even though they were on the same network.

Spoiler

Add the printer as a TCP/IP printer instead of letting your computer discover it.

Then suddenly it hit me that I could see the web admin interface because I was using an IP address.  I had originally setup the printer by autodiscovery (WSD).  When I instead added it as a TCP/IP printer, specifying the IP address of the printer within the Windows "add printer" function, it's now works and I can print regardless of which band of the network I'm on.  Since it was added by IP, the router always routes the print requests correctly.