Best setup for a home printing network

[RobMac2]

Printers are a continuing pain in my life.  One minute they work and the next minute they don't.  They are "offline" yet switched on,😠 arggghhhh!  So in the hope that I can adjust our setup to run consistently, I'm reaching out to the community to ask for some advice.

Here's our setup:

We have an HP Colourlaserjet Pro M254dw.  It is wifi enabled and located in our home office, which is at the far end of the range of our wifi network and because of this sometimes loses the signal ( connection #1 - 5Ghz) and hence goes offline I guess when lots of devices are connected to the network.

We have a 2 PCs connected to the router via a wired homeplug system and also 2 laptops which connect into the system via wifi on a mix of a 2.4 Ghz (connection #2) or 5 Ghz (connection #1) connections as our router is dual banded.

In our office, to give better wifi coverage I have installed an older dual band router as a range extender via the home plug network to provide internet access.  This gives us 2 more possible connections, 2.4Ghz (connection #3) and 5Ghz (connection #4).

All our PCs are running  Win 10.

The scenario is that one person working can print and minutes later, another can't as the printer comes up as offline, even though it's just worked. 😕 Given our setup, what would be the best connection for the printer.  I can connect it via an ethenet cable and am prepared to put a print server in front of it,  if needed, but would rather avoid introducing another device if I can.

Just reaching out to see if anyone else has had similar issues and can share their set up and solutions for consistent trouble free printing for everyone in their household.😊

Many thanks in advance.

[TEJ1602 · Accepted solution]

@RobMac2, Welcome to HP Support Community!

The printer only supports 2.4GHz, so if the router is dual band ensure the SSIDs are different for both the networks. To avoid any connection issues, connect the printer and the computer to the same network.

For printer offline issues-

You may need to instead go into your router settings and try changing the channel manually. Experiment with different channels to see which one works best.

Use HP Print and Scan Doctor

Download HP Print and Scan Doctor and run the program. It will automatically diagnose and fix any printer connectivity issues. 

For more information, go to https://support.hp.com/us-en/topic/printscandoctor

Update the printer firmware

Download available firmware updates from the HP website

With the printer on and connected to the computer, go to HP Customer Support - Software and Driver Downloads, and then identify your printer. Look for and install any available firmware updates. Refer to the document HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware

Assign manual IP to the printer

The steps on how to set a manual IP address can be found here.

For the DNS servers please use 8.8.8.8 for the Manual Preferred DNS Server and 8.8.4.4 for the Alternate DNS server. These are Google’s public DNS servers

If the issue persists, I recommend you delete the driver and root level and retry, follow the steps below: 

1) In Windows, search for and open Programs and features 

2) Select your HP Printer 

3) Select Uninstall 

4) In Windows, search for and open Devices and printers 

5) In the Devices and Printers windows look for your HP printer. If you see it listed right-click on it and choose ‘Delete’ or ‘Remove Device’ 

6) Open up the run command with the “Windows key + R” key combo. 

7) Type printui.exe /s and click Ok. (Note: there is a space in between “printui.exe”

8). Click on the “Drivers” tab 

9) Look for the HP Printer driver. If you see it Click on it and click Remove at the bottom 

10) Select Ok 

11) Select Apply and Ok on the Print Server Properties windows 

12) Close Devices and Printers.

Use this link to download and install the new driver. Configure the printer.

Add a TCP/IP port.

1. Print a Network Configuration Report from the Printer Settings or Wireless menu.
2. Right-click your printer, select Printer Properties, click the Ports tab, and then click Add Port.
3. Select Standard TCP/IP Port, and then click New Port.
4. Follow the instructions to add a new port using the information listed on the Network Configuration Report.
5. Try printing.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

Please click “Accepted Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution. Click the “Kudos/Thumbs Up" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!