HP Instant Ink Can No Longer Access my Printer

[Parker10]

I have been using HP Instant Ink on my Envy 5640 printer for a number of years with no problems but recently I have been getting emails to say that HP cannot access my printer.  I ran the web access report on the printer and the result was a proxy fail (note that the DNS which was set to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 was a pass).  The proxy setting were  (Address: web-proxy, Port 8080, web services:  enabled).  Are these correct - is a new proxy address required?  I have already checked:

1. Printer is connected to WiFi and can print and scan from both Windows and IoS devices.  I have disconnected and reconnected but this made no difference to the Web access problem

2. Ran  HP Print and scan doctor - this sorts print and scan problems but did not resolve Web access

3.  Reinstalled software on Windows 11 PC and downloaded  printer firmware update - it was not required

4.  Followed the suggestions on the HP Virtual assistant but none of the suggestions helped.  However, one of the later suggestions asked that I check whether the printer had a WSD port.  I found that it didn't and as suggested I added a new TCP/IP port and re-booted the PC.  There still was no WSD port and it was not clear what I was supposed to do from here.

Can anyone suggest a solution?  There is no point in my continuing with HP Instant Ink it HP can access the printer to decide when to send me ink.

Thanks

[Parker10]

I seem to have found the solution to my own problem!  I post it here because there have been a few posts on ‘proxy’ printer problems and many do not have clear solutions – I hope that this will help some people.  I realised that the ‘proxy’ error may not be the true source of the problem.  First, enter the IP address of your printer into your browser and click on the Web Services tab along the top.  The click on the Proxy Settings on the side and click  No Proxy.  Once you have done this open a command prompt with Admin privileges and enter the ipconfig /all command.   You will get about half a page of data and half way down you will see the local network IPv4 DNS server number – note this down.   Then go back to the browser and click Network along the top followed by Wireless (802.11) on the side.  Under this tab click Network Address (IPv4) and half-way down you will find DNS Address Configuration – if you are using Manual DNS note down the Preferred DNS Server number.  If this is different from the one you found under ipconfig /all then replace it with this number and click apply – I did not change the alternate number but if your internet server recommends one then it would be best to use it here.  It appears that the printer firmware cannot deal with a DNS server which is different from the one used by the local network.  The Web Access print out from my printer did not pick up this problem and gave a pass to the Google 8.8.8.8 DNS even although this was different from by local network DNS number.  The above changes solved my problem and when I logged into my HP ink account it could access my printer details.