HP m251nw incompatible with WiFi 6

[toddtmw]

Hi all.

I have had the HP m251nw printer for quite a while now. It has always been a little finicky. For example, I sometimes had issues printing to it if I just let it be found via Bonjour and instead had to use the old CUPS drivers to get it to work reliably.

But now, I fear I've reached an issue that may not be able to be resolved, so I thought I'd give the community the chance to show their excellent problem-solving skills.

I bought a TP-link AX3000 WiFi 6 router and hooked it up to replace my TP-link Archer C9 AC router. As I've done in the past when upgrading to a new wireless router, I gave the new router the same name and password as the old router and then everything just moves over to it. This worked great for everything in my house except my m251NW printer.

I went to print to it and my computer couldn't find it. I was like, "Duh, the new accesspoint is using 192.168.1.x where the old one was using 192.168.0.x." So, I went to the printer to see what IP address it had acquired and there was an error code 79 on the screen of the printer.

Googling that made it sound like it could be an issue with a bad file being printed or a firmware update needed. I went around to all of the computers in the house and checked. None of them were trying to print. Just for good measure, I uninstalled the HP printer from all devices in the house.

Rebooting still leads to 79 error.

It does it immediately, so you cannot even do anything to the printer. I disabled the 2.4GHz network on my new access point and the printer could now boot. I set my old access point up and connected to it and did not get the 79 error. (But that accesspoint is on a different subnet, so that did not (necessarily) eliminate the possibility that something was still trying to print to it on the other subnet, but wasn't able to now see it.)

So, I then checked for firmware updates. There were none.

When I go back to the WiFI 6 router, I get the 79 error.

So, just to confirm that nothing on the wifi6 network was trying to print to the printer, I ran an ethernet cable from the WiFi 6 subnet to the printer. I am now able to print to the printer just fine and everything works as it should. (But I have to have an ethernet cable running through my house)

So, it appears to be that when this printer connects to my TP-Link AX3000 accesspoint, it generates an error 79.

I should reiterate that I am connecting to it on the 2.4GHz band and that my router is set so that each band has a separate SSID, so I know it is connecting to the 2.4GHz band. I also have WPA/WPA2 Personal selected for security.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get this printer to connect to my WiFi 6 router?

Thank you.

[ShlomiL]

Hi,

With the Ethernet cable attached, click on Setup > Service > HP Laserjet Update > Check now and ensure the latest firmware is installed, then unplug the ethernet cable and check for any difference.

Please also click on Setup > Reports > Config Report and let me know what is the exact Firmware Datecode listed for the printer.

Shlomi

[toddtmw]

Thank you for your response. Responses would have a better chance of being helpful if the whole post is read before responding. I clearly stated in my original post:

"So, I then checked for firmware updates. There were none."

There are no firmware updates.

Thanks, again.