M276 has lost connection to Wi-Fi

[Jaatencio]

I have a m276nw, which has been connected to my network for years. Went to print to it today and it was offline. Looked at the printer and it was disconnected from Wifi.  I have tried several times to reconnect it but keep getting an error that says "invalid WPA Passphrase". The access point for my Wifi is also the same as it has been for years. 

What I have tired:

1) power cycles and the. Tried resetting the Wifi settings  through the Wifi wizard *

2) created a new ssid without security and it connected with no issues 

3) created a new ssid with WPA2 security and a a strong password connected with no issues 

4) resetting netowrokmsetting and then running the Wifi wizard *

5) factory reset of device and then ran thenWigi wizard *

* All of these actions generate the same error.

This makes no sense  as this printer has ran flawlessly connected to this wireless router for years. Nothing has changed and it will not connect no matter what I do. 

No idea what to try next. I read several articles on here and several of them ended with the recommendation to buy a new printer, that is not an acceptable solution.

EDIT: I have verified the WPA password multiple times.  It is a 10 digit number forward and backward separated by a dash. Again the same password for years.

[BeemerBiker]

I am unsure of the problem

2) created a new ssid without security and it connected with no issues 

3) created a new ssid with WPA2 security and a a strong password connected with no issues 

If the printer connect to the modem then it has an IP address.  That IP address may not be the same value that your PC has.  Your PC needs to find the printer.

Remove the old printer after finding the one with the correct IP addrress.

Alternately, the WiFi signal is bad.  If the printer is near the PC then just switch to WiFi direct printing don't even use the modem.

See page 43 for wifi direct printing

 or watch video

Let me know if you have a flex system (WiFi boosters or repeaters) as the setup is much more complicated.

[Jaatencio]

Hello,

I appreciated the response. While it connected to the access point it only did so on an unsecured or newly secured "guest network" SSID. That SSID has limited network access and as such my internal devices cannot see that IP address. It is segmented off and only has inbound/outbound Internet access. While it does successfully connect to the AP, it will still not connect to the existing SSID, which is where it needs to connect in order to be seen on the network with the rest of the devices. 

[BeemerBiker]

I think I understand now.  I also have a guest AP although it's disabled as I do not use it.

By chance running  VPN?  if so you won't be able to access the printer when it's on that guest network.

Does the network report from the printer show something like the following?  Get a printer network report. The PINs and Passwords should show up. Here is the important stuff from a typical printer report. The password shown in WiFi can be the printers PIN or the modem's password depending on how you connected to the modem. The printer can have two bands but the only one that is connected will show up.

LAN	STATUS	IP address	SSID	Password
WiFi	enabled	192.168.1.15	ATT-ARRIS-2 .4	GuessAgain
WiFi-direct	enabled	192.168.23.1	DIRECT-WHATEVER	BadGuess
Wired	disabled
USB	disabled

The printer usually needs to be on the same subnet as the rest of your devices unless they use Wi-Fi direct.
Check the IP4 address of your computer and then get a network printout and see if both the printer and the computer are on the same network.

Using the windows command prompt, copy and paste the following into the CMD window

ipconfig | find /i "ipv4"

should look something like the below

Note that the printer and the computer are both 192.168.1
This means they are on the same subnet.

The following indicates the PC cannot reach the printer even on the same subnet

C:\Users\josep>ping 192.168.1.15

Pinging 192.168.1.15 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.31: Destination host unreachable.

If they are not on the same subnet then the router needs to be allowed to transfer data from one subnet to the other.  This usually happens automatically unless using VPN or some fire wall protection

You must have a flex system.  Some flex system vendors (ISP) have forums and FAQ help for setting the system up.  What system do you have ?  

if the printer cannot make a network connection it may show an IP address of 169.254.x.y

Can you find the Mac address of your printer in the modem?  If so assign it a fixed IP address that's reserved.  Restart the modem and see if it works.

[Jaatencio]

So not running a VPN.

My network report doesn't get that far. The steps you shared are several steps beyond where I am. I get a "failed" at the passkey step of the network check. It is not getting an IP address because it is not actually getting connected to the network. The WiFi network is using WPA-personal security protocol. But when I chose the access point (SSID) in the wifi configuration process, and enter the router's password, it fails and says the passkey is not correct. So at this point there is no IP address to verify. I have disabled IP6 to take that out of the equation. 

Again this has been working just fine for years. But now nothing I do seems to get it connected to the access point. It won't even let me configure WiFi direct, because again it is not connected to WiFi and this doesn't have an IP address.

[BeemerBiker]

WiFi direct means that the printer puts out its own Wi-fi signal.   If your Laptop or desktop  has wifi it can see the signal and pair to it that's how Wi-fi direct printing works

You have to enable Wi-fi direct in the printer before it'll put the signal out.

Watch this video for how to set up Wi-fi direct

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DVLGMu4WPc

On rare occasions you may need to do a factory reset

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTCJ9fvKRz8&ab_channel=CoronaTechnical

There may be more than one way to do the factory reset as explained here

[Jaatencio]

Thanks for your continued attention... So I have not done a full hard reset yet, just a reset of the network settings. I guess the factory reset is as good a place as any to go next.

I have tried to setup WiFi direct, but when I do that it just tries to take me to the WiFi setup screen. I will watch this video and try it again as just connecting to it directly might be the simplest answer.

So I will try both of these and see where it gets me. I am still just baffled as to why it just stopped working.

[BeemerBiker]

There is a discussion of weak signal strength and different wifi bands here that might be useful.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Knowledge-Base/Real-world-Wi-Fi-speed-and-flex-repeater-boos...

[Jaatencio]

Thanks for that, but I don't believe that is related. I am only using 2.4Ghz for my Wifi and the router is only 20 feet from the printer and not obstructed. There is not a signal strength issue. Again, I can see the SSID, I can attempt to connect to the SSID, but when I put in the password for the SSID the response I get from the printer is "Invalid passkey" and it asks if I wish to continue. It is not a connectivity issue; the printer is seeing the router just fine it is just not correctly passing the password to the router. Every other device I have in the house (several smart devices) is able to connect without issue, and again the printer was connected without issue just last week.

Again, I thank you for the suggestions you have been kind enough to provide, but I am not seeing a solution that seems to work.

[BeemerBiker]

As far as I can tell you have done everything correct. All I can suggest is to use an Ethernet cable for your 20 foot run. If a cable cannot be put across the floor then use a power line adapter like this one.

Powerline adapters are explained here
Typical power line adapters are here