hp neverstop 1200nw printer apparently loses ip address

[barninga]

after a variable time of inactivity, the printer is not reachable anymore on my wifi network. if I launch a print job from my mac, the print queue opens and keeps on searching for the printer forever. if I try to open the web admin interface of the printer, it does not respond. if I scan the wifi network, the printer is not found. However, the blue wifi indicator is on and it is steady.

apparently, the only way to access the printer again, is to turn wifi off (by touching the blue indicator on the panel) and then turn it on again. As soon as the indicator stops blinking, the print job starts and the printer is visible on the network again.

the printer has a fixed, manually configured ip address.

the router reserves that ip address to the printer mac address in its dhcp configuration. the lease time is set to forever.

according to the printer specs, it should go to sleep after a short inactivity and shut down after a configurable number of hours. It should wake up automatically if a print is requested.

this works as expected after the printer has gone to sleep (it is visible on the network, with its ip), but non after it shuts down. In addition, though I configured the shut down time to 8 hours, the printer disappears from the network after a variable time of inactivity. Sometimes more than 8 hours (i.e. still alive after 12 hours), sometimes after 1 or 2 hours).

I've read somewhere in the support pages that if the printer loses the wifi connection, a firmware update is required. Though it does not look exactly like my problem (the blue wifi connection indicator is always on and steady) I searched the download page, but for big sur (mac os 11) and my printer model there's no firmware update available.

any help will be appreciated.

thank you

stefano

[Jay_G24]

Hi @barninga,

I'd like to help!

I understand the printer does not connect back to the network when it wakes up from sleep mode.

Let's try the below steps to see if that helps -

1.) Remove All Barriers: Certain building materials can get in the way of weaker signals like Bluetooth. Metal, bulletproof glass, concrete, and plaster are particularly bad, and marble, plaster and brick aren’t great easy. So if you’re really struggling with interference, your first step should be to move your Bluetooth devices away from these materials. That means no brick walls between you and your devices, and definitely no metal desks!

2.) Change Router Channel: If you have an Apple router and you’re constantly getting interference with your WiFi, try rebooting it. Upon restart, the station will search for a new channel. Specifically, a different channel than the one your Bluetooth devices is using to communicate. If you don’t have an Apple router, 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.

3.) Move Closer to Your Router: If you often find that you’re getting interference when talking on a wireless headset while on a WiFi call (you’ll know because you’ll hear static), try moving closer to your router. This will give you a more robust WiFi connection, so the Bluetooth frequency can’t overpower it.

4.) Get Away From Microwaves and Fluorescent Lighting: Both emit frequencies of 2.4GHz, and moving away from them will distance you from the source.

I'd like to know the following to isolate the issue further-

1.) Are the printer and Mac connected to the same network?

2.) Is your router dual-band enabled i.e., both 2.4GHz and 5GHz? If yes, make sure the dual band has different SSIDs for 2.4G and 5G networks.

3.) What is the distance between the router and the printer?

4.) Is there an antivirus software installed on your Mac?

5.) Could you perform a ping test  and let me know the results? Use the printer IP address to perform a ping test, the printer IP can be located by selecting the wireless icon on the printer display.

Perform a ping test to check the connectivity

1. Click Applications > Utilities > Terminal.

type ping "IP address" and press enter

Wait until 10 pings have been performed and then press ctrl c on the keyboard and hit return. 

The results will appear .

Share the ping test results.

The wireless status menu on your Mac should also give us quite a lot of information that would help us identify the issue. You can press and hold option-click the WiFi icon and then use shift-command-5 to take the screenshot. Press the space bar when the icon turns into a camera. Share the ping test results and the screenshot with us.

Also, check with your Internet service provider if your router is able to forward 'Bonjour packets'.  Bonjour locates devices such as printers, other computers, and the services that those devices offer on a local network using multicast Domain Name System (mDNS) service records. The software comes built-in with Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

And, Welcome to the HP Support Community. 

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping

[barninga]

Hello @Jay_G24,

thank you for your reply.

About the points you listed: the printer is a couple of meters far from the router, in the same room. There are no microwave ovens nearby. The wifi indicator on the printer button panel is always on and steady-blue, that means that the wifi connection is up. So, I would not say that the printer does not connect to the network when it wakes up, but rather that it drops its ip address at a certain point (when it shuts down maybe) and does not reconfigure the network interface when it wakes up again.

In fact, if I touch the wifi indicator, it goes off, putting the printer actually off the network; if I touch it again, it blinks for a bunch of seconds, then it becomes steady-blue again and the printer is seen on the network by its ip address and everything works fine again.

The router automatically chooses the wifi channel in order to communicate over the less crowded one available. I can try setting up a fixed channel number, but -as I told- the printer does not show a wifi connection problem: it drops the ip adress.

My mac and my printer are on the same wifi network. In the past (before I bought the 1200nw) I used to manage a complex wifi configuration, where I had 4 different ssids for 2.4 and 5 ghz on the router and an additional access point. For some reason I was not able to understand, several months ago I started experiencing connection problems with my macs and smartphones. So I decided to simplify things: I changed the router, dismissed the additional access point and gave the same name to both 2.4 and 5 ghz network, and everything started to work flawlessly again. Now, I dismissed my old inkjet (non hp) printer and bought the 1200nw and the only problem I have is the printer dropping its ip address. I've never experienced something similar with the old printer.

I have no antivirus software on my mac and the problem occurs with all of my 3 macs. It doesn't look like a problem on the mac side.

this is the ping command result, issued with the mac on the side of the 1200nw:

barninga@ZetaMacBookPro ~ % ping 192.168.1.101
PING 192.168.1.101 (192.168.1.101): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=76.422 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=7.007 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=17.971 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=3 ttl=255 time=12.539 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=4 ttl=255 time=6.782 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=5 ttl=255 time=6.881 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=6 ttl=255 time=6.238 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=7 ttl=255 time=10.514 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.101: icmp_seq=8 ttl=255 time=8.526 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.101 ping statistics ---
9 packets transmitted, 9 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 6.238/16.987/76.422/21.313 ms

this puzzles me a bit. This morning I scanned the lan, and the printer was not seen. Now I pinged it, and I expected it not to respond... instead it responded. This could mean that the ping woke the printer up and it correctly resumed its ip address, or that the printer came up again in the meantime, and did it spontaneously (because I did not try to print or scan since the lan scanning i did this morning).

thank you

stefano

[Jay_G24]

Thank you for trying the steps and getting back to me with the details -

Try updating mac and printer firmware

To update the printer's firmware, refer - HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware 

 To update Mac, try these steps - How to update the software on your Mac

Set a manual IP-

To set a manual IP and try the steps below -

Press and hold the resume button for 3 seconds to print a configuration page.

Takedown the IP address.

--->Open a web browser (ex Chrome or Mozilla) and type in the printer's IP

--->then go to network ---> general ---> network protocols ---> select IPV4 only-->apply 

--->go to wireless ---> wireless 802.11---> select manual ip ---> apply

--->Enter 8.8.8.8 for the first DNS and 8.8.4.4 for the second DNS.  

--->then go to settings on the main ews page --> power management ---> select sleep mode to max 15min

Let me know how this goes!

[barninga]

hello @Jay_24,

sorry for the delay, I missed your last message.

well the menus of my 1200nw look significantly different from your description, however I think I managed to apply your suggestions (which, in part, were already applied) where posible. Here's what I did:

- opened the web interface at printer's local ip address

- went to "networking" => Advanced and verified that IPv6 and DHCPv6 were disabled (I had already disabled them immediately after installing the printer, because my mac could not use the scanner otherwise)

- went to "networking" => IPv4 Configuration and verified that:

-- IP Preferred Address Method was set to manual

-- ip address and default gateway and netmask were set correctly (192.168.1.101, 192.168.1.1, 255.255.255.0)

- went to "networking" => Network Identification and set the primary ipv4 dns to 8.8.8.8 and the secondary ipv4 dns to 8.8.4.4  (they are google's dns, aren't they?); they were "192.168.1.1" and "none" before.

- went to "System" => Energy Settings and set "Sleep/Auto Off After Inactivity" to 15 mins (it was "1 min" before); left "Shut Down After Inactivity" unchanged (8 hrs) and "Delay when ports are active" checked (it was already)

My mac is up to date, I always install system updates when Apple makes them available.

As for the printer firmware update, I had already checked the support download page for the 1200nw. It offers a firmware update for mac os 10 catalina, but not for big sur.

I would not install a firmware update that is suggested for a previous mac os, though I cannot really understand what a printer firmware update has to do with the computer's operating system version.

Could you kindly check whether a 1200nw firmware update is downloadable for mac running Big Sur (mac os 11)?

Now I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see whether the printer drops its ip address anyway; I'll let you know.

Yesterday, I suddenly heard the printer making some noise. I looked at it and the blue wireless indicator was blinking, then became steady. I scanned the network and the printer was visible.

This morning, I noticed the same behaviour (noise, wifi light blinking, then steady) and scanned the network but the printer was not visible. I had to touch the wifi light to turn it off, and the on again, to have the printer visible on the network again.

thank you for your support, I will be back soon

stefano

[Jay_G24]

Try the below suggestions -

Reset the product

With the printer turned on, disconnect the power cord from the rear of the printer.

Unplug the power cord from the wall outlet.

Wait at least 60 seconds.

Plug the power cord back into the wall outlet.

Reconnect the power cord to the printer.

Turn the printer on. HP recommends plugging the printer directly into a wall outlet.

 Also, try updating the printer's firmware -HP Printers - Updating or Upgrading Printer Firmware  

Hope this helps!

keep me posted!

[barninga]

Hello @Jay_G24

I already tried the "unplug the power cord" sequence as soon as I noticed the problem (I had read it somewhere on the internet) but it had no effect.

I visited the firmware download page through the link you posted, but it does not offer a firmware update for the 1200nw and mac os 11 (it offers a firmware download for 1200nw and mac os 10 - is it the same? is it safe to download and install, since I run mac os 11 on my mac?)

I also searched a firmware download option in the printer's menu, but could not find any.

However, the web interface responded though the printer had not been used in the last 16 hours, so there's a chance that changing the dns address and/or raising the sleep time from 1 to 15 minutes helped.

I'll try not to use the printer/scanner for a couple of days and see what happens. If the problem is solved, it will respond when I try to use it after a relatively long interval.

I'll let you know how it goes.

thank you for now

stefano

[Jay_G24]

The firmware is not the same for mac os 10 and mac os 11, I recommend you install the ones that are compatible.

I am glad there is some improvement, do let me know if the issue persists.

Stay safe, take care! 

[barninga]

hello Jay_G24,

so I understand I cannot update the firmware at present.

can you tell please what ties the printer's firmware to the mac os version? what if one runs several macs with different os versions? (this could my my case, since my wife still runs catalina on her mac)

anyway, soon after I posted my previous message, my router rebooted (I suspect it was reset remotely by my carrier). The wifi light on the printer turned orange and then it reconnected automatically when the wifi went up again. I scanned the network a minute ago, and the 1200nw was still there, with its ip address.

I'll post an update within a couple of days.

stefano

[Jay_G24]

The device compatibility is different and drivers for each OS remain different.

I am glad you were able to print.

I will follow up in a couple of days to know the printer's status.

Have a great day ahead!

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

Click the “Yes" on the bottom right to say “Thanks” for helping!