Officejet Pro 8600 Plus connection issue - HELP!

[RPMAC]

I may have an answer for some of the folks having wireless connection failures.

My Environment: Brand new HP 8600 plus, Win 7 ultimate 64 bit w/ SP1.

Problem: Ad-hoc Wireless Connection or through Wireless router; When sleep mode timer pops, the wireless connection would drop. Could not automatically re-establish the wireless connection nor automatically break out of sleep mode .

After manually waking up the printer, network showed as Off on the printer control panel. Manually turning the network on from the printer control panel did not restart the connection. Neither the computer nor the router could "see" the printer.

At this point I discovered via frustrated accident that I could re-establish the Ad-hoc connection if, on the network settings pane of the printer control panel, I chose "Restore Network Defaults". The Ad-hoc ID would immediately be visible on my windows Available Networks display and windows would reconnect. 

But when the next sleep timer pop hit, I would need to go through this all again.

Researching updates and software on the HP web site revealed that there was a newer firmware update for the 8600 plus.

Out of the box, my printer came with firmware CLP1CN1150CR installed.

The Website firmware version for the 8600 Plus was CLP1CN1322CR. The description for this firmware included a vague reference to network configuration improvements.

So I downloaded this firmware to my hard drive.

Firmware install instructions specify that you must use a wired connection when installing the firmware.

So I wire connected the 8600 Plus directly to my pc via USB and made sure the printer was functional in that mode. Including checking that the printer could successfully wake from sleep mode when I simply printed a dummy page.

Then I installed the new firmware. Clean install - no problems.

BIG change in wireless behavior.

Sleep mode no longer kills the wireless connection!

Ad-hoc connection ID stays in the Windows Available Connections display as connected. Printer wakes up and prints with out any manual intervention.

New firmware greatly simplified AD-hoc configuration and they made securing the ad-hoc connection almost trivial.

Similar improvements in wireless router configuration. My wireless router connection now stays rock solid through sleep mode.

Keeping the printer wi-fi apparatus powered up when in sleep mode probably reduces the Eco-Friendliness of this printer.

But it sure improves the USER friendliness.

NOTE!!!   I experienced One Small Problem after the firmware install.

When I first logged into the embedded web page after the firmware update, most of the pages had one or more labels that were incorrect (“albainia” anyone?). Some labels were replaced with tags of the form LS@nnn where the nnn was a number.

Google hits suggested that this might be a web browser cookies vs Firmware version problem. Some reported that using a different browser saw a good page while others had problems with all of their browsers. And some said that all was good the next morning.

I believe that this is a web browser cache problem.

Delete browsing history was not doing the trick for me as I had set “Preserve favorites web site data” and had a favorites link to the embedded server.

My browser was also set to “Check for newer versions of stored pages” “Automatically”.

I changed this setting to “Every time I visit the web page” and then I closed and re-opened my browser.

My next trip to the embedded server showed good pages with good labels.

[kws2013]

I'm having a similar issue.  I have  an Officejet Pro 8600 connecting to my home wireless.  It connects to a Netgear WNDR3300.  I have a dedicated IP address (192.168.1.5).  When the printer sleeps, it seems to lose it's connection with the Netgear router.  I've checked on the NetGear for connected devices and the HP Officejet Pro 8600 does not show.  After I do a power down/power up of the printer, it shows up.  Then my print jobs from my Windows 8.1 laptop start printing. 

Is there a setting or something that will fix this issue?  It's frustrating. 

[sceaj]

I had the same problem with that router.   I fixed it by changing the firmware on the router from the oem Netgear firmware to dd-wrt (open-source).  You'll need pretty good technical knowledge / skills to go to dd-wrt or any of the other open source firmware.  If that doesn't seem like an option, I'm afraid your only choice may be a new router.  

Or it looks like the latest firmware from Netgear is 1.0.45.  I don't remember what version of the firmware I was running - you might try getting the latest from Netgear if you haven't already done that.

[RPMAC]

To kws2013;

Have you checked the firmware level in your PRINTER?

The factory installed printer firmware caused my 8600 Pro Plus printer to behave as you describe.

I spent an hour or so in frustrating call to HP customer service that provided no answers and no sugestions. (did you plug the printer into the power?....)

I spent some time in the support and downloads section of the HP site. I eventually found  that there was a NEWER firmware level available for my 8600 from the HP site.

I downloaded and installed the newer firmware and my connection problems went away.

See my posting from October 21, 2013 (one post previous to your current posting).

I went from firmware level CLP1CN1150CR to CLP1CN1322CR. 

I have not had ANY wireless connection problems since performing the PRINTER firmware upgrade to the CLP1CN1322CR level.

At that time there were a couple of  download files available for this firmware level that appeared to be specific to the model of the printer:

My model Number is N911g

My Product Number is CM750A

The file I downloaded and installed was named OJP8600_N911g-n_R1322C.exe

RPMAC

[snart]

I'm having the same problem - and I think it had to do with the latest firmware. The previous firmware worked 100%. Now, the printer disconnects when it goes to sleep. I've tried every IP setting imaginable.

This new firmware is bunk.

😞

[TCWNetOps]

Agree with snart's 11/16/13 post.

My situation with a client's printer.

Deployed printer using WiFi.  Worked for over a year, then about two months ago, my client reports that the printer does not work.  Upon site visit found printer to still have an IP address reported in its panel, but unable to PING it from any workstation on the network.  Power cycling does not return network response.  Changed the Sleep mode timer, still no change.  If I turned off the WiFi radio in the printer, then turn it back on, the network function returns.  The workstations are able to ping the printer and find the printer automatically.  Queued printed jobs print.  Yesterday, I visited again to flash the firmware only to find both the printer non-responsive (but with its IP still) and the firmware already current.  I tried to flash the firmware, via ethernet, but because the printer was up to date could not re-flash it.  I turned off WiFi and left the printer connected to the network via ethernet and advised by client that I would post my findings and advise to replace the printer if ethernet connection fails too.

I don't have any proof of this idea, but it appears that there is a failure with a chip or component associated with network in the printer.

[HelpDesk180]

I have worked with over a half-dozen of the 8600 family in the past couple of years.  I have also given up on reliable direct wireless connection to the printer, and I NEVER update firmware unless something is not working to my satisfaction.  Since routers are cheap and time is not, i use a Cat 5 connection from the printer to a router that is set up as a wireless access point.  Thus, the printer is connected via cat 5, but there is no need for a hard wired connection to that location - just AC power.   Neither the access point not the main router cares if the access point's client is connected by cat 5 or wireless, but it seems that the printer does.

[snart]

Well...I've been playing around with this for a bit. Reset everything and manually configured the wireless on the printer to us an IP range specifically outside the DHCP range of the router....and it seems to be behaving. I've been able to print and the printer wakes up on its own out of sleep mode.

Hopefully, I'm not jinxing myself.

[scardali]

I've had an e8600 aio for about 2 years now and have had a similar network issue to what many have described where withhin 5 minutes of a reboot, it loses connectivity to the network and I've tried the static IP/DHCP reservation route, I've updated my firmware to the R1322C release (latest as of this writing) and I've also disabled the sleep option via the engineering menu as another had posted but still, within 5 minutes, ePrint shows as disconnected again.

DIFFERENCE I've seen from other posts is that my e8600-aio does not completely lose network connectivity but cannot communicate to any host off-subnet.  Meaning, I have multiple subnets within my home (I'm a network engineer and have a Juniper SSG5 as my home router/firewall) and just spent all morning troubleshooting this and documenting it.

WORKAROUND:   (and this may be a bit more advanced for some folks, but this is the best I've got for those that can benefit from it)  Since my problem was that my e8600-aio can always talk to hosts on the SAME subnet just not to hosts on different subnets, I setup a static NAT policy so that any packets from ANY host TO the printer, source-NATs to the egress interface of the SSG5 (router/fw).  Any device that can handle source-NAT should be able to accomplish the same behavior.  

Again, I realize this may not be helpful to some, but I saw a lot of "solutions" and other "work-arounds" out there that worked for other folks, but didn't work for me.  So since I found these posts all very helpful in getting me to my own work-around, I wanted to post what I learned in hopes that someone else might get to benefit since HP doesn't seem to acknowledge what many are experiencing (23500 views and 15 pages of posts on the HP forums for just ONE thread related to this issue).

Thanks to all of the other users that have posted their feedback and hopefully HP will eventually release a firmware fix for this if it isn't truly a hardware issue.  I don't think this is anything more than a firmware issue though given that all local-hosts can communicate...  I think something is happening that the ARP cache for the defualt gateway is timing out in the printer and for some reason, not refreshing.  Just a guess but I've got WIreshark PCAP captures and ScreenOS debug captures that support something along those lines.

[wcw1223]

 

The below answer fixes the problem. 

Re: Officejet Pro 8600 Plus connection issue - HELP! [ Edited ]

Options

‎12-18-2011 09:34 PM - edited ‎04-18-2012 12:25 AM

From our investigation into this issue, we have found a workaround that will help with this.

 Follow the steps below.

1. Please go to Hp Software->Printer Preferences->Maintenance Tasks -> Advanced Settings

2. Selects the second radio under “Show Alerts”, “Only show me ink alerts when I print”.

3. Now restart your PC to make sure setting saved.

Find the screen shot attached.