Officejet Pro 8600 Plus connection issue - HELP!

[scardali]

The HP tech asked me to verify that I had this setting selected and in-fact I did yet the problem still occurs for me.  

If anyone is interested in reading a bit further into the details I collected, I've linked a word-doc I put together hoping to get the opportunity to work with an advanced tech at HP but was denied since my printer is out of warranty.  While I was on-hold, I found the forum thread mentioning the maintenance menu / disable sleep idea but that didn't work and shortly after getting off the phone, got the idea to try the NAT idea and it worked so this document became a bit of a futile effort for me, though I do think it helped in forcing me to think about what really is a relativly simple work-around that I just hadn't thought to even try for months prior...

Anyways, link for the word-doc here.  This links to a file a put into dropbox which I think will open within the browser window so that you don't need to download anything, but if you want it to look half-way decent, I recommend you download it (scan-it) and open it in Word for best readability.  I put about 4 hours into getting this all together but it is pretty advanced.  

One more thing I just thought of:  my NAT idea does not really fix the issue of the HP losing connection to any host outside it's subnet, it simply provides a work-around for other hosts to be able to send print-jobs via a NAT capable router.  In other words, the big issue that still exists for me is that ePrint still reports down and my HP8600-eio won't know when software updates are available.   My big issue though was getting my wife the ability to print from our wireless subnet without having to come into my home-office and reboot the printer everytime she needed it to accept a print-job and this source-NAT config will accomplish that at least for me.  Just FYI in case it's not suitable for you.

Good luck to anyone else having this issue.

[Rick200]

Thank you Network Engineer.

At a high level, I get what you are saying.   However, I need this translated in specific actions I need to do.

• 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.  

How do you setup a NAT policy as described?   I am just not networky enough to do that without instructions.

[Rick200]

Thanks for the documentation

[Farmer_Joe]

I’ve searched a number of HP 8600 review sites looking (unsuccessfully, I might add) for solution to the problem these printers have with dropping off line when the sleep timer expires.  The printer then refusing to wake back up again while documents pile up in the print spoolers of the computers connected to the network – and are lost if the computer is shut down before actually being printed.  Page down through the reviews on HP 8600 printers and nearly every list of comments includes some discussion of this problem.  Wired USB connection to a single computer seems to work fine, but try to share that printer across a small network using either wired or wifi connection to a router and you’re soon tearing your hair out looking for answers.  Although it appears to be a well-known problem, as far as I know HP has thus far refused to offer a firmware update to resolve this issue.

A solution that would be rather obvious would be to simply disable the sleep timer.  However, the maximum sleep timer setting in these printers is 15 minutes.  In our case, cycling the power on the printer would not work.  Our only solution was to reboot the router in order to wake the printer up if it had been more than 15 minutes since the preceding print job finished.  Of course, this drops everyone on the network offline and risks losing work in progress.

I saw mention on one of these review threads where some relief can be had by creating a script to ping the printer every 13-14 minutes or so before it would go to sleep.  I tried that and found it helped some, but did not reliably resolve the problem.  Also whatever you’re doing gets interrupted briefly every printer-ping cycle.  Furthermore, all the computers have to be running this script in order to insure it’s in place regardless of which combination of PC's are running.   I also tried connecting the printer by USB to an unused computer and tried then sharing that printer across the network.  However, then I had the same problem with that USB-connected PC going offline eventually as well (circle back to the pinging).

The solution that has worked for me is a $36 TP-Link model TL-PS310U MFP and Storage Server < http://www.tp-link.com/en/products/details/?model=TL-PS310U>.  If you’re like me, the word “server” was at first a bit intimidating; however, this is a very small device – in fact, the power supply is bigger than it is.  No desk space is required as the 2” x 2” x ¾” box simply hangs off the Ethernet/USB cables behind the the desk.  There is one RJ-45 socket for wired connection with an unused port on the router (note that you’ve got to have an open port for this connection).  There is a socket for the low voltage cable from the power supply to plug into.  And there’s one USB port for connecting directly to either one printer or storage device.  Documentation says that you can connect up to 4 USB devices through a USB hub to share those as well across your small network, but I haven’t tried that feature out yet.

I ignored the CD enclosed in the box and downloaded the newest driver and firmware update directly off TP-Link’s website < http://www.tp-link.com/en/support/download/?model=TL-PS310U>.  Installed the driver on each of our computers (1 Windows 7 32-bit, 3 Windows 7 64-bit, and 1 Windows 8.1) and pinned the application icon to the taskbar for easy access in case of inadvertent closing.  I loaded the firmware driver onto the server from the first PC I connected to it.  Then I turned off the wifi feature on the printer so that there was only one printer to “find” and then went through the normal “add a printer” routine in Windows.  Note that you have to open the server application window and click on <find> or <connect> to bring the server to your PC’s attention while it is searching for the “new” printer.

After completing the above steps, we have not needed to do anything special in order to wake the HP 8600with either the printer or the network router ever since.  It now functions exactly as the 7310 we were using before the 8600.  The only quirk (minor, IMHO) is that the server connects only one PC to the printer at a time and then disconnects again after 30 sec of inactivity in order to release the printer to the other PC’s on the network.  Therefore, after sending a print job, I quickly bring up the server window (reason for pinning to task bar) and see if the printer is active.  If not, I click <find> or <connect>, the Windows wait-a-minute wheel whirls, and then the printer name comes up with an indication of whether it’s free or busy.  If it’s busy, you’ve got to wait for someone else’s print job to finish (just as you’d have to wait for any network-connected printer).  If it’s not busy, within 5-8 seconds, the blue “free” light switches to “green” with a check-mark and off your print job goes.  If I’ve got several documents to print, I’ve gotten into the habit of letting them stack up in the print buffer and then asking the server for the printer once to send them all in a batch without someone else’s stuff being mixed in by the time I get to the printer.

I hope this is helpful to someone and that the size of this post isn’t too intimidating.  I’ve tried to summarize enough detail to help an average IT Joe like myself work their own way through it.  If you’re able to download and install device drivers and send firmware updates to devices connected to your PC, you won’t have any trouble at all with this.

[scardali]

Pretty awesome that people are coming together like this and putting a pretty significant amount of time in documenting very detailed "tutorials" on how they've worked around their HP8600 issues.  

I might be biased as I own one of these HP8600s (which I love btw, despite the sleep issue), but I am biased in that I believe this really is a problem with more than just my printer and well...

I own one that I'm convinced is part of the larger group.  It seems like there's at least a semi-widespread defect out there where people can't print to their printers after n-minutes.  I don't know if it's an Ethernet chipset issue, firmware issue, or other, but it doesn't sound like random defects.

It would be pretty awesome if HP could at least validate some of our testimonies and that these are not just random occurences.   I realize that it may not be that simple from a liability stand-point but I think the biggest negative from my experience so far is that with all the reading I've done of others having remarkably similar issues as mine, HP is hiding from their customers instead of working with them to try to improve their experience.

[hpuser_vt]

There must be something in the firmware revision or the routers being used because in all honesty I have never had an issue with my 8600 printer going to sleep.  Its on a wired network and its always available for every device, phones, macs, and winxp, winvista, and win7.  I have had my printer now for close to 2 years. The printer has been rock solid on our network since.  Aside from the initial issue I had where it would not print on winxp after a while, the printer has been rock solid since.  My issue back then was resolved with de-selecting the ink level monitor I think.

I will say one thing, is that for the 2 years that I have owned this printer I opt out of all the updates.   I've worked in this industry long enough to know that not all software updates are bullet proof.    I guess the way I see it is, if all my options are working the way I want them too, why would I want to have HP load up my printer with new software.   I always choose NO THANKS.   Some may say, but it could be a security breach issue, to which I say, they can hack into my printer all they want.

[joex398]

Does anyone at HP ever read this forum???  There are at least three separate thread all relating to the same issue >> Officejet Pro 8600 Plus losing its connection ...yet HP hasn't offered a single workable solution!!

[snart]

Did you try what I suggested earlier? I fixed my issue by manually entering an IP address on the printer that is OUTSIDE the DHCP range.

[joex398]

I purchased my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus In November 2013.  It is hard-wired (Ethernet) to my Netgear WNDR3800 router and is set-up as a network printer.  I have a desktop running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, an I-Pad with iOS 7.0.4, and a laptop also running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.  My desktop is hard-wired (Ethernet) to my router; the I-Pad and the laptop use wireless connections to the router.  All of my devices (router, printer, i-Pad, desktop, & laptop) have all of the software updates installed.

Initially, I experienced the same problems as reported by everyone else (i.e., the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus goes offline …drops its network connection…when it goes to sleep).  I tried all of the solutions mentioned here and only found one that made a difference … using a static IP address for the printer.  My Netgear WNDR3800 router allow me to “reserve” an IP address for my HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus printer.   I just assigned an IP address to the printer in my router and used the same IP address in the printer settings.  I did not change the port name or settings in the printer properties (it still uses the “HP network re-discovery” port).

My printer still “sleeps”, but it wakes up and prints when a print job is sent from my desktop, I-Pad, or laptop.  All of the other functions (scanning, faxing, etc.) work as they should. 

The only caveat is that my desktop (which is hard-wired {Ethernet} to my router) must remain on or in a sleep mode.  If I power down my desktop, within about 15 minutes, the HP Officejet Pro 8600 Plus printer will not wake-up when a print job is sent from either the I-Pad or laptop.  When I power up my desktop again, the printer still stays offline and will not wake up.  I have to power down the printer and restart it again in order for it to print, scan, etc. 

I have left my desktop powered on overnight and in the morning, the printer wakes up and prints from any of my devices (desktop, I-Pad, and laptop).

I do not know why the printer wakes up, as it should only when my desktop is on.  The only thing that I can think of is that my router has a program called Netgear Genie, which is installed on my desktop.  That program provides access to all of my router settings, displays all of the connected devices, etc.  Perhaps that program somehow “holds” the network connection to the printer as long as the program is running (i.e., my desktop is on).   If someone has another theory, please post it here so that it might lead to a permanent fix to this perplexing problem.

I just leave my desktop powered on (or in sleep mode) for most of the day & evening...I just turn it off at night when everyone is finished printing.  I also power off the printer at night and turn it back on in the morning after I have turned on my desktop.  

I hope that this post will help others with similar devices & connections.  If anyone has questions on my set-up, just post them here.

I am still very disappointed that HP has not developed a permanent solution to this problem.  Does anyone from HP read these posts and understand how frustrating this problem is for the users?  There are at least 3 separate threads concerning this connectivity issue in the HP Forums, pages and pages of posts, and thousands of views, yet HP has not provided a permanent, workable solution.  This issue is not resolved and this post should not be closed.

[JCNiest5]

Last thing it happened to me, mine was losing "Scan to PC..." (error showing up on my desktop).  If I Disable it, then Enable it, it would work for a few minutes, then the error/warning would pop up again.  Then it just stopped printing, even if I refreshed the wiireless connection.  From other PCs around the house, none could find the printer on the wireless anymore. After numerous attempts to resolve it and nothing worked, I gave up wireless and just hooked up the printer to the router via a lan cable.  It seems to work fine when it's hardwired to the router.  But for how long as others have experienced even with hardwired connections.  One thing for sure, my next printer won't be an HP.