Network Printer Regularly Appears Offline on Windows Clients

[Correzpond]

I  have a 1 month old HP OfficeJet Pro 8740 connected by Wired Ethernet via TCP/IP to a network of mostly Windows clients, most running Windows 10. However according to the fix I found online the issue dates back to Windows Vista and affects a range of printers which either do not implement SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) or where SNMP communications are affected by firewall issues or have otherwise been disabled for  security reasons.

The precise scenario which applied to the HP OfficeJet Pro 8740  on my network is not clear, however the fix worked immediately and I recommend that users experiencing a similar issue try this before applying the quite lengthy troubleshooting suggested by HP.

The issue is described in detail at http://blog.rtwilson.com/how-to-fix-a-network-printer-suddenly-showing-as-offline-in-windows-vista/ and worked immediately on one of my Windows 10 clients that saw the printer as being offline while other machines were happily printing to it.

The fix involves telling Windows not to communicate with the printer via SNMP and it is very easy to implement with immediate results: 

1. Open Control Panel on the affected Windows Client
2. Open Devices and Printers
3. Right Click the affected printer (in my case HP OfficeJet Pro 8740)
4. Select Printer Properties
5. Select the Ports Tab
6. Select the connected port (in my case this was a Standard TCP/IP Port)
7. Select Configure Port
8. Uncheck SNMP Status Enabled <OK> <Close>

The printer should appear online to the client and any documents in the print queue should print immediately.

The original reference includes an additional registry fix that may be necessary on clients running Windows 8 if the issue reoccurs.

I hope this saves some time for other HP printer owners as the fixes otherwise recommended by HP at  https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-officejet-pro-8740-all-in-one-printer-series/7902055/documen... actually wasted a lot of mine.

[Correzpond · Accepted solution]

Marking this issue as solved since the Question was raised in order to share the solution.