PS B110a - Wireless setup fails if network has multiple access points

[nassauman]

PrintDoc,

Other device's configurations don't really matter.  What really matters is the fact that other wireless devices such as iPod, iPad, Galaxy Tab, and Samsung wireless laser printer connect to my wireless AP configuration without any problems.  Only the HP wireless printer gives me this problem. That should mean something to HP Sales, marketing, and product validation teams. Sorry, but I would not consider buying an HP WiFi devices any more unless at least until HP can verifiably claim this issue has been fixed.

[RJKinsman]

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@nassauman wrote:

...I would not consider buying an HP WiFi devices any more unless at least until HP can verifiably claim this issue has been fixed.

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I totally second that sentiment.  This issue would certainly affect my decision regarding future purchases, as well as whether I would recommend HP to friends and relatives.  I tend to be one of those "family IT guys" and people come to me for advice.  I would steer them away from HP becuase of this issue.

[sijomi]

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@RJKinsman wrote:

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@nassauman wrote:

...I would not consider buying an HP WiFi devices any more unless at least until HP can verifiably claim this issue has been fixed.

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I totally second that sentiment.  This issue would certainly affect my decision regarding future purchases, as well as whether I would recommend HP to friends and relatives.  I tend to be one of those "family IT guys" and people come to me for advice.  I would steer them away from HP becuase of this issue.

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+3 from OP

To PrintDoc:

I realise that you don't represent HP on this forum but is there any way that you or other people on this thread can gain HP's official attention on this problem? There is obviously a design error in the WLAN part of the printer firmware but I'm not even sure HP Tech are aware of it. Per previous posts, I do not believe the root problem is the discovery of multiple APs using the same SSID (which the printer reports as a warning) but this situation appears to cause the printer to detect (or at least report) the detection of some sort of "filtering" (which the printer reports as a "filtering test failure" with no further explanation) and causes the firmware to give up. No other devices appear to have a problem with the various network configurations described above so it must be a design error in the HP printer firmware. How can we get HP to acknowledge this and hopefully resolve it!

Please HP: RESPOND TO YOUR CUSTOMERS!

[realjax]

I'd be interested to see if this really leads to a reaction from HP (I'm not talking about the 'HP employees' active on this forum, who seem to be answering posts straight from India)

But to remain positive: I seriously doubt it.

This thread is also about malfunctioning wifi . Other issue, but same origin.

That thread started in 2010.  At some point an HP employee marked it as 'solved' just to get rid of it.

Official reason to mark it as solved was that HP's crappy implementation was to 'prevent other issues from happening'..

So after almost 2 years the problem remains. But I just regard this as a lesson learned: 'If at all possible stay away from american crap like HP and buy japanese crap instead' 

[hhhhhh]

dear mister or miss you prodect it is good

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@sijomi wrote:

Photosmart B110a (CN245B) wireless AIO printer.

I have multiple wireless access points using the same SSID to provide coverage over a large area. When setting up the printer on the TouchSmart panel wireless setup fails. Printing the report reveals the following error:

" More than one access point/wireless router has been found that matches your network name (SSID). If this is not intended, your HP printer may connect to the wrong network."

In my case this IS intended but there appears to be no option available to respond "OK, just connect to any AP using my SSID".  If I switch off all but one of the APs the setup completes OK. If I have to do this every time I switch the printer on then the printer is USELESS to me.

Have I missed something?

sijomi

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[AlwaysNeon]

From what you are describing you have a WAN setup for your wireless network, which creates as complicated framework for your printer to respond to. Your printer wants to (for the most stable connection) to communicate with only one location and one SSID. What you have instead is multiple locations with the same name.

A good analogy would be meeting identical twins for the first time and being able to correctly identify which twin is which without any other information. Basically it confuses the printer with which location it is supposed to relay the information to.

My suggestion would be to hard-wire the printer to one of these location using an Ethernet cable and installing the printer Network > Ethernet and see if this alleviates some of the confusion.

Let me know!

[nassauman]

AlwaysNeon,

I don't really care how complicate this issue is.  But devices from other manufacturers, including HP's competition printers and many smart phones I have tried, have no problems with the set up. It eventually boils down to competition -- everybody else's devices work, HP's doesn't. Period.

[nassauman]

Oh, by the way, HP laptops also work just fine with multiple-AP-under-same-SSID setting.  HP printer division must learn something from the laptop division.  But one can never learn if you refuse to acknowledge the problem and want to fix.

[realjax]

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AlwaysNeon wrote:

A good analogy would be meeting identical twins for the first time and being able to correctly identify which twin is which without any other information. Basically it confuses the printer with which location it is supposed to relay the information to.

That's not a good anology. This one is more true:

You meet identical twins. They both look the same and they both have the same name. If you ask them a question, either one of them  replies. Whichever one is the fastest or the closets to you. When one replies in a certain way the other would have replied exactly the same. When one starts talking to you it keeps on talking to you, it will also reply to followup questions.

To get back to the start of this anology.. 'You meet identical twins'....   Not a problem. Meeting them both at the same time or just one of the two makes no difference. Just ask a question.

Unless you are an HP printer. They assume that asking a question is pointless to begin with and instead complain.

ps.Apologies for the bold stuff. I tried to correct it but to no avail.

Even HP's forum software is .. well.. 'not working correctly' on Chrome.

[sijomi]

AlwaysNeon (HP) said:

"From what you are describing you have a WAN setup for your wireless network, which creates as complicated framework for your printer to respond to. Your printer wants to (for the most stable connection) to communicate with only one location and one SSID. What you have instead is multiple locations with the same name."

Errr... have you never come across a wireless network that extends across a large area like in a large office or factory or even a large house in which the signal from one AP is not strong enough to cover the whole area?  (This is NOT a WAN!). In such environments (which I'm sure HP has) it is considered correct practice to deploy multiple APs  using the same SSID and security (I'm not so sure about using the same or different channel numbers). Yes, my printer wants to (and can) only connect to one AP and it should be the one with the strongest signal, usually the nearest. But in order to allow mobile (or even static) wireless devices located out of range of the AP to which the printer is connected to connect to the same wireless LAN we need multiple distributed APs. As a networking guy I have successfully implemented several of these and in my experience only HP printers have failed to connect because they (correctly) detect mutiple APs with same SSID. Actually, as I stated in an earlier post, the error message the printer reports regarding multiple access points appears to be just a "warning", what actually appears to be the show stopper is something related to the detection of "address filtering". This seems to be a red herring.  But I wish someone from HP could tell me what condition actually causes this message to be reported and the printer to give up. AlwaysNeon?