Has anyone had success with wireless printers? Always shows as offline

[antef]

I hate printers, didn't own one for a long time, but was forced to buy one last year. This experience isn't helping my hatred of them. It's a Canon PIXMA MG5220, using it over WiFi. Every time I turn it on, it always shows offline in Windows. The printer on its LCD screen will you tell its connected and show you the IP. When I try to access this IP over a web browser, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - but regardless, it will show as offline in Control Panel either way. The only way to fix it is to remove and re-add the printer. Even then it sometimes won't find it, but usually does after a few tries.

I have a Verizon router so it doesn't have very easy static IP settings, but I did try checking "static lease type" and it hasn't helped. I don't know whether to blame the printer, my router, or Windows, and searching hasn't brought up anything. Does anyone know of any solutions for this? Thanks.

 

[el-Capitan]

I have a wireless HP. It is a terrible printer with worse software (I feel your hate), but since I put it on a static IP (via the printer setup, not the router) I have never had issues 'finding' it.

Pick an address beyond your router's DHCP range.

 

[Ketchup]

I have had good luck with my last 2 wireless printers, both HP. Never had a problem connecting to them.
I have just heard too many complaints about printers from other manufacturers (not all connection-related though).

Does the printer have an Ethernet port? You could try connecting it the the router and see if it installs. That would somewhat limit the cause of your issues.

 

[bruceb]

I have an HP7410 setup via USB to my main computer and it also has a built in Wi-Fi card. What you need to do is be sure that all computers that want to use the Wi-Fi printer and the printer itself, is in the same Workgroup. And don't forget to put your WI-FI SSID and Password into the printer Wi-Fi configuration. Never had any issues with it.

 

[antef]

Thanks...a static IP is probably what is needed here (I'm not sure why when other devices don't have this sort of problem). Since I can't figure out how to do that on Verizon's router it must be done via the printer as was suggested. I found the option to do it, set the IP to something outside DHCP range, set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0, and set the default gateway to my router's IP. The printer says it now has that IP, and it also shows up in my router's device list with the new IP, but when I try a connectivity test on the router page it fails, and I can't access the printer's web page through a browser either. Why might it not be seeing it despite having an IP? I've never set up any workgroups or homegroups. I feel like this might do the trick if I can figure this out.

 

[smitbret]

Probably has less to do with the printer and more to do with your network. I've had an Epson Artisan 835 that has been connected wirelessly for almost 2 years and it's never dropped its connection with any PCs.

 

[BrightCandle]

I have no issues with my Lexmark S605. It runs in some low power mode but everytime I send it a document it wakes up and gets going. I did make its IP static in the router but before I did so it happily worked for weeks so it wasn't necessary. Its actually been a good printer other than how long it takes to get to its first page, but Lexmark are out of the market now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I have a Brother MFC420CN inkjet, with ethernet, connected to my LAN, and I've very rarely ever had an issue. Generally, any issues that I've had, can be fixed by a quick power-cycle of the printer.

 

[antef]

Thanks for all the replies and help. I managed to set a static IP on the printer last time but I was still unable to connect. Today I power cycled the router and after that I was able to connect to it at the new static IP. I turned it off and back on again and it was still good and I was able to print a test page. So, it would be nice if this has now fixed the problem. The only weird thing is, when I turned the printer off, it still showed as online in Control Panel. So the status is still not getting updated there properly, but I don't care as long as it prints when it's on.

 

[destrekor]

Thanks for all the replies and help. I managed to set a static IP on the printer last time but I was still unable to connect. Today I power cycled the router and after that I was able to connect to it at the new static IP. I turned it off and back on again and it was still good and I was able to print a test page. So, it would be nice if this has now fixed the problem. The only weird thing is, when I turned the printer off, it still showed as online in Control Panel. So the status is still not getting updated there properly, but I don't care as long as it prints when it's on.

Try printing to it - perhaps it'll wake up the printer and still work.

Or, did you "turn it off" by flipping the I/O power switch (presumably on the back, if that printer has one).


I was just going to state that my Epson WF Pro 4530 (connected through WiFi) hasn't given me any connectivity problems.

 

[funboy6942]

Epson Workforce 840, on 4 different computers and have had no problems at all.

 

[Spades45]

I have a wireless HP. It is a terrible printer with worse software (I feel your hate), but since I put it on a static IP (via the printer setup, not the router) I have never had issues 'finding' it.

Pick an address beyond your router's DHCP range.

this should work, these things are just really finicky. i have a hp all in one

 

[Jabrono]

I've been using an MX870 wirelessly for a couple of years.

Initially I had issues but resolved them all by giving the printer a static IP in my router - zero connectivity problems since.

 

[gsaldivar]

Many wireless printers are capable of accepting print jobs over Ethernet or Wi-fi, but not both at the same time. If your printer is connected to a wired network, disconnecting the Ethernet cable might prevent the printer from "losing" the wireless connection and might make wireless printing more reliable.

Good luck.

 

[lakedude]

Epson NX430 works perfectly on wireless for scanning or printing @ our house. Pretty sure it is set up with a static IP...

 

[antef]

Thanks guys, I think I'm good now. I turned it on the other day and it still had the static IP and I was able to print and scan. In the past I've never had much luck setting static IPs from devices instead of on the router, but in this case it worked great, so thanks el-Capitan for that suggestion. It did initially show offline still when I turned it on, and even told me it was offline in a pop-up when I tried to print, but as destrekor mentioned, after a few moments it came online and the print went through. Very glad to have this working, hopefully it will continue to, thanks for the help!