Wireless issue with Dell printer

[bfromcolo]

I have a new Dell C1765nfw. It's been set up for a week now, works great except.... My router is an inexpensive Rosewill NX-EasyN4.

Twice in the past week I have had to power off/on the printer to correct problems other devices in the house have experienced maintaining a connection to my wireless router. The devices appear to be connected but do not have internet access and I can see the connection speed being renegotiated constantly. Power cycling the printer has resolved the issue, the first time for a few days and the last time for about 12 hours before the issue reoccurred.

This printer is within 5 ft of the router and is the closest device in the house to it. Is it possible this printer is overpowering the router, and if so why doesn't it fail right away? I guess I can rearrange the office to get it further away, but it does not seem like this should be necessary.

Is it possible the printer wireless hardware is faulty somehow? I would hate to have to box up and RMA this 40 lb printer.

Any ideas? Thanks

 

[kbp]

Try a different chanel on the router......

 

[Fardringle]

If the printer is only 5 feet away from the router, use an ethernet cable to the printer. That will eliminate the printer's wireless as a possible cause of the problem. If the problem stops, then it's a good sign that you have a wireless issue between the printer and the router. If the problem keeps happening, then you probably have a bad/failing router.

 

[TSE]

I have been suffering the same symptoms with the same printer, in brief

Periodically the router drops the connection to all wifi devices (not sure if the Dell printer is or is not included in that). The cabled connections continue to function.

Devices cannot then successfully authenticate when they are forced to try to reconnect.

The workaround has been to power-cycle the router.

With every other device powered up and connected, and with the printer powered up but NOT connected via wifi, then things are perfect. Connecting the printer by wifi to the router brings the symptom on.

This is true with two different routers, and for each of these a different wifi account has been used: the second router was the brand new one provided when I was trying to eliminate the router hardware as the root caused, clearly it is not, it may however be incompatible in some way with the wifi of the Dell C1765.

Router channels:
I have tried both channel 1 and Channel 6 on the first router, with no difference in the symptom

Periodicity:
The intervals between being knocked off the wifi have varied (from recollection) between an few hours or more to just 10 minutes. This may perhaps relate to the sleep/deep sleep state of the printer perhaps.

Any thoughts from anyone smart?

I realise I could wire the device into the router with Cat6 but was hoping there was a more copper-free option.

 

[JackMDS]

I have a very Good Wireless Router on the Network there is a Wireless large format Brother printer, a Canon color printer, and an AIO HP printer.

The Brother and the Canon sits there for long time and there is No problem what so ever. The HP occasionally generate similar problem as described in the OP.

I could Not totally eliminate the problem. I managed to reduce its prevalence by configuring the HP Wireless to a static IP that is out of the Router's DHCP range. I think it has to do with the printer going to sleep after few minutes and disconnecting from the Router, when it attempts to Reconnect it does something to the Router's Obtain IP process.

This is Not uncommon for Entry Level hardware devices that usually do not go through rigorous QA*. Good QA cost more and delays product release, a "luxury" that is a "problem" in the sub $200 market.

It Not just one vendor, most of them has the same approach, as long as their hardware work with one device of thier choice (usually something that they sell too) everything is OK from their perspective.

--------
*QA = Quality Assurance.

 

[TSE]

Jack:

"I managed to reduce its prevalence by configuring the HP Wireless to a static IP that is out of the Router's DHCP range. "

A thousand thanks for this information/suggestion, its very helpful.

In a prior life I work for 'Worldwide Quality' in a US Corp but on the mechanical and systems side of their product range, sorting out tests suites which *Should* ensure a high level and broad scope of user satisfaction. Interacting software has so very many more factors to stop it working optimally than embedded software systems discretely built into mechancal procucts. Interacting software Quality remains a knotty problem even if you indulge in large test and certification exercises, against a common standard. Its a bit disapointing to find this problem, but I am happy to have the web support such as this thread, and your kind help.

Tom

 

[bfromcolo]

Shortly after posting this the DSL modem I had died and was replaced free by CenturyLink by one with an integrated wireless router. As a result I am no longer using the Rosewill wireless router. Wireless connectivity has improved significantly with the printer. If it has been idle for a long time it still has to be occasionally power cycled to wake up, but this is a once a week occurrence now, versus a constant hassle with the old router.