The Mystery of the Smart Hub and the Printer

[twdwood]

Hi-

Hopefully someone can help me with this because I'm completely flummoxed!

I have just moved to a new flat and have BT with a Smart Hub installed. It is set up and working A-OK both wirelessly and wired with several devices.

I also have a wireless printer (Brother HL-L2340DW), which was previously working perfectly on a wirless network at my previous home.

Now, when I try to set up the printer on the BT Smart Hub wireless network, I CANNOT get them to play together nicely. Very strangely, when it lists the SSIDs that are available, the printer sees several of my neighbours wireless networks, even ones with very low signal but it never lists my network, even though it is sat about 50 cm from the router.

I'm usually pretty good at this stuff but this has me stumped. I've tried to connect via my laptop with the printer's software, via wireless directly on the printer, I've updated both devices to the latest firmware, I've rebooted them, I've tried splitting the wireless signals into 2.4 and 5ghz and I've even factory reset both devices, I've tried manually changing the channels they broadcast on, I've tried the 3 different modes on the Smart Hub settings, I've had a decent search on the internet for answers, all to no avail. I know I can plug in a cable but that's not the point!

It's a real mystery.

So, anyone got any bright ideas? Help would be much appreciated.

[Liam_]

Have you tried using a static IP address on the printer?

In the TCP/IP part of the Network Menu.

Possibly use:

IP address -     192.168.1.50

Subnet mask -  255.255.255.0

Gateway -        192.168.1.254

[twdwood]

Hi Liam-

Thanks for your response. I would try that but I'm struggling to configure the ip address of the printer via the front panel (there's no longer software that can do it via a mac).

I follow the instructions I can find on the web but I'm faced with an ip address that is 192.000.000.192 and none of the buttons allow me to delete characters (there also doesn't seem to be a way to confirm the modified address by the by).

Driving me crazy.

Weidest thing is that it can see other BT, Sky and Virgin network SSIDs.

[Liam_]

You could have a look here, see if anything helps.

http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadtop.aspx?c=gb&lang=en&prod=hll2340dw_us_eu_as

There may be a configuration tool there, can't say for sure as I don't have a Mac.

[gg30340]

 This a complete long shot but have tried moving the printer further away from the hub and making sure it is not plugged into the same electrical socket.

[Liam_]

This link has a little more detail on using the setup panel.

http://www.northshore-it.com/tips/how-tos/network_printer_static_ip/

[twdwood]

Hi gg330340

Thanks for responding!

I haven't tried that but I'll give it a shot this evening and see how I get on.

I'll report back if there's any change.

[twdwood]

Hello again Liam-

Yes, frustratingly Brother has discontinued their software support for Mac for this printer. I've tried installing the old versions and none of them run. 

And I had a look through that setup panel article on northshore-it.com, no luck on that either unfortunately - it doesn't address the fact that you can't actually delete characters from the IP address field on the printer (or confirm it).

But thanks again for having a think about solutions, very much appreciated.

[flamethrower]

You could try disabling Smart Setup on your router, there are devices that do not work well with this feature:

  http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44328/~/what-is-smart-setup-on-the-bt-hub%3F-how-can-...

You could also try manually assigning a manual WiFi channel to your network:

  http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14094/~/how-do-i-change-the-wi-fi-channel-on-my-bt-hu...

If neither of these helps, I'd recommend returning to the defaults afterwards.

[twdwood]

Hi flamethrower-

Thanks for your suggestions.

I've tried the manual assigning of wifi channels but no luck there.

I'll have a go at disabling the Smart Setup on the router this evening and see if it helps.

Ta