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I've spent way too many hours on this one so thrown in the towel but hoping someone might have a clue.

Oldish Epson Stylus Printer won't properly connect to the router wirelessly, I'll do the rest of this in list format, paragraphs would get too unwieldy.

Printer and router acknowledge wireless connection has been made.
Printer learns IP issued from router's DHCP ok.
Router learns printer's MAC address but doesn't link it to IP address it issued from DHCP.
Router flags and logs that printer is connected wirelessly.
Putting MAC address on fixed IP at both ends doesn't work.
Printer ad-hoc wireless mode works fine.
Printer's Ethernet connection to router works fine.
Printer USB to computer works fine.
Switching on/off uPNP on router makes no difference.
Switching on/off bonjour on printer makes no difference and router doesn't pick up bonjour details.
All Epson utilities on computer use TCP so can't find printer because no IP.
No related errors in the router logs even at debug level, it just acknowledges connection and disconnection at appropriate times.
MAC address for printer's wireless and ethernet is same but I've let DHCP time out (was 24 hours) and still won't work.

Turn off both devices.
A power cycle, may just clear any issues on the router.

Check for any firmware updates for router / printer.

Factory reset router / printer.

All worst final solutions.


If you have an access point, old or new you could try to connect to that first.

You need to identify which device is failing.

Just general pointers.

I think you have gone 5 rounds already.

Probably teaching granny to suck eggs but is this one where you must use a usb to set it up initially?

In my experience, Epson printers are not very reliable. I have one that connects faultlessly to the Wi-fi, and the scanner works fine which is why I keep it.

However, it has two major faults:

1. It keeps getting blocked nozzles.
2. It keeps failing to recognise cartridges.

The second fault maybe because I don't spend money on overpriced Epsom cartridges, but the first is not. It happened well before I discovered cheaper cartridges.

The new ones with large ink reservoirs may eliminate fault no. 2, but unless you do a lot of colour printing - using it daily at the very least - it isn't going to stop fault no. 1.

I have given up and bought a colour laser printer (Ricoh). This is fast, reliable, and produces colour pics which are adequate for what I want if not perfect photo quality.

I will avoid Epsom ones in future.

And the rest, probably about 20 hours. I suspect the router is being a bit too fussy on the handshake protocol. Firmware is up to date both router and printer.



I've got a half decent HP but you have to buy HP cartridges on them, the cheapo ones just leak the ink out and fill the collector reservoir. I'm not paying £100 for a set of cartridges, I used to get genuine HP cheap but that source dried up (pun intended).

My Epson (not the wireless one above) is permanently used with cheap cartridges, last batch was £6 for 20 posted! I bought that second hand with jets clogged, gave them a good syringe flush and they stayed clear for about two years, its due another flush. The wireless one needed a flush as well and now prints perfectly. Make sure you switch the printer on at least once a week.

I've got an IDS Prism colour dot matrix from about 1982 for which I bought loads of ink-tapes but over the years the new sealed ones have dried up and multi-colour tapes can't be re-inked. http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/9031/Integral-Data-Systems-Prism-Printer-Model-132/

You can set it up manually or from the computer, I think this one can only be with the Ethernet cable not the USB, I've only found an Epson network program that does it and not one for USB.

Its frustrating because the difficult bit is usually getting the wireless to connect at all, or the computer to find the printer but in this case its a bit in the middle of them that's failing. I've never come across this and can't find another reference to it on the internet.

I've got an oldish (10 years or so) Epson Stylus Photo and every now and then I have to re-associate it with the Home Hub. I do this from the printers maintenance screen where I find the network and I have to enter the wireless password. Do you need to on yours?
Using your router/hub's maintenance screen, can you see the printer associated with on of the ip addresses, and if so, is the port correct for both?
Is there a firewall that might be blocking it? If so, just add it to the exceptions list.
Just a few ideas. I know they can be a bit odd. Good luck..

Computer network must be set to private. I would think this is not the case if you are set to ad-hoc.??

I've detailed the problems concerning that in the original post.



No, I am trying to get it to work in infrastructure mode, I mentioned it works ok in adhoc because that shows the printer wireless system is working. The problem appears to be a protocol problem between the router and the printer.

If I had seen anyone else reporting a similar problem I would assume its the router firmware being a bit too finicky. I have a suspicion its the printer firmware and might look at taking it back to an older version which is possible on an Epson though not easy apparently.

What router are you using? The fact that the printer gets an ip from dhcp (assuming you don’t use a dhcp Windows / Linux server) server on your router then why are you looking at the MAC address table? Can you ping the printer from the router and from the pc?
Can you manually add the printer on the pc using add remove printers and then just type in the up address?

link

Because the router doesn't know its issued that IP nor does it know about anything with that IP on the network, so nothing can talk to that IP through the router. I can only track what little I can see through the MAC address. I don't like the printer using the same MAC for both wireless and ethernet but some devices do that annoyingly.

There's a bit of handshaking going adrift, the printer is presumably not issuing an acknowlegement not broadcasting that IP, its a bit more difficult to see if the printer would respond to that IP.

It is weird, I've never come across anything like this before and I've done a lot of network faffing.



Similar problem but mine is the other way around, the printer gets the correct IP straight away. The 169*** ip is what any device tries in a network-less state, its an attempt to go into adhoc mode.

I have heard someone fixed it because they knew that last IP it worked on and once they connected to that IP it then behaved itself. I'v done factory resets, stupid addresses, forces faults the works.

I know I should just try another router but, its not my printer and I can't assume it behaves just because it does on another router.