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Router will not assign IP address to networked printer

Sean

My Actiontec router will not assign an IP adddress to my Brother MFC wireless all-in-one.

1. The printer has been sucessfully connected to the router.

2. Printer not visible on the network.

3. Brother help desk had me run a number of tests and their prognosis is that DHCP is not working.

Comments

Justin46

I am a little confused here on what you are saying (some people say that is my normal condition, but I of course disagree...)

You indicate that the printer is wireless, is connected, and yet can't be seen; I am trying to understand how you know it is connected if it can't be seen? Or are you using a wired connection?

Assuming you are really connecting wirelessly, the ActionTec by default has WEP encryption turned on; have you entered the WEP key into the Brother printer (does it even support that? I don't have a clue). The WEP key is on the bottom of the router. If the printer does not support encryption, then you are going to need to turn it off in the ActionTec.

Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.5.0
Keller, TX

Sean

1. It is connected wireless. The printer detected the router after I entered the WEP key with a message of "connected." The problem is my computers, all connected wirelessly, cannot "see" the printer. The tech support from Brother had me print a Network Configuration summary from the printer and when I read him back the IP address he indicated the address was default setting (APIPA) and concluded that my router was not DHCP compliant. He said he had never encountered this with FIOS.

CapnTrips

Your title may be misleading. Are you sure the Router is not assigning an IP address? When you go into the router control web page ( http://192.168.1.1/ ), does the printer not appear as a device? Your later description makes it souind like your individual computers cannot access the printer, not that the router doesn't assign it an IP address.

My experience with routers and printers at home has been that whenever you add a new device (printer, computer, laptop), in order to establish the initial connection (i.e. add it to "My Network Places" or if a printer to "Add Printer" ) I have to disable all of the firewalls on each computer, set up the printer on each one, including printing a test page, and only then re-activating the firewalls, and thereafter they all see and can access whatever it was that you had set up (in this case, a printer). I don't know if that's your issue, but that's what I would try first.

Message Edited by CapnTrips on 10-02-2008 07:26 PM

Justin46

OK. The Brother suppoort guy is wrong, the ActionTec does support DHCP for both wired and wireless, all of my PCs connect using DHCP, both wired and wireless. Plus if you have FiOS TV the STBs use DHCP to connect for the Guide, VOD, and Widgets.

Now, if you log into the ActionTec, do you see the printer in the My Network section? If not, it is not connected, despite what the printer says (and that would match the non-valid IP address you apparently are seeing in the printer). You need to get it to show up on the router before any PC can see it. Do you by chance have MAC filtering turned on in the router? If so, you will need to turn it off or add the MAC address of the printer to the list. Does this printer have a wired option? If so, maybe you can temporarily connect it directly to the router and see whether it will get an IP address that way - if so, then there is a problem with the wireless definition somewhere I think.

If you can see it in the router, then about the only thing I can think of is, does it have a Workgroup setting, and does it have to be in the same Workgroup as your PCs? I think it does, but am not sure, you might check that.

Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.5.0
Keller, TX

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