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Forum Discussion
Printing From Mac
To all that are having trouble printing from Mac especially to HP printers once switching to a netgear Orbi.
Statically set the IP address AND subnet mask AND gateway on your printer. Adding it to the list of reserved addresses in DHCP is not sufficient.
Something with the DHCP server on the Orbi I am guessing doesn't set these values correctly when the IP is handed out. the symptom is that you will be able to Add the printer but then not be able to print to it from Mac OS X. You may be able to print to it from Windows, you will be able to load the printer's webpage - but the print driver will not work.
If you manually configure the IP, Subnet, and Gateway on the printer it will work.
Guessing this is some sort of Netgear bug in DHCP that only shows up with some HP printer drivers.
3 Replies
You should only either set a static IP address ON a device thats outside of the routers default IP address pool or set a IP address reservation ON the router for devices inside the routers default IP address pool. You can't do both at the same time. This is not a FW bug.
Thanks for the response, but maybe my wording was unclear above.
If I "set an IP address reservation ON the router for devices inside the routers default IP address pool" The printer will recieve the IP address via DHCP - but printing will not work. I can browse the printer's web page and I can even add the printer - but sending jobs to the printer fails.
If I manually setup the IP on the printer it works fine.
Using my previous router the I had an IP address reservation via DHCP and it worked without issue.
Hence my conclusion here is that something in the DHCP response is somehow different from what it was getting before - or formatted in a way that the printer cannot parse. It's not the assigned IP itself (YIAddr) - because that information does get set correctly. Perhaps it is in some handling of DHCP Options. Whatever is incompatible - it only seems to be an issue with the Mac Printer driver - as it seems to work ok on Windows 7/10.
Configurations I tested:
Orbi - DHCP w/ Reserved Address + HP Printer + Mac Driver = Not working
Orbi + HP Printer (static) + Mac Driver = OK
Orbi - DHCP w/ Reserved Address + HP Printer + Windows Driver = OK
Linksys EA6400 - DHCP w/ Reserved Address on + HP Printer + Mac Driver = OK
Based on the above evidence, it seems some part of DHCP response is somehow incompatible with HP Printer, in a way that I haven't expierenced with prior routers.My advice is the same if you have an Orbi, an HP Printer, and a Mac and it doesn't printer - try statically assigning the printer address (from outside the DHCP pool) and see if it fixes it.
Are you sure the Mac driver is pointed correctly at the IP address for the printer when given an IP address reservation?
If this configuration is working for you: "Orbi - DHCP w/ Reserved Address + HP Printer + Windows Driver = OK" and the Mac one doesn't, this points to a problem on the Mac, not the Orbi. LAN Networking between Mac and Windows isn't different. Uses same Networking standards.
I've have two HP printers, both work with my system and devices. I've tried both static and reserved configurations. Both work. I prefer to use static IPs for devices that don't need much or any internet access or router management.
angelosarto wrote:
Thanks for the response, but maybe my wording was unclear above.
If I "set an IP address reservation ON the router for devices inside the routers default IP address pool" The printer will recieve the IP address via DHCP - but printing will not work. I can browse the printer's web page and I can even add the printer - but sending jobs to the printer fails.
If I manually setup the IP on the printer it works fine.
Using my previous router the I had an IP address reservation via DHCP and it worked without issue.
Hence my conclusion here is that something in the DHCP response is somehow different from what it was getting before - or formatted in a way that the printer cannot parse. It's not the assigned IP itself (YIAddr) - because that information does get set correctly. Perhaps it is in some handling of DHCP Options. Whatever is incompatible - it only seems to be an issue with the Mac Printer driver - as it seems to work ok on Windows 7/10.
Configurations I tested:
Orbi - DHCP w/ Reserved Address + HP Printer + Mac Driver = Not working
Orbi + HP Printer (static) + Mac Driver = OK
Orbi - DHCP w/ Reserved Address + HP Printer + Windows Driver = OK
Linksys EA6400 - DHCP w/ Reserved Address on + HP Printer + Mac Driver = OK
Based on the above evidence, it seems some part of DHCP response is somehow incompatible with HP Printer, in a way that I haven't expierenced with prior routers.My advice is the same if you have an Orbi, an HP Printer, and a Mac and it doesn't printer - try statically assigning the printer address (from outside the DHCP pool) and see if it fixes it.
