Netgear USB Control Center and Mac OS Mojave 10.14

Glad to find this thread! I recently switched to a Netgear Router so I didn't have to pay to rent Xfinity's. Since the switch I have been unable to connect to my WiFi Brother printer. I used to be able to print from both my cell phone and laptop.  I have played with this for hours thinking I was doing something wrong but it appears its an issue with the router after all. Ridiculous this thread has been open for months with no solution. I tried downloading the USB Control Center and get the same error on my macbook 10.14.  Hoping to see an update posted on this thread soon.

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sporte823 wrote:

Since the switch I have been unable to connect to my WiFi Brother printer.

 

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There is a steady stream of messages on this topic. Although I am not sure why the USB control centre comes into play with a wifi printer. Unless Macs do something freaky, Wifi connectivity goes nowhere near the USB

One of the common themes, apart from the fact that printer makers are hopeless at managing wifi connectivity, is that it hits people who have replaced their router with something else. They then expect the printer to work with no intervention on their part. That won't work. The printer needs to be told to forget the old router's wifi connection and set up again from scratch.

The usual way to fix wifi printers is to find the printer maker's utility, the software that runs on your operating system. Then use that to connect the printer to the wifi.

The router just broadcasts wifi. It is then down to the printer to play ball. There isn't much that you can do on a router, beyond fixing it to a particular IP address, that affects what the printer gets up to.

Where possible, using the WPS feature can simplify things.

Sporte823, you missed the point completely.

We would welcome your SUPERUSER SENSEI assistance. The issue relates to printers connected to router via USB cable. That is why USB matters.

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JeffStent wrote:

The issue relates to printers connected to router via USB cable. That is why USB matters.

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Understood. However, people talk of a WiFi printer - what is confusing at least - making it hard to provide appropriate assistance. Be aware you talk to community members, not to Netgear here. Most of us have very few hardware models at hand only, and specific issues with hardware sold to specific markets only - and even worse with firmware probably under control of the ISP in the case of these Cnnnn modem/routers coming into this trhead recently, too.

Yes, to clarify and restate the original problem (I'm the OP):

I had been using the USB Control Center software to allow computers on my network to print to the Brother HL-l2300D which has no built-in networking, wifi or ethernet. 

The software had been working fine, but something in a recent Apple OSX update caused it to start failing, reporting that the software needed to be re-installed.

Not only did the installed software fail, but the software installer was no longer functioning properly, failing to install the USB Control Center.

Outside of this thread, I'd been contacted by Netgear support, who offered me a "beta" (really not even Alpha - I'm a 30 year software development veteran here) that reportedly fixed the situation.  It did not. In fact the new installer played havoc with my computer's start-up process and I had to go to drastic lengths to restore my system.  I reported this to them, suggesting that their in-house QA create a current OSX system to do sanity testing on before offering it to customers.

That was back in early January.  I've heard nothing from them since.  Luckily I have a PC right next to my Mac and can typically use that to print (the Windows USB Control Center is still working just fine in my environment.)

So please, don't confuse the point of this thread without reading the whole of the thread. It's not a firmware issue.  I has nothing to do with network capable (ethernet or wifi) printers. It has everything to do with Netgear not keeping their software up to date against current OSX updates.
-Ric

Ric,

Welcome to the club - I had to restore a Mac for the very same cause, too. Wasn't difficult, probably it could be fixed otherwise, bit the SSD of that system was not heavily filled, to the TimeMachine did a brilliant job (as usual). QA does apparently not exist with Netgear these days.

-Kurt

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JeffStent wrote:

Sporte823, you missed the point completely.

 

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That's what happens when someone joins in on an old discussion and throws in an issue that has nothing to do with the original problem.

I was just trying to solve the wifi bit in the message from sporte823.