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More Printer Problems with an RBE371 Mesh Network
I've been having a problem with my new Netgear Orbi RBE371 mesh network since I installed it on Saturday. I have two printers, an Epson ET-8500 and a Brother MFC-L3770CDW. Until Saturday I was using an older Google Mesh network with no problems. I was able to print with no problems to both printers from my Macbook, my iPad and my iPhone. I upgraded to the Netgear Orbi mesh network. That's when my troubles began with these printers. I would be able to print to both printers from my Mac and then several minutes later my laptop couldn't connect to them. They still appear in the network and in the print settings on the laptop, but when sending a job the print queue would say it was unable to communicate with the printer. They also appear in the router web page when I display all the connected devices. Furthermore, my iPad can't even find the printers anymore. The first things I tried were to rejoin the printers to the network as well as my laptop and turn off / on the wifi on my laptop. This met with a little bit of temporary success, but then stopped working again within 30 minutes. I then set static IP addresses for each printer to make sure they won't change. The problem still occurred. Then I found an article that stated the Channel for the 2.4Ghz network needs to be between 1 and 11. This router goes between 1 and 13 and was set to Auto. So I set the channel to 11. The problem still continues. At this point I'm not sure what else I can do to solve this problem. I can't seem to find any other information that can help me with this. Is there anything else I can do to try and fix this problem?
regarding my statement: "this is the equivalent of "Private Wi-Fi address = OFF", which is very safe and reliable on Netgear networks as you have found on your other computers."
You had written that "The "Private WiFi Address" option doesn't appear in the network settings .....This seems to be the switch that works"
My particular comment meant that if for the reasons I previously stated, the Private WiFu Address feature is not available/does not show as a setting on your MacBook Air, you still have a situation that "works" - If available, Private WiFi Address set to OFF fixes your issue. I am saying that in computers that do not have that feature, they function like Private WiFi Address is off - meaning, there is no masking, changing, rotating the MAC address the computer reports. So the behavior of your laptop without that setting is identical to a computer with Private WiF Address=Off. You don't have to do anything.
19 Replies
2.4G WiFi channels vary by geographic region. In North America (US. Canada, Mexico) only channels 1-11 may be used. The rest of the world commonly allows channels 12 & 13 as well.
If the router shows choices of 1-13, that would seem to indicate that it is located "in the rest of the world".
The Epson ET-8500 user manual seems to indicate that the printer works with both 2.4G (1-13) and 5G WiFi.
https://files.support.epson.com/docid/cpd5/cpd59879/index.html
The Brother MFC-L3770CDW does also.
Honestly, this seems more like an Apple issue than a router issue. Apple devices are often configured to randomize their network MAC address. Can you please check the setting on yours?
Hi CrimpOn,
Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I checked the Private WiFi Address on my iPad and iPhone and they were set to Fixed. I switched them to Off and confirmed when the warning pop up appeared. I will try this to see if the printers become non-reachable again.
With regard to 5Ghz, are you proposing to move the printers to that band? I also read that it’s a good idea to have different network SSIDs for 2.4 versus 5, but I didn’t have to do that on our Google network. Is that something I should do on this network?
So far, turning Private WiFi Address off and putting the prints in the IoT network has seemed to work. It seems that both are needed because trying them individually did not fix the issue. Still testing, though, as there were a couple of times that the printers weren’t found. Thanks!
We still have the issue on a 2020 Macbook Air. The "Private WiFi Address" option doesn't appear in the network settings which aI find really odd. This seems to be the switch that works so I'm not sure how to proceed when the option isn't available. We made sure it was updated to the same OS as my Macbook Pro. Is there anything else we can try for this one laptop? Thanks.
your Macbook Air may not support that feature. Here's how to tell:
- What is your exact macOS version? If it's Monterey or older, you won't see Private WiFi address;
• Is the MacBook Air is Intel or Apple silicon? Find this under the Apple Menu/About this Mac, "Chip". Many Intel Macs don't support it either, and Apple doesn't offer specifics as to which do and which don't.
Given the Private WiFi address is only RELIABLY available on Silicon Macs, if you have an Intel Mac and the setting is not there, while it could be due to the OS you are using, even if on an OS later than Monterey, the chipset may not support it. I could not find any specifics on which chipset versions do and don't. In any case, if it's not there, the is the equivalent of "Private Wi-Fi address = OFF", which is very safe and reliable on Netgear networks as you have found on your other computers.
Thank you, donawalt. When you wrote "the is the equivalent of "Private Wi-Fi address = OFF", which is very safe and reliable on Netgear networks as you have found on your other computers." what do you mean by this? Is this a shell command?
- What is your exact macOS version? If it's Monterey or older, you won't see Private WiFi address;
What OSX version is on the 2020 Mac Book Air. I have this on my 2018 Mac Book Pro on OSX 15.7.x
It's on 14.7 and we've been trying to update it and for some reason it's not updating and there's no error message. But that's beyond the scope of this thread. I'm thinking that once we get an update installed that setting will appear. Thanks!
Hmm, I left a reply and it seems to have disappeared so I'll try again. Tahoe is no installed on the laptop and the PrivateWiFi Address option appears in Settings. Toggling that off now allows that laptop to detect the printer, although installing it was a bit odd...kept referring to 3rd party software for some reason. So, instead, I printed from Notes and selected the printer which then successfully printed the document. We'll keep testing but I think this will be the solution that will work.
My only question and it's probably rhetorical is, why is Google Mesh so easy to set up and simply works whereas Netgear requires all this fiddling and tweaking? Not being a networking person, this was all new stuff to me.
Thank you everyone for all your help and patience on this one. I truly appreciate all the info your provided in helping me get this problem solved. THANK YOU!!!
Well, I thought my problems were over but I'm still having problems with printers. My Epson ET-8500 is connected on the IoT network and I'm able to print to it. But, if nothing has been printed on the printer for a while (hours maybe?), when anyone attempts to print to it, the printer queue shows that the printer is offline. To fix this I have to turn the printer off and back on as well as pause and resume the printer from the print queue. Then it starts to work again. Does anyone have any ideas of what this issue might be?
But, if nothing has been printed on the printer for a while (hours maybe?), when anyone attempts to print to it, the printer queue shows that the printer is offline.
The next time this happens, see if you can reach the printer's web page from your PC browser.
Thanks, StephenB. No, I was not able to reach the printer's web page from my laptop browser.
