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I work for a school that has a WMS5316 controller with a few WNDAP350 APs.
They've recently got some iPads, so we got Konica Minolta to upgrade the firmware on the printers to enable Airprint. The printer worked fine on all iPads for about 10 minutes, then vanished from the network. We've had multiple engineer visits, the printer is configured fine (I also work in another school with the same set up, and that printer/airprint works fine).
Any time we make a config change on the printers they pop back into view for 10 minutes then vanish. Looking around other forums, people have suggested this might be due to multicast across VLANs or across APs (???). All the APs are on the same VLAN, and all plugged in to the controller (which in turn connects to an unmanaged switch, into which the printers are also connected).
I'm starting to bang my head against the wall a bit, and becoming increasingly convinced this is due to a configuration or maybe firmware on the WiFi kit. Current firmware versions:
Controller: 2.1.4.15
APs: WNDAP350_V2.1.7 (we also seem to have an issue with the APs constantly booting us out of the webinterface, is this addressed in a fimrware update?)
I know on Cisco devices you need to turn on Service Discovery Gateway for Airprint to work. Is there perhaps something similar on Netgear devices?
At this point I'd welcome any and all ideas (and thanks in advance!)
I found the answer to my own question. There was an undocumented and unconfigured (not even on the same subnet, so not showing up on DHCP or network scans) Netgear switch being used to give POE to the access points.
I had a poke around in the settings, and turning off "IGMP Snooping" instantly cured all Airprint issues.
I have seen some of these issues with AirPrint even from regular wireless routers, it is kind of weird but I think it has something to do with the authentication or channel of the wireless device. The latest version of the WMA5316's firmware is 2.1.5 and the release notes do not mention anything about wireless connectivity. I also have checked our repository of reported issues about the WMS5316 and did not see anything related to the issue you are having. Try to isolate the problem, see if the printers can be detected by the/a computer that is not using AirPrint. When you lose the printers after 10 mins, see if you can find it on the computers, check it's status and try to print. It is also best if you contact our Support Team for this issue.
All the APs are on the same VLAN, and all plugged in to the controller which in turn connects to an unmanaged switch, into which the printers are also connected.
For what it's worth, a WMS5316 is not branded as a Wireless Controller but as a Wireless Manager. (I say "branded" because I'm not trying to discuss of names ^^)
The difference being that it does NOT control any of the Wireless traffic, it's "only" there to push configuration to the Access Points (mass management). Once the Access Points are configured, they work as stand alone. You could even remove the WMS5316 from the network.
Therefore, I wouldn't recommend connecting all the Access Points to the WMS5316 and then the WMS5316 to the switch. As it makes the WMS5316 a bottleneck. Instead, simply connect everything to the switch (of course, you need to configure the VLANs properly).
I found the answer to my own question. There was an undocumented and unconfigured (not even on the same subnet, so not showing up on DHCP or network scans) Netgear switch being used to give POE to the access points.
I had a poke around in the settings, and turning off "IGMP Snooping" instantly cured all Airprint issues.
