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LESprinkle's avatar
LESprinkle
Aspirant
Sep 09, 2018
Solved

Will Smart Connect allow printing between bands?

**I am CONSIDERING whether the R8000P is right for my needs. I currently have an older Netgear router.**   I have a Brother printer with WiFI bult in, but only works on 2.4G b/g. My iPad & other ...
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  • shadowsports's avatar
    shadowsports
    Sep 09, 2018

    Greetings,

    Yes.  If the printer is connected to the routers wireless (on any band), any device also connected to the router (wired or wireless) can print to the printer.

     

    The only exception would be if you enabed a guest network and isolated it from devices on the local network. 

     

    There are some other things you need t take into consideration.

     

    Attaching a wireless B/G device to your network could require that you enable WPA-PSK [TKIP] if the older device does not support WPA2-PSK [AES] security.  This could limit your 2.4Ghz bandwidth to 54mbps...  if you enabled SmartConnect, this could have a negative impact on overall wireless perofrmance.  You might want to take this into consideration during your research, and be prepared to buy a newer printer that supports the network protocals supported a newer dual or tri-band router. 

     

    Aditionally, check Brothers website and ensure there are no updates for your printer.  Many are FW updatable like routers, computer BIOS etc.  This might add the support you need to maintain maximum bandwidth capabilities.

LESprinkle's avatar
LESprinkle
Aspirant
Sep 10, 2018

Fair point, if you think there's a chance that my current eqpt might allow it, and I don't have it set up right, here are some provide specifics...

 

   It's an R6300 w FW version V1.0.2.80_1.0.59 

   The printer is a Brother HL-3170CDW

 

 

schumaku's avatar
schumaku
Guru - Experienced User
Sep 10, 2018

In general, the the connection between the LAN switch ports and the wireless interfaces must be transparent to L2 communication.

It does not make a difference if the radio interfaces are configured to dedicated network names (why ever somebody want to make the WiFi life hard), or configured to the same network name and lightly assisted with some band and interface steering - this is Smart Connect.

 

We often see users of some older devices reporting problems with the interoperability if the modern plug-n-pray devices beyond of the same interface. Commonly it's a bug in these routers or AP incorrectly blocking IP Multicast - this is typically used for all kind of announcement and discovery, no matter if it's some custom solution, Bonjour, WS-Discovery, UPnP SSDP, ...