Updated to FW v2.1.4.8 and it killed our office printer/scanner

[Kristopher]

Updated to 2.1.4.8 and it killed our office printer/scanner (HP pagewide pro 477 dw). The printer would appear and disappear from all ten of our individual Macs' Settings > Printers with minimal rhyme or reason. When trying to print it would say the printer was in use, though no one else was using it. And Scan function was no longer an option for anyone. Other errors all revolving around printer discoverability and solid, fast connection to the network no longer being reliable. Office is not that large, network internet speeds are over 400 Mbps to each computer, so not congestion or distance/signal strength.

Spent several hours diagnosing (reset printer, Orbi, iMacs, power cycle, restore factory settings, uninstall HP drivers, reinstall them, bang head on table, etc.). Should have downgraded the Orbi Pro firmware back to prior 2.1.3 at the start. Did that, and printer was available, stable, lightning fast, and functioned perfectly like it did before 2.1.4.8.

Just my 2 cents - perhaps it isolated things too well!  I'm not an IT pro, which is why I bought the Orbi for its simplicity and "it just works" - so am a bit disgruntled by the time I had to spend becoming an IT pro to fix it. Hope no one else has this problem.

[Kristopher · Accepted solution]

DaneA 

I'm happy with the resolution - downgrading firmware made it all work again just as before.  Great signal and speed all around.  Good product, just don't want to use this latest firmware as the "isolation changes" broke the printer's connectivity.

Kris

[RaghuHR]

Hi @Kristopher

How is your network setup? How the printer is connected (wireless/ wired), to which AP (Router or Satellite), to which network and what configuration does the customer have on Orbi. Would be nice to have screen-shot of the monitoring page. If you have any network diagram that would really help us in root causing it.

Thanks,

Raghu

[Kristopher]

12 macOS iMacs, updated to latest 10.13, various iphones & ipads, all wirelessly connected on Wireless 1 network (Wireless 2 is useless to us since it doesn't allow device access to printer even under normal circumstances and thus turned off), connected to 5 ghz frequency to router or satellite, roughly evenly. Guest network is on, but only used by guests.

HP 477dw printer (bought from Apple store), wirelessly connected to Wireless 1 2.4ghz with the Router

Orbi router is in AP mode connected to Fibre 1 Gbps connection, satellite is in a good position, office is less than 2000 square feet, good connection everywhere to all devices since we bought the Orbi Pro.

I didn't take screenshots with 2.1.4.8 installed - I'm not an IT pro and didn't feel the need to document the failures, I just wanted to fix it ASAP.

Hope that helps.

[DaneA]

Hi @Kristopher,

I suggest you to open an chat or online support ticket with NETGEAR Support at anytime in order for a support expert to conduct further troubleshooting on the Orbi Pro device since the problem arise after the firmware upgrade.  

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[Kristopher · Accepted solution]

DaneA 

I'm happy with the resolution - downgrading firmware made it all work again just as before.  Great signal and speed all around.  Good product, just don't want to use this latest firmware as the "isolation changes" broke the printer's connectivity.

Kris