(HP) printers offline - something to do with 2.4 GHz or 5GHz wifi bands?

grumpycrab

I've had this problem with my HP printer and a neighbour just had the same issue.  Printers and laptops both connected to wifi.
You go to print something and printer says "offline".  Change the wifi connection on the laptop to other band and it prints.

Is this an issue with routers not being able to pass incoming LAN traffic on one band to printers (on the same LAN) on another band. There must be more to it.

datostar

My TP-Link AC3200 Router allows the bands to be combined, presumably transmitting both in a single stream which removes the problem of different devices requiring one or the other only.  Check your router settings and you might be able to do the same. It might be in the 'Advanced' section if there is one.

Norman_Castle

I had a similar problem a few years ago solved by changing the name of one of the bands. I added a 5 to the name of the 5ghz band. Set the connection to whichever band works.

GunJack

Another thing to consider - a lot of printers (and HP were one of the worst) could only operate on certain wifi channels (like 1,6 or 12 for example) and if your router is frequency agile it may end up operating on a channel your printer doesn't work on. I remember going to a call some years ago where the wifi landscape of this house suggested channel 8 was the best, but their printer couldn't use 8. The channels the printer could operate on were the most congested which made it inoperable over wifi.

grumpycrab

Thanks for the suggestions.  Will have another try tomorrow.

grumpycrab

Although changing bands fixed this for my neighbour the first time (printer was offline until bands changed), he said the problem was still there.  It was the (Kaspersky) VPN this time (should have noticed this first time).