What's new

378.55 Firmware periodically waking up network attached printer

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

Digitoxin

New Around Here
I have an ASUS RT-AC66U. I recently updated from firmware 376.49 to 378.55 and now my Canon Laser Printer is periodically waking up from sleep for no reason. The printer is connected via Ethernet. This started happening right after I upgraded the router. Something in the new firmware must be sending a signal over the network which is causing the printer to wake from sleep.
 
376.49 to 378.55. That's a big jump. Just confirm - before anyone else asks - you of course restored the router to factory default status after having flashed the new firmware.
 
My Brother wireless printer was also waking up for no reason every once in a while. Settings have been reset.

In the end, together with unstable wireless on my AC68U, I've flashed back to 378.54_2. No problems so far.
 
I have also had my main pc waking randomly, gone through all the usual reasons for it waking up on windows side would be good to be able to blame this on something concrete.
 
Your printer was randomly waking up with 378.55, but when you went back to 378.54_2, it stopped?

My Brother wireless printer was also waking up for no reason every once in a while. Settings have been reset.

In the end, together with unstable wireless on my AC68U, I've flashed back to 378.54_2. No problems so far.
 
Same simptoms here, Canon PIXMA 525. Just reset settings on printer seems to fix the problem
 
This may not be related but I also had issues with my Synology NAS randomly waking up. This happened with my RT-N66U running either Merlin's 378.54_2 or the latest 378.55.

I switched back to Tomato Shibby (my most used firmware tbh) and the random wakeups stopped. Same configuration, static DHCP, NVRAM always cleared whenever updating/changing firmwares, etc.
 
I'm not sure how some of you configure your power management, but I have no issue with neither my NAS nor my desktop coming out of sleep. Just make sure to configure them to require a Magic Packet to wake up, otherwise any type of network broadcast might potentially wake them up. Broadcasts can be generated by applications such as minidlna, or by the router's networkmap scanning your network.
 
Does the new networkmap scan differently to the old one? I don't use minidlna.

I've no problems with WOL, my devices don't wake up randomly. The printer doesn't use magic packets to wake up from sleep, I just had a quick try.

My printer is connected via 2.4GHz wifi, during sleep mode it maintains connection to router.
 
I remember reading that some devices that have dual stack IPv4 and IPv6 were having random wakeup times after a internet provider changed settings in their IPv6 service on their modems. This was over two years ago and haven't seen much on this anymore. Random wake up's are hard to diagnose, on the PC under windows we have the powercfg utility that tells us what activity causes power management state changes but devices like printers don't have this.
 
Does the new networkmap scan differently to the old one? I don't use minidlna.

I'm not sure, I haven't studied the new code in details (too many changes throughout the entire firmware these past few months), but I don't think much has changed there - it's mostly an ARP broadcast, and then any answering MAC gets probed to determine its OS, services, etc...

It's possible that even in sleep mode, the printer is visible by networkmap, and the new probing causes it to wake up (could be a test checking to see if it's offering printing services perhaps)?

This is just a guess however. If the wakings happen often enough, you could try killing the networkmap service on the router, and see what happens over the next hours. That won't make the issue any easier to fix, but at least you'll know for sure.

Over ssh:

Code:
killall networkmap

And avoid accessing the router's webui during that time (in case you hit one of the pages that causes the service to restart itself).
 
Thanks Merlin.

Unfortunately I've reverted back to .54_2 for now. This is my family's main router and internet gateway, the .55 was causing wi-fi issues. (which is a bigger issue than occasional noise from printer)

I'll wait for your next firmware with different wifi drivers before having a look at this issue.
 
I finally factory reset the router, but it is still randomly waking up my printer. I think I am going to have to roll back for now.
 
I stopped the networkmap process, but it will start again on its own after a minute or so without logging in to the routers webui. A few minutes after the networkmap service starts back up, my printer wakes up. I then tried stopping the service and starting it back up right away and sure enough, the printer wakes up a few minutes later. It definitely appears that the networkmap service is what is responsible for waking up my printer.

Also, the printer is visible on the network, even when asleep. I can log into its web interface and change configuration settings without waking it up.

I'm not sure, I haven't studied the new code in details (too many changes throughout the entire firmware these past few months), but I don't think much has changed there - it's mostly an ARP broadcast, and then any answering MAC gets probed to determine its OS, services, etc...

It's possible that even in sleep mode, the printer is visible by networkmap, and the new probing causes it to wake up (could be a test checking to see if it's offering printing services perhaps)?

This is just a guess however. If the wakings happen often enough, you could try killing the networkmap service on the router, and see what happens over the next hours. That won't make the issue any easier to fix, but at least you'll know for sure.

Over ssh:

Code:
killall networkmap

And avoid accessing the router's webui during that time (in case you hit one of the pages that causes the service to restart itself).
 
So now I know why I have this wakeup problem with my Samsung CLX-6260FW (connected via ethernet). Nearly every hour it wakes up. Sometimes it does not for about 2 or 3 hours but most time it wakes up every hour at 2 or 3 minutes after the full hour.

The printer is completely accessible in sleep mode you can start the web ui and do configurations e.g. but the display in off and its completely quiet. Now since 378.55 every hour it starts as if you sent a print job to it but nothing more happens and after timeout it goes back to sleep.

/EDIT:
Downgrade to .54_2 and printer does not wake up anymore.
 
Last edited:
Same for me with my Canon mx-922. Started on or after 378.52. At least I'm not crazy. It would be nice to get this fixed. Yes, I reset back to factory at the appropriate update point.
 
Huh. I've noticed for a while now my printer LCD on when it was normally off. I was wondering why. I'm on 378.55 as well. Never attributed it to the router. Strange.
 
I have an HP color laser printer that keeps waking up. It's been driving me nuts so I ran Wireshark against the IP address and found it's my router running 378.55 that is waking the printer. The router initially sends an HTTP GET request and then sends an LPR job. The job is probably what's waking the printer. Attached is a zip file (remove the .txt extension as this is my first post and I didn't know how to upload the zip file) containing the Wireshark log. Hopefully this helps...
 

Attachments

  • merlin_378_55_HP_M551_LaserJet.zip.txt
    3.9 KB · Views: 284
I installed 378.55 yesterday to resolve a problem with Plex flooding the OEM firmware with errors. Now my Canon MF4890dw laser printer wakes from power save mode every few minutes. Driving me absolutely bonkers since it beeps twice every time it happens. I will try flashing back to 378.54_2 and see if it resolves the problem.

Edit: It did
 
Last edited:

Latest threads

Support SNBForums w/ Amazon

If you'd like to support SNBForums, just use this link and buy anything on Amazon. Thanks!

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!

Staff online

Top