IP address not found for wireless printer

[DRoundy]

I recently upgraded from an ASUS RT-AC66U to a RT-AC88U, planning to use the 66U as a repeater. While I occasionally had difficulty connecting to an HP8620 all-in-one printer with the 66U, now with the 88U I rarely stay connected to the HP8620 and often can't print to my Brother MFC7860DW all-in-one. I gave up on the Asus RT-AC88U / HP 8620 combo after an intense week of trying and connected the HP8620 via USB so my wife could have a reliable printer with her computer.

I flashed the 88U with the latest Merlin firmware and things got a little better with the Brother MFC7860DW. It will usually print, although at times it takes several minutes before printing commences.
With the Merlin firmware, I can see information on the System Log - Wireless Log I couldn't see with the factory firmware. For my Brother printer under the Device column I see the MAC address, under that I see <not found> for device node. Under IP Address I again see <not found>. Under Rx/Tx & RSSI I see 54/54 Mbps and -52 dBm. Connected shows the 20+ hours of connection since I last booted the 88U. I have a static IP address outside the DHCP pool set for the printer, so the MAC address and IP address are bound, maybe explaining why I can still print to that IP address, even though the log shows <not found>.

Is it normal to have <not found> for an IP address?
Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can fix this random ability to print to my wireless printer?

 

[CaptainSTX]

Do your printers have an Ethernet ports? If yes try setting the printer(s) up as a networked printer by connecting it to either your AC88 or the AC66 using an Ethernet cable plugged into a LAN port.

I had many problems with WiFi on an HP printer and I'm sure others on this forum can relate their own litany of woes trying to keep WiFi printers connected.

As with most devices hard wire is the way to go if you have the option.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I don't run the same firmware as you so can't say for sure, but if you have set the IP address of the printer statically (on the printer itself and not through DHCP) then that makes sense. The router is probably trying to resolve the IP address to a hostname for the <not found> field, but it has no way of knowing the name unless the printer registers it in DNS.

EDIT: Or you need to reboot the printer after you reboot the router to get it to re-register its name in DNS (I've seen this problem with wireless HP printers).

The simplest way to resolve this is to set the printer's network interface to use DHCP, then create a DHCP reservation for it on the router with an associated hostname.

 

[sfx2000]

Brother tends to work well with DHCP in my experience - so not much need to fix/bind something there...

HP on the other hand - I've had better luck with static IP's outside of the DHCP pool - just make sure it's not conflicting with other pools (for example VPN server mode).

With WiFi - check the modes on the printers - I tossed my old HP, but there are settings inside the WebGUI of the printer to determine behaviors there.

Both Brother and HP are fairly simplistic 2.4GHz b/g/n devices - for the router side, best to keep settings conservative - e.g. disable turboQAM, beam forming and keep the channel to 20MHz for the 2.4GHz radio side - some of the advanced items can cause problems with connectivity - depends on the vendor and firmware obviously...