Printer Going Offline Wired To R7000

[Rob Chew]

I have an R7000 about 6 weeks old. I placed my Arris (Comcast) modem/router in bridge mode and the router handles the DHCP to the LAN plus wireless. I have two wired devices, a desktop PC plus a Brother HL-L8350CDW laser printer. I configured the printer (through printer properties in Windows 7) to run on standard TCP/IP port 192.168.1.8. I also went into the router GUI and "reserved" same port. I check periodically and it always stays on the above port. My problem is that every few days, especially in the early evening, I'll notice that the printer status monitor in my computer systray shows "offline" for a short duration and then it goes back online. I checked the wired cable from the printer's ethernet port to the router and all seems well. The light is amber as it is a 10/100 connection. I never had any problem with the printer using the Arris modem/router. Should I have used another IP address farther down the range which goes all the way to 192.168.1.254? There is a way to set a static IP in the printer interface/menu itself. Do I need to do this in addition to reserving the port in the router and through printer properties in Windows 7? What simple step am I missing here?

 

[RogerSC]

I would set the same address that you have set in your router for the printer as a static address in the printer configuration. That should do it. Works for me, anyways (different hardware, though *smile*).

Just out of curiosity, could you please post what IP addresses are in your DHCP pool? For example, 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.150.

Thanks.

 

[TonyH]

I would set the same address that you have set in your router for the printer as a static address in the printer configuration. That should do it. Works for me, anyways (different hardware, though *smile*).

Just out of curiosity, could you please post what IP addresses are in your DHCP pool? For example, 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.150.

Thanks.

I notice that printer is wireless capable. How about using wireless connection assigning fixed ip address.
Make sure you download latest driver and firmware. Even now, your printer comes back on-line right away so I guess it won't be much of a trouble. I'd rather set up the printer from printer end not from W7 which may try to use older driver from W7. My Brother color laser printer is running wireless, I never saw
it going off0line by itself. When idle it is in sleep mode.

 

[Rob Chew]

Thanks RogerSC and TonyH for the replies. The DHCP pool runs from 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.254. After talking with Brother on the phone last night they advised as you said to set a static IP in the printer configuration which I did. Tony, I did think of changing to a wireless setup if necessary. So far, the printer hasn't gone offline again. If it does, I'll give a wireless a try. I'll certainly check today on the firmware and driver updates.

 

[RogerSC]

Rob, if you're going to use a static address, make your DHCP address pool smaller, like 192.168.1.100 - 192.168.1.150. This gives you address for 51 DHCP clients, then put your static addresses outside of this pool, like 192.168.1.99. This should work better for you, although I'm glad to hear that you've solved your problem. There's a difference between a reserved DHCP address and a static address, good to keep these straight *smile*.

 

[Rob Chew]

Thanks, Roger. I was wondering if I should change the printer to an IP address outside the range of the DHCP pool. I'll certainly give that a try.

 

[Samir]

We have tons of these Brother machines. The only reason I could think of why you would see that brief offline is because the dhcp lease is being renewed. Setting a static IP should definitely fix it.

Another thing to try is running a ping to it and see if it is actually dropping. It could be some sort of other software stuff that's causing the Brother software some trouble.

 

[Rob Chew]

Thanks for the tip, Samir. It happened yet again yesterday. It may very well be a software issue of some sort. I found this post and created a new DWord in the registry as instructed, and so far it hasn't gone offline again.
http://blog.rtwilson.com/how-to-fix...g-as-offline-in-windows-vista/comment-page-1/
If it does it again, my next step will be to set an IP address outside the range of the router's DHCP pool, even though it's set as static on the printer and reserved on the router. I'ved never had to do this with a printer before, but there's always the first time I guess. When it does go offline, it's only for a matter of seconds, but I'll try to ping it if I have time.