Printer not commicating with router

[sleeps1007]

I have the RT-AC5300 with merlin installed and I was trying to connect my HP printer to it. An IP address was able to be generated and received a ping but after it was finishing configuring it tells me I have a firewall blocking the communication and to make sure to open port 427 UDP. I go into the port forwarding settings under WAN and add port 427 for the printer's IP but it still says it's blocked. I look at the firewall settings in the router and I see you can add an inbound so when I enter in the printer's IP and the port it tells me the IP isn't valid. I'm not sure how to allow the port if I've done what I believe is correct. The only other thing I can think of is disabling the firewall on the router. I haven't tried on the stock firmware because soon as I got the router I quickly installed merlin.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I believe the message is referring to a possible issue with the firewall on your PC, not the router. Do not make any changes to the router's firewall or port forwarding rules.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...problems/46bc0491-6ac9-43f2-8060-3ce9c32391fa

Reserve a fixed IP address for the printer in DHCP and then add the printer to your PC as you would any other network printer.

EDIT: I see that HP Solution Center is no longer supported and they suggest (as I did) that you just add the printer using the Windows built-in driver.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02463264

 

[sleeps1007]

It's not the firewall on the PC because it worked before with a previous router

 

[ColinTaylor]

It's not the firewall on the PC because it worked before with a previous router

TBH it seemed unlikely it was a PC firewall issue. Regardless, just set it up as a regular Windows network printer.

 

[sleeps1007]

That doesn't matter it's once I setup the wireless connection I get that error about port 427 being blocked. Maybe I need to switch back to stock or something like I stated earlier I didn't have this problem with my previous router.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Supply some more detailed information about the problem, preferably screenshots. At the moment we don't know what software you're using that generates the error or what the complete error message is.

 

[markc6123]

I've had all sorts of problems with my HP printer connections as well. Wireless is next to useless. I was seeing issues with using Malwarebytes and some reported that disabling web protection in Malwarebytes solved the printer connection issue. For me I connected the printer to the router using ethernet and all is well.

 

[sleeps1007]

The PC where the printer is connected to via USB does not have anything on it besides the windows protection on Windows 10. There has been no changes to the PC all I did was replace my netgear router which had no custom firmware and everything worked fine. Soon as I setup the ASUS router and configure my printer to connect to it, it sees the printer but keeps telling my about firewall could be blocking it and I thick it has to do with the firewall on the router. It's just a matter of how to configure the router's firewall to allow the incoming connection. I attached a picture showing what I put on the firewall rule but it's not working.

 

[sleeps1007]

I've had all sorts of problems with my HP printer connections as well. Wireless is next to useless. I was seeing issues with using Malwarebytes and some reported that disabling web protection in Malwarebytes solved the printer connection issue. For me I connected the printer to the router using ethernet and all is well.

Unfortunately I can't connect my via ethernet because the devices are in 2 different places. I've tried seeing about moving the router but it's connected to my Altice box so that I can use my ASUS as the main wifi source

 

[ColinTaylor]

The PC where the printer is connected to via USB does not have anything on it besides the windows protection on Windows 10. There has been no changes to the PC all I did was replace my netgear router which had no custom firmware and everything worked fine. Soon as I setup the ASUS router and configure my printer to connect to it, it sees the printer but keeps telling my about firewall could be blocking it and I thick it has to do with the firewall on the router. It's just a matter of how to configure the router's firewall to allow the incoming connection. I attached a picture showing what I put on the firewall rule but it's not working.

Sorry, I meant provide a screen shot of the printer setup software when it is producing the error message about UDP port 427.

Also, I was assuming that you were talking about a network attached printer but now it seems it is a USB printer. Is the printer connected by USB to the same PC that you're getting the UDP error message?

You said initially that you were connecting the printer to the router and it had received an IP address. This seems to contradict what you're saying now, that the printer is connected to a PC by USB. Maybe the PC is running some printer server software, again a screen shot of this would help.

The firewall entry is wrong because that is the IPv6 firewall and is only used if you wanted to access a network device from the internet over IPv6, which I assume you don't.

 

[sleeps1007]

Sorry about that. Yes it's connected to a PC thru USB but I've also set it up as a wireless as well so that other devices can print to it thru WiFi. After selecting the SSID to connect to the printer does it's configuration, generates the IP, and then I get this message:

"Your computer is unable to communicate with your printer at 192.168.x.x. This may be caused by firewall software. If you are using firewall software, verify that UDP port 427 is unblocked for both inbound and outbound traffic.

The software cannot communicate with your printer at IP address 192.168..x.x. This may be caused by many factors; the most common is firewall software."

Now I disabled the firewall on the router to see what would happen and the printer worked so that's how I knew it had something to do with the router's firewall.

 

[dosborne]

I concur with @ColinTaylor. This definitely sounds, based on the available info, like a Windows / PC issue that has nothing to do with the router.

It's not the firewall on the PC because it worked before with a previous router

Post a screenshot of the error please.

There has been no changes to the PC

Can't count the number of times I've heard that from a client lol. Just connecting to a different router *could* initiate all kinds of changes. Could even be a Microsoft update, etc, although not likely, but the point is things change, even subtle changes like a different ip can have results you did not anticipate.

 

[NGRhodes]

Sorry about that. Yes it's connected to a PC thru USB but I've also set it up as a wireless as well so that other devices can print to it thru WiFi. After selecting the SSID to connect to the printer does it's configuration, generates the IP, and then I get this message:

"Your computer is unable to communicate with your printer at 192.168.x.x. This may be caused by firewall software. If you are using firewall software, verify that UDP port 427 is unblocked for both inbound and outbound traffic.

The software cannot communicate with your printer at IP address 192.168..x.x. This may be caused by many factors; the most common is firewall software."

Now I disabled the firewall on the router to see what would happen and the printer worked so that's how I knew it had something to do with the router's firewall.

If that is an internal IP address and your routers firewall affects it, you have a very broken router configuration as this traffic should be routed internally without going through the firewall, this could be as well as a broken firewall configuration in Windows...

It's not the firewall on the PC because it worked before with a previous router

Not automatically true, there are number of possibilities that need checking (not exhaustive) in your Windows firewall configuration:

• The IP addresses have changed since the last router.
• The printer ports used have changed.
• Windows 10 may of detected a the change of router as a new IP address and be set as Public/Private (different previously) which use unique set of rules.

Cheers, Nick

 

[markc6123]

One thing that helped me in troubleshooting my HP printer issues is to delete all references to the printer on the PC, uninstall the hardware and all software references to it. Remove the USB connection to the PC. (why is that there anyway, why not just connect to the printer wirelessly from the working PC?) Reboot. Connect the PC to the network the same way the printer is. I was getting errors in the install indicating that if the PC is on ethernet and the printer is wireless it might not be able to see it. Be sure you have the latest HP install software and run it again. If that fails try installing the printer from Windows control panel.

 

[Sonofdavidsfather]

Sorry about that. Yes it's connected to a PC thru USB but I've also set it up as a wireless as well so that other devices can print to it thru WiFi. After selecting the SSID to connect to the printer does it's configuration, generates the IP, and then I get this message:

"Your computer is unable to communicate with your printer at 192.168.x.x. This may be caused by firewall software. If you are using firewall software, verify that UDP port 427 is unblocked for both inbound and outbound traffic.

The software cannot communicate with your printer at IP address 192.168..x.x. This may be caused by many factors; the most common is firewall software."

Now I disabled the firewall on the router to see what would happen and the printer worked so that's how I knew it had something to do with the router's firewall.

Just to confirm. Are you able to print a Windows test page on the printer over WiFi when you have the USB cable disconnected from the printer?

Did you try to install the printer on your computer using the built in Windows utility instead of the HP utility?

 

[sleeps1007]

I posted the error in my previous post and trust me it has nothing to do with the PC. As I stated earlier I disabled the firewall on the router and it started to work so my question is how to I configure the firewall in the router to allow the communication to the printer?

 

[sleeps1007]

One thing that helped me in troubleshooting my HP printer issues is to delete all references to the printer on the PC, uninstall the hardware and all software references to it. Remove the USB connection to the PC. (why is that there anyway, why not just connect to the printer wirelessly from the working PC?) Reboot. Connect the PC to the network the same way the printer is. I was getting errors in the install indicating that if the PC is on ethernet and the printer is wireless it might not be able to see it. Be sure you have the latest HP install software and run it again. If that fails try installing the printer from Windows control panel.

That unfortunately did not work

 

[sleeps1007]

Just to confirm. Are you able to print a Windows test page on the printer over WiFi when you have the USB cable disconnected from the printer?

Did you try to install the printer on your computer using the built in Windows utility instead of the HP utility?

None of that was the case. Once I disabled the router's firewall I was able to print via wireless.

 

[Sonofdavidsfather]

None of that was the case. Once I disabled the router's firewall I was able to print via wireless.

You can also try to ping the printer IP address or access the printers web page using the IP address that the router shows for the printer. If that works then you know your computer is having 2 way communication with the printer.

I have seen a lot of printer setup utilities use weird ports and protocols for printing like WSD. You might check in Windows to see what the port is that the computer is using for the printer. If it isn't using TCP/IP it could be that the router firewall is blocking the protocol it is using. If that's the case you can create a new port in Windows that uses the printers IP. https://www.thewindowsclub.com/change-printer-port-in-windows

If you do have to change the port Windows uses to connect to the printer, be sure to set a static IP for the printer in the routers DHCP service.

Something I've seen before is that Smart Connect on the router causes issues, per this thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac3200-cant-print-on-wifi-connected-printer.54818/ .

 

[sleeps1007]

You can also try to ping the printer IP address or access the printers web page using the IP address that the router shows for the printer. If that works then you know your computer is having 2 way communication with the printer.

I have seen a lot of printer setup utilities use weird ports and protocols for printing like WSD. You might check in Windows to see what the port is that the computer is using for the printer. If it isn't using TCP/IP it could be that the router firewall is blocking the protocol it is using. If that's the case you can create a new port in Windows that uses the printers IP. https://www.thewindowsclub.com/change-printer-port-in-windows

If you do have to change the port Windows uses to connect to the printer, be sure to set a static IP for the printer in the routers DHCP service.

Something I've seen before is that Smart Connect on the router causes issues, per this thread https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ac3200-cant-print-on-wifi-connected-printer.54818/ .

That's not the case either. It's been decided a new printer is being purchased I had this this printer for over 10 years and it's so outdated.