RT-AC66U incompatible with legacy (wireless g) print servers.

[drhoolec]

Hello everybody.

I just bought a brand new rt-ac66u and flashed latest merlin's firmware (374.43). Only after setting up my whole home net, I've noticed that my two old wireless print servers ( a linksys wps54g and a dlink DPR1040) were not connecting to the router.

I've tried everything I could think of... changed channels, legacy modes, etc.... Even DIRECT WIRED connection didn't work!

All my other devices, even old ones (wireless g) notebooks, worked properly.

I've tested the print servers with my other routers running dd-wrt and everything worked fine.

Any suggestions? Is this some kind of bug or are the old print servers incompatible with the rt-ac66u? I see no reason for my wireless print servers not be able to connecto to the rt-ac66u.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bac2010]

I have a similar issue with wps54g and N66U with Merlin 374.43. Print server used to work with very old single band Linksys router but not with brand new ASUS router. Printer is Canon MP830 which is not network capable but had worked fine with wps54g print server. Would be great to get it working so I don't have to buy a new printer.

Edit: Actually my printer server is wpsm54g...but same problem.

 

[HokieAl]

Have you tried disabling security to see if it works?

 

[drhoolec]

Hello again guys...

After several failed attempts, which involved flashing the latest builds of ddwrt (kong mod) and tomato (shibby) on my AC66U, I´ve finaly found out how to make my old wireless g print servers to work... It was very simple:

It seemns that there is some problem with dhcp assigment on asus (and merlin´s) firmware which interfers somehow with the above wireless print servers... All you have to do to get them working is assign a static ip manually! So simple! T . The problem seems to affect only these devices... all my other stuff worked ok on dhcp.

By the way.... latest builds of dd-wrt and tomato still have issues with the AC66U.... I´ve got trouble with ddwrt kong with the jffs partition and, on tomato, my wireless channels got stuck on default settings (no change even with GUI showing other values!).

I´m now running merlin´s latest beta build (476.44 beta3) and all seems ok...

 

[wouterv]

I dont know how your setup is exactly.
I have a RT-N66U (stock firmware) and a WRT54GL with DD-WRT setup as Client Bridged. The WRT54GL is wireless connected (802.11g) with the RT-N66U network, the network printer is wired to the WRT54GL.
The Client Bridge setup confuses the network (at the RT-N66U side) because the devices behind the WRT54GL (such as the printer) are all addressed with the same MAC address, which is the MAC address of the WRT54GL. This is due to the nature of the bridge.
The same effect you see with stock wireless Range Extenders (at least the different ones I have had in my hands), these are also bridges.
The same happens here: if the printer gets a DHCP address, the printer driver of the clients (at the RT-N66U side of the network) cannot find the printer.
I need to give the printer a fixed IP address to make it work, and I assigned a host name (printer1).
The printer drivers can now find the printer based on IP address or host name (printer1).
I have seen the same behaviour with a Linksys 802.11n router and also with the RT-N66U running Merlin firmware, so I do not believe it is router related, but as said because of the bridge nature.

 

[bac2010]

drhoolec - how do you assign a static IP to the print server? Sorry to ask a newbie type question. Until I get the printer server setup I can't access it's web page to internally set a static IP so I am thinking you are doing it through merlin?

 

[theveterans]

drhoolec - how do you assign a static IP to the print server? Sorry to ask a newbie type question. Until I get the printer server setup I can't access it's web page to internally set a static IP so I am thinking you are doing it through merlin?

I think he meant DHCP reservation.

 

[drhoolec]

drhoolec - how do you assign a static IP to the print server? Sorry to ask a newbie type question. Until I get the printer server setup I can't access it's web page to internally set a static IP so I am thinking you are doing it through merlin?

Hi bac2010...

I just performed a full reset on the print server... them I used an old router to reconfigure the print server (wired link) to access the AC66U... but instead of using dhcp, I´ve given it a static IP, same subnet of my network, and pointed the gateway to the AC66U. The wireless settings are the same of all devices on the wireless net.

I had to use an old router to set up the print server because the AC66u did not connected to the print servers even by direct WIRED connection, as I said on my first post. The firmware on the other router was not merlin´s, as it was an old wrt54g v8.2.

You´ve got to use some other router instead of the AC66U to access the print server and change the settings to match your wireless net with a static IP...

I hope you can get it to work that way !

 

[drhoolec]

I dont know how your setup is exactly.
I have a RT-N66U (stock firmware) and a WRT54GL with DD-WRT setup as Client Bridged. The WRT54GL is wireless connected (802.11g) with the RT-N66U network, the network printer is wired to the WRT54GL.
The Client Bridge setup confuses the network (at the RT-N66U side) because the devices behind the WRT54GL (such as the printer) are all addressed with the same MAC address, which is the MAC address of the WRT54GL. This is due to the nature of the bridge.

Hi wouterv...

This seems strange to me.... as I see it, you are using a wireless bridge to connect your printer trough the WRT54GL to the AC66U... so, you´ve got to disable the dhcp on the WRT54GL and let the IPs be assigned directly (and solely!) by the AC66U. The WRT54GL should relay all MACs to the AC66U, so that all devices connected to it should have all their traffic controlled by the AC66U and addressed properly... the only thing the 54GL should do is relay/route the packets wirelessly.

If your printer have no net connection and you are linking it to the 54GL by usb (as I think you are....), you have to use it on your other devices as a network printer sharing the same IP address of the 54GL....so that the 54GL "becomes" the printer.... that should not affect other devices connected to it. Maybe there is something wrong with the config of the print service running on the 54GL?

Does this make any sense to you or have i got what you´ve said wrong?

 

[wouterv]

Hi wouterv...

This seems strange to me.... as I see it, you are using a wireless bridge to connect your printer trough the WRT54GL to the AC66U... so, you´ve got to disable the dhcp on the WRT54GL and let the IPs be assigned directly (and solely!) by the AC66U.

The WRT54GL in Client Bridge mode has no DHCP Server, the only DHCP Server in the network is the RT-N66U.

The WRT54GL should relay all MACs to the AC66U, so that all devices connected to it should have all their traffic controlled by the AC66U and addressed properly... the only thing the 54GL should do is relay/route the packets wirelessly.

Should...wish, what ever
The RT-N-66U Client Status does report the WRT54GL and everything behind it including the printer with the same MAC address: the Linksys MAC address of the WRT54GL.

[EDIT] Not only the RT-N66U shows the same MAC address, also the Windows command arp -a lists the WRT54GL and the pinter (behind the WRT54GL as DD-WRT Client Bridge) with the exact same MAC address.

If your printer have no net connection and you are linking it to the 54GL by usb (as I think you are....), you have to use it on your other devices as a network printer sharing the same IP address of the 54GL....so that the 54GL "becomes" the printer.... that should not affect other devices connected to it. Maybe there is something wrong with the config of the print service running on the 54GL?

Does this make any sense to you or have i got what you´ve said wrong?

The printer has a network port which is setup with a static IP address and is wired to one of the LAN ports of the WRT54GL (besides, the WRT54GL has no USB port).
The WRT54GL is only setup as Client Bridge, it has no- and does not need to run a print service.
The printer operates standalone, the clients (Windows PC's) connect to the printer by their printer driver (which is setup with a TCP/IP port, pointing to the printer host name, or IP address).

For me the setup is ok (everything on the network, including printing does work as expected), and I still believe it is no problem but part of the deal by using the Client Bridge. And again, I have seen the same behaviour with stock Range Extenders (e.g. the Linksys RE1000).

[EDIT] See also this on the DD-WRT forum:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=68

 

[bac2010]

Thanks drhoolec. I would have preferred not to use the old router but I'll see what I can do with it.

 

[drhoolec]

Thanks drhoolec. I would have preferred not to use the old router but I'll see what I can do with it.

Use it just to setup the wireless print server to match your net configuration... then it should work ok via wireless and you can return your old router to the "wardrobe"...

 

[drhoolec]

The printer has a network port which is setup with a static IP address and is wired to one of the LAN ports of the WRT54GL (besides, the WRT54GL has no USB port).
The WRT54GL is only setup as Client Bridge, it has no- and does not need to run a print service.
The printer operates standalone, the clients (Windows PC's) connect to the printer by their printer driver (which is setup with a TCP/IP port, pointing to the printer host name, or IP address).

For me the setup is ok (everything on the network, including printing does work as expected), and I still believe it is no problem but part of the deal by using the Client Bridge. And again, I have seen the same behaviour with stock Range Extenders (e.g. the Linksys RE1000).

OK...
You probably tested this already.... as your printer is a net printer (and not a simple usb printer with no net support, as i had though), have you tried to set it up using dhcp? I know it would mess up your tcp/ip print port setup when the ip changes... but you could define a static ip for the printer on the AC66u... just to see if the MAC would be reported right....

 

[bac2010]

Success at last! A little bit of a PITA but finally have my linksys printer server working with my ASUS router. Thanks drhoolec for your help! Saved me from buying a wireless printer - probably will buy one eventually but not this day. Now that I can logon to the printer server, the one thing I may do in the future is bump the static IP address to a higher address (used 101). I think I can do that and restart printer server and it should work OK.