topic Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router in Mobile Broadband

Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

sk15Kev — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 12:00:16 GMT

I have been having issues with my Office Printer/Scanner.

We recently switched from an EE ADSL Broadband to the 5GEE router.
On the old router (EE Brightbox 1) my Epson ET-2850 would have no problems on any device on the network. The Epson software could find the printer and other devices would auto discover it.

With the new 5GEE router the only devices that can discover the printer are Apple ones (iPhone and iPad), but they can't use the scanner. Any Windows PC cannot, even with the full suite Epson tools installed with hours of troubleshooting and the only way I can fudge having a working printer is to create a port based on the IP address on any Windows device that wants to use it. This enables printing most of the time.

I can't see anything in the 5GEE router config that would make any difference. The printer is not that old and don't want to have to replace it.
Has anyone else experienced this problem or have any suggestions to try?

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

XRaySpeX — Sun, 02 Oct 2022 13:13:16 GMT

Are you connecting the printer to the USB port of the router, Brightbox previously or 5GEE Home router now, or are you connecting it to 1 of your own devices expecting it to be visible over your LAN?

For Windows PCs try enabling SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support in Programs and Features > Windows Features.

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

sk15Kev — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:10:16 GMT

Thank you for the reply

Printer is sitting purely on Wi-Fi both with previous Brightbox and new 5GEE router.
Will have a look for the Windows setting. We have 3 Windows laptops and 1 Windows PC all with the same problem,

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

XRaySpeX — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 07:25:02 GMT

Don't bother with the Windows SMB setting. It's only for the USB port of the router.

Are you connecting the printer to the 5GHz SSID of the mobile router? If so, make it connect to the 2.4GHz band. That will make it more like the BrightBox 1 which only has a 2.4GHz band.

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

sk15Kev — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 13:55:37 GMT

Thank you for this suggestion.
I couldn't find a way for the Printer to only connect to the 5GHZ SSID, as when connecting there is no way to differentiate.

I did put the 5GEE router into 2.4GHZ mode only and it worked perfectly.

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

XRaySpeX — Sat, 08 Oct 2022 14:01:14 GMT

@sk15Kev wrote:

I did put the 5GEE router into 2.4GHZ mode only and it worked perfectly.

Yes, that's what I meant. That's the way to make it differentiate, not by the printer itself.

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

jadolandy — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:15:03 GMT

I'm trying connect my printer to the router via USB port. I can't seem to find print server mode in the manager page

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

XRaySpeX — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:21:08 GMT

@jadolandy : I doubt the USB port is for connecting a device. It's usually for charging.

Re: Printer connection to 5GEE (2021) router

jadolandy — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 12:29:47 GMT

Thank you for clearing this up for me 🙂