AX866U issue with certain devices not able to connect to printer

[lcalamar]

Some (but not all) of my devices that are connected to my RT-AX86U router lose the ability to connect to my wifi connected Brother printer.

Because some (my android devices and my linux computers) do NOT lose connection - and can print at anytime... so there is no issue with the printer>Router connection.

The devices that lose the ability to connect are IOS and a Windows PC...

I've put in a work-around by rebooting my RT-AX86U every morning at 6am...

I've looked at a number of 'solutions', changed several router settings based on other people's experiences - but this seems to be a router issue?

Anyone had any success with a real fix?

 

[degrub]

Can you ping the printer's IP address from those devices ?

What printer driver is IOS using ?

Apple requires a flat network e.g. all devices on the same subnet.

Is Bonjour protocol enabled on the networking page somewhere ( i don't know where this is in ASUS GUI) ?

Did you load the Brother printer APP on the IOS devices ?

 

[lcalamar]

Can you ping the printer's IP address from those devices ?

What printer driver is IOS using ?

Apple requires a flat network e.g. all devices on the same subnet.

Is Bonjour protocol enabled on the networking page somewhere ( i don't know where this is in ASUS GUI) ?

Did you load the Brother printer APP on the IOS devices ?

I can currently ping the printer - but the router rebooted last night so that may not be indicative... I won't reboot the router tonight and try pinging tomorrow when we can't print from that device.

No idea what printer driver IOS is using... not an IOS capable admin!

All devices are on the same subnet.

Not sure about Bonjour - I'll have to research that a bit.

Since the problem happens on both the IOS and Windows devices... and rebooting the router always resolves the issue... I'm less inclined to think the problem resides on the client side... but I could certainly be wrong... Note: doing research I've found a number of online threads that pretty much identify this is a router issue...

 

[degrub]

Linux based systems may be using IP printer protocol - the windows and IOS systems can use as well. Printer name will start with its IP address. You can manually set up this protocol when you initiate "install new printer" in windows and enter the IP address of the printer in the search box.
Otherwise, Apple uses Bonjour to find devices on the LAN. Available for WIN systems as well. Download from Apple.com, search "Bonjour Windows " on the Apple site. Some routers block by default.
You can also check the router config to see if UDP is enabled, although i don't think Apple or WIN use it in this case.
For the WIN system, you can connect the printer by USB ( usually, i don't know if your model is wireless only) and install it using the printer software. Then move the printer back to the network only.

Are all of your client devices communicating with the router by wifi only ?

This sounds like a device discovery issue that is being blocked by the router, perhaps if the printer goes to sleep and the router AP does not allow it to re-associate to the AP. Rebooting the router must initiate a new DHCP session and the printer responds. If there is a energy saving option in the printer config/ networking, turn it off and see if the issue resolves.

Does the printer have a static lan address manually assigned in the printer config ? That can sometimes help. Also , reserve the address in the ASUS router at an address outside of the DHCP server range used for devices connecting to the network. You may have to change the range setting from a value of 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.254 to something like 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.150 and set the printer to something like 192.168.1. 160 for example.

Just some ideas.

i once had to use a Mac Mini as a printer server to solve similar issue. All the windows and mac/ios drivers pointed to that printserver printer name. i have also had MACs that could not find the printer because the printer went to sleep. The only recourse was to "wake up" the printer manually by either rebooting the printer or activating the menus on the printer interface.