In the course of troubleshooting Wi-Fi range in a certain house I see an HP printer occupying the same Wi-Fi channel as my WAP.

Why does it have its own channel? Not for air print, I would not imagine. Can it be disabled without repercussions? If so, how?

Hi,

So in this case you say the printer is functioning as a WiFi server rather than a WiFi client?

I have printers with WiFi capability but they only act as WiFi clients.

Frederick

Frederick, I have seen HP printers with my Wi-Fi analyzer, but haven't had to pay them any attention before. I have noticed today that each time I reboot my WAP, whatever channel it comes back up on, the HP lands on the same channel.

I had an HP printer at a client's house that was completely jacking up their Wi-Fi / network.  Thousands of packet floods every day.  Client had installed it and followed the simple 'quick-start guide.'

Had to go deep in the manual to figure out how to kill off Wi-Fi.  Once that was done, I hard cabled it to the local switch and all was well...  until client's brother decided that Wi-Fi really needed to be on and re-did the setup.  Now there is a printed label on the printer stating 'DO NOT ENABLE Wi-Fi!'

On a related note, why the **** can't Windows come up with something like apple's AirPrint? On an apple product, if I'm on a network with a compatible printer, all I have to do is hit print. Done. But with Windows I have to install a separate driver for each printer I use, then always pick which printer I want. The default printer is never the right one.

I would guess so you can set it up somehow without a USB cable? But yeah they should leave that crap off and save us as much grief and drinking as possible.

Odd.

That almost sounds as if it configured as a WiFi repeater which I have also never encountered in a printer but it certainly would be possible from a WiFi capability standpoint.

How is the printer connected to the existing network (I'm assuming it is)?

Frederick

I have a HP Photosmart 6520 and it not only has its own wifi channel, it has to be reconnected to the wifi router almost every day. What a pain.

By default, a lot of these POS wireless printers will broadcast an SSID to connect to directly (Direct WiFi Printing).

Somewhere some Indian engineer thought they knew best about how a WiFi printer 'should' be used and it stuck. And in all these years of IT people screaming at the stupid manufactures, it still remains on by default.

Go into the menu of the printer and find Wi-Fi Direct or HP wireless direct and turn it off - SSID gone. Problem solved.
[Link: www8.hp.com]

Wifi, and I will hardwire it tmrw for test.


Photodumb

I’m assuming the customer has the printer connected via a cable. Whether USB or Ethernet. Because if they connected it via WiFi, you shouldn’t be able to see the HP WiFi SSID.

I agree with Brad, as some techie thought it would be awesome to have direct WiFi printing. So if there are no WiFi routers around, then a person can directly connect to the printer to print. Look up the manual to disable that. And print out a label stating to leave it off. And perhaps instructions on how to disable it just in case.

KOT

Each manufacturer is attempting to minimize their own support costs. I keep remembering the good old DOS days when manufacturers were using the PATH facility to install their program. The PATH was limited to 128 characters. If one added their program to the end of the PATH, it might not fit. If one added to the beginning of the PATH and shifted everything else, that program would always always work and it was the other guy's problem if something fell off the end of the PATH. I used BATCH files and ignored the PATH. Properly done, this would always work and there was almost no limit to the number of programs one could install. (one would eventually run out of disk resources)

The direct print feature is handy when supporting wireless laptop, phone, and pad users. "See, the printer is working -- have your network guy fix your network. Thanks for calling our customer care line". (click) [always in a non native language]

I'm seeing printer manufacturers push their print function into the Cloud. This allows printing from remote locations and is less likely to disrupt the local network because the printer is simply another LAN client. Chance of installation success is relatively high, requiring only a button press or two or supplying the SSID/Password.

I prefer wired printers.

I have an HP all in one and gave up on using it as a printer because I don't print often and when I needed it, the f&cking thing would tell me to check the cartridges. I would pull the one it indicated, install it and then it would tell me to check the other one. Sometimes, it would do this immediately after installing a new cartridge, so I would clean the print head. Nothing. Screw it! I tried to see if there was a way to use it without the color cartridge, Not a chance- both need to be in it and color printing can't be disabled. SCREW IT and SCREW HP!

I bought a Brother B&W printer and it has worked flawlessly. The starter toner cartridge is finally coming to its end and I have had it for close to two years. That's more pages than I got out of the HP and I probably replaced the cartridges 4 times. I'm done with inkjet printers and I have yet to see an HP that didn't drop off of the network or screw with it.

I prefer that everything be wired.

This means no iPads or phones using your wifi. That's not practical.

The HP comments have explained why my HP has two printer names: one is through the router's wifi and the other is direct to the printer. I haven't done a survey as to whether they both drop wifi, or just one is the usual culprit.

Can someone offer an actual good explanation for a printer not to use the router's wifi?