Does anyone have any tricks to make wireless printers more dependable? Personally, I hate them and seem to have problems 50% of the time. I don't know what I could be doing wrong, but I also do not think that half of all wireless printers suck (though they probably do). Yesterday I had to set up two in one house. One is directly beside the wireless router, so no signal issues there. The other is across the house and has a very low signal (I am sure this is this ones problem). They were both working when I left from all computers. 12 hours later, neither is working from any computer. Both have static IPs. Neither seems to have an issue joining the network. They just cannot be seen once they are one the network by the other computers (3 macs, 1 PC)

 If the network sucks, it really doesn't matter what printer you use.  Unless it's an afterthought on an installation (i.e. favor)   I always hardwire.   

I also stick with Epson when I have a choice.  I really like their printers for a low lever $1-200 price range printer.  

Now, it's your fault their printer doesn't work and you're the asshole....When in reality, it's their shitty network.  I hate these scenarios.

I have a couple different new hp's at home that give me nothing but issues as well. Very solid network (mikrotik and Pakedge) and these things seem to always need a reboot to actually print to them.

Stupid POS's

+1 to HP's going down a lot and +1 for Epson being solid

I always hardwire. I have tried wireless settings and they never stay connected.

FASTLS

I would prefer to service any other piece of electronics hardware before troubleshooting someone's printer. Give me the door-phone on the gate into Hell.

USB drivers, network drivers, scanning applications, fax applications, shoot me in the head.

I use a Lexmark Pro900 series at home. Printer, copier, fax and scanner for around $100 with wifi.

Ink is pretty cheap and it's been a reliable performer.

Yeah this is just a by the hour, fix what is not working job. The network is crap in all honesty. It's nothing but a DSL modem/router-in-one from AT&T. It's a job that I have taken over from my former employer. Everything was fine with the old router. Then it crapped out and AT&T gave him a new one. Yay me.

I've been having more and more and more networked printer problems. Most recently it's HP's that don't like multiple access points with the same SSID. I've had to create separate SSIDs just for the damn printer. Annnoying.

What was REALLY dumb was I could VPN to the house and connect to the printer just fine, but the customer in the house on the same wifi as the printer could not connect to it. Huh?

I just had an issue where a canon would work fine when I left but eventually stop communicating over wifi. Turned out to be the junk actiontec router from verizon. For whatever reason the printer would show its connected to the wifi but nothing could access it. It wasn't a signal issue either. I put in a pakedge and the problem was resolved.

WiFi feature on printer is CRAP.  I disable this feature and do hardwire.

However, run into a couple HP printer with Airprint are quite nice otherwise.  No issue with these guys to process print jobs with IOS devices.

Ofcourse, got to have a robust WiFi infrastructure first.

+1 Epson, I avoid HP. They used to be a great company when Hewlett and Packard were still alive but since the merger with Compaq and the race to the bottom in the electronics industry their quality is not what it used to be. I have a small office I go to that they are still using HP Laserjet 4Ls. You won't find printers lasting that long today.

I have had nothing but problems with HP Printers. Somethings I have found....

Set up MAC Address Reservation for printers.

If it doesn't work, the printer needs to be reset, then the computer needs to be reset.

Some printers don't even have an ethernet connection...if they do always hardwire them.

SSID's need to be different. Doesn't like different SSID's...pretty stupid when you put in a nice network and each AP has to have a different SSID. You can get aroudn this issue if the unit is hardwired, so I will usually put in a Sonos Bridge at each Printer.

Also, I hate printers, and I will tell clients when I set them up, if they have any issues, which they will, they can contact me but it is going to cost them. Or they can figure out how to reset the printer, and reset their computers. Can you use a BlueBolt, Watt Box IP, or Digital Logger on printers? Think that may works?

I recommend Epson and more importantly, I try to avoid printer installs as they are a primary source of repeat service calls.

We have wireless HP laser jets at the job site and the rental house. Exact same model. I have 4 printers added because sometimes wireless at either location works and sometimes it doesn't so i have to be ready to go USB when i need to print something.

My old (8 years at least) HP laser jet printer works just fine. I have it wired to a USB network printer device from Belkin at home and it works wirelessly all the time. Mentioning this because it might help you keep the printer wireless while bypassing the internal wifi.