My HP eStation printer hates my Asus router

[crossy]

Here's a good one... (Just thought I'd list it here in case anyone either has a view or runs into the same problem)

Upgraded the router firmware on my Asus RT-68U and ran into problems with my HP Photosmart eStation printer. Basically the (removable) console part of the eStation could connect fine to the WLAN, but the main body of the printer couldn't. Tried various things like removing the WLAN and re-adding etc but nothing worked - the sync of details between eStation console and printer would fail and the printer couldn't access the network.

Tried a Devolo WLAN bridge and that seemed to work, which made me sure that the problem was the router. So tried resetting the router back to the previous version of the firmware, but that made no difference - still no joy with the printer.

Finally decided to setup a "guest" network on the Asus router with WPA (rather than WPA2) security and a MAC-based access list (for a little extra security). That worked.

If I get a chance I'll try a second guest network, this time with WPA2, but a shorter passphrase and see if that's what's screwing things up, (my main network uses a very long passphrase)

[burble]

The printer shouldn't mind a long passphrase, the network my HP printer is on is using a 64 digit passphrase.

I did have occasional problems with my printer not liking my Asus N66U but since I disabled the wireless on it and switched to a Ubiquiti AP it's all been good.

[GoNz0]

make sure beamforming is disabled as it doesn't work well with devices that don't support it. I may be well off the mark but it is the cause for most mobile phones disconnecting from wifi.

If you still get no joy give Merlins firmware a bash as it is based on the stock firmware with better support and a lot of fixes added in that Asus tend to use in later releases. http://www.snbforums.com/forums/asuswrt-merlin.42/

[burble]

The Merlin firmware didn't improve things on my N66U but it's definitely worth a try.