cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Hub 3: Brother printer works on WiFi but disconnects on wired ethernet

windbag
Dialled in

I have had a Brother printer for several years, which (mostly) works via WiFi but can be a bit slow.

So, I bought a small peripheral 4-way hub to enable my NAS,PC & printer connections to connect to a single ethernet port I have wired into the house LAN (a 16 port hub to the Hub3).
Another such peripheral hub for the TV/Humax/BluRay work fine, and so, basically, does this one.

The printer also works fine on ethernet (and seems a bit faster) BUT if not used for a few days, goes “offline” and needs a reboot to “see” the wired connection again – and then springs into life.

Why does it get disconnected and, more importantly, how do I stop it?

12 REPLIES 12

goslow
Alessandro Volta

Does the printer have any power saving features activated which you can turn off?

Also is the wireless network connection on the printer disable when you are using the wired network connection?

Does the network switch you are using have any 'green' environmental settings which might be shutting down the port for the printer?

Is the network switch a managed or unmanaged version?

Can you give the printer a static IP address or use the hub's settings to reserve the IP address the printer is using?

Depending on your printer model, Brother used to do some good management tools for setup and config of printers on the network.

Thanks for the reply:

>Does the printer have any power saving features activated which you can turn off?

No, and I wouldn't want to.
Let's face it, domestic printers are mostly in "sleep mode".
Any such would affect both Wired & WiFi, no ?

>Also is the wireless network connection on the printer disable when you are using the wired network connection?

Yes, I can use one or the other, not both 😞

>Does the network switch you are using have any 'green' environmental settings which might be shutting down the port for the printer?

No

>Is the network switch a managed or unmanaged version?

Unmanaged

>Can you give the printer a static IP address or use the hub's settings to reserve the IP address the printer is using?

Not sure, but having to start doing this is expecting a lot of the user and can be flakey!
Why would WiFi addresses be more stable than Wired?

>Depending on your printer model, Brother used to do some good management tools for setup and config of printers on the network.

Thanks, I've just visited there and the full driver/software is still the same as I originally installed on my PC (Win 10).
I have picked up the "Network Connection Repair Tool" that I'll run if I go back to the wired version - which I may if the WiFi connection is slow/starts dropping (which it does, see my other forum thread)

Hi @windbag
Welcome back to the community!
Sorry to hear you're having issues with your printer disconnecting from a wired connection. 

Does the printer itself need to be rebooted for the connection to work? Does unplugging and plugging back in the ethernet not 'wake up' the printer system into recognising there is a connection?  
As this is a third party issue, this falls out of our support scope. Hopefully one of our community members or VIP's will be able to assist you further. 

Here to help 🙂
Virgin Media Forums Agent
Carley

Hi Carly.

>Does the printer itself need to be rebooted for the connection to work?
That, or resetting the "network" settings on the printer each time it does this

>Does unplugging and plugging back in the ethernet not 'wake up' the printer system into recognising there is a connection?  
You are assuming that the printer is not recognising the connection - it could be just as likely that the hub is dropping the connection. 
Short answer is I don't know, as I've gone back to WiFi, and will stick with for the time being unless it also has problems.
Due to where the components are located, it is almost as much work to disconnect/reconnect the ethernet port as to reboot - and neither should be necessary ! Connections are not lost via ethernet for anything else - just the printer - which is disappointing in that I made efforts to enable it to be wired rather than just WiFi.

>As this is a third party issue, this falls out of our support scope. 
You don't know that, and I'm sure Brother would also try to pass the buck & say it was down the hub and or other ethernet kit.
It is a game which leaves the punter stranded and gives computer kit a bad name.

Let's hope someone has some other ideas - the Brother monitoring software may help next time I find it has gone "offline" -  let's hope I don't have the need to find out. But if so.... "I'll be back" 😉

 

Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

Okay a couple of things to try.

Disable printer the wifi when using Ethernet, in case one is "fighting" the other?

Swap the devices around on the 16 port switch to see if it's a port issue?

You should really try a static IP as suggested, as this will also eliminate any possible DHCP lease issues when the printer goes in power saving mode.

 

 

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Hi Adduxi

>Disable printer the wifi when using Ethernet, in case one is "fighting" the other?
As I've said, it is one or the other. Both not possible.

>Swap the devices around on the 16 port switch to see if it's a port issue?
That's a possibility, I guess. If I go back to wired, I'll try that.

As for static IP, I could do this, and have tried so in the past. I've found the Hub3 implementation on this is flaky/hard work/unreliable, and I had enough trouble setting up the 4 I already have.  But it's a bit like barking when you have a dog. 

Why doesn't disconnection via the printer WiFi in the same way? The printer is mostly in sleep, nomatter which route is used.
I don't have to give a (yet another) static IP to the equivalent printer WiFi channel to keep it alive...

Adduxi
Very Insightful Person
Very Insightful Person

@windbag wrote:

<snip>

Why doesn't disconnection via the printer WiFi in the same way? The printer is mostly in sleep, nomatter which route is used.
I don't have to give a (yet another) static IP to the equivalent printer WiFi channel to keep it alive...


So the printer works fine over Wifi then?  If so, why do you need to use the printer cabled?

I'm a Very Insightful Person, I'm here to share knowledge, I don't work for Virgin Media. Learn more

Have I helped? Click Mark as Helpful Answer or use Kudos to say thanks

Hi Adduxi

>So the printer works fine over Wifi then?  If so, why do you need to use the printer cabled?

It seemed to be a bit slow printing large-size files, so thought that wired could be better.
Another complication is that the system drops all WiFi for minutes at a time on a seemingly random basis (I have raised a separate thread about this). It is easy to see when it has decided to "wake up" with a tablet - when I'm on the PC and a file is failing to print, it's not obvious what the cause is and I've often messed with the printer to find that the it was down to a lack of WiFi at that interval.

I have had a suggestion about what might be causing those WiFi dropouts, and am waiting to see if it has significant effect.

Well, I finally needed another print today, and found it was offline again (failed to connect to Hub3), this time on WiFi.
So, having followed goslow's advice:

>Brother used to do some good management tools for setup and config of printers on the network.

I opened & ran this "network connection repair" utility. Very disappointing.
It asked permission to fix the WiFi IP address, but didn't warn me that it basically then rebooted the printer and deleted all the print queue - and took almost as long as a manual reboot to do it!
At least with a manual reboot it doesn't it doesn't lose the print queue, so for me, the utility is a backward step (unless the IP fix addresses the issue, which I am skeptical about).