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[Zoomer]

I'm not sure why this is, but I used WPS on my DIR-655 Rev B1 FW 2.03NA to register a Brother HL-2270DW Wifi laser printer and my Mac can never wake it up to print. It always works fine from all my Windows machines.

It appears as xxx.xxx.xxx.6 on my network. But the router only shows its IP as 0.0.0.0 on the STATUS\Wireless page and I can't find any way to change that. My assumption is that the Mac can't find it because of this, but I'm not an expert on WPS.

Maybe I should take it out of WPS and just assign it a fixed IP using DHCP Reservation. Or is there another fix? I haven't ruled out the Brother OS X printer driver, but it and the printer's firmware are both up to date.

Two odd things:
1. I can ping the printer from my PCs but the Mac can't find see in and it's not a Firewall issue. Weird.
2. I can see the brother printer in Finder's Shared devices: so it sees it but refuses to interact. Also weird.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[FurryNutz]

It's preferred to use a IP reservation on the router for ALL devices connected to the 655 router.

Some things to try:
Ensure DNS IP addresses are being filled in under Setup/Internet/Manual? You can find these under Status/Device Info/Wan section.
Turn off ALL QoS (DIR only) GameFuel (DGL only and if ON.) options. Advanced/QoS or Gamefuel.
Turn off Advanced DNS Services if you have this option under Setup/Internet/Manual.
Turn on DNS Relay under Setup/Networking.
Setup DHCP reserved IP addresses for all devices on the router. Setup/Networking
Ensure devices are set to auto obtain an IP address.
Set Firewall settings to Endpoint Independent for TCP and UDP.

[Zoomer]

It's preferred to use a IP reservation on the router for ALL devices connected to the 655 router.

Thanks FurryNuts. Actually for historical reasons, the older computers on the network including WHS NAS machines have fixed IPs. Of course, the DIR-655 doesn't do "Reservation" on fixed IPs because that would be redundant. On more recent addons to the network, I typically set them up as "Auto" and then reservere the IP on the DIR-655. I'm hesitant to change the fixed IP machines to the same model because they operate on a different physical branch of the network, and can on occaision find themselves working independently.

BTW: I'd already applied the other recommendations

But this printer was setup using the WPS "pin" method and ended up visible from the PCs but missing from the Mac. But I found a solution:

Using the free Fing DOS network discovery program on the PC, I found the IP address, Mac address and exact Hostname of the printer. I then set the an IP Reservation on the DIR-655 entering those parameters. And it worked! The Mac woke the printer and now prints.

Odd thing: on the Network\Settings page, the IP reservations shows the printer name and correct IP, but on the Setup\Wireless page the IP is still 0.0.0.0.

But it does work. I'll see if it sticks over the next few days and report back if it doesn't.

[FurryNutz]

Ok, glad you found a work around. If your PCs are working well for now with static IPs on them, then keep them there. I just recommend using Reserved IPs on the router if your network situation will allow it and set it up from the beginning, this lets the router do what it's designed to do. Having reserved IPs on the router just ensures that all devices get there own IP addresses that never changes, helps in troubleshooting and should IPs happen to change when using Dynamic, any rules you might have set up could break if the IP addresses change.

Keep us posted. Enjoy.

[Zoomer]

Turns out the solution isn't complete. Setting it up the way I described above has improved things as I can now see the printer and read its HTML status pages in OS X now no matter what its status is (even "SLEEP").

But what hasn't changed changed is that the OS X driver seems unable to wake up the printer if the printer is in SLEEP mode. Even Brother's own BRAdmin utility finds the printer now but there's nothing the user can do to wake the thing up!

I've written to Brother support with details and I'll report back here for any interested...

[FurryNutz]

Ok, this seems to be a Printer Mfr issue. Hope they respond.

[Zoomer]

OK: fixed! Got a working answer from Brother support:

Please access the Apple menu followed by System Preferences and then Print and Fax or Print and Scan. Here is where you usually have a list of printers displayed on the left; please select the Brother and remove it by clicking the minus “-“ button underneath.

Once it’s gone, we’ll re-add it differently, so please click on the “+” plus key and, in the pop-up window that follows, please access the IP tab rather than the Default tab and, here, kindly specify the printer’s IP address which can be found by pressing it’s GO button 3 times quickly; the network settings will print on the last page of the report that follows. The IP address goes into the Address field, LPD is the protocol of choice and in Print Using, please ensure the correct HL2270DW printer shows up + CUPS, then Add the printer. [You can use what you want for the Name].

Since the DRI-655 has the HL-2270DW printer IP reserved, this worked without issues and now is quite reliable. Every print job wakes the printer up and prints without issues. Problem solved!

I've noticed that this is a commonly reported problem with this printer and the behavior is definitely a driver limitation. Brother really needs to put the above procedure into their FAQ as it's not covered in any of their commonly available docs.
 

[FurryNutz]

Glad they responded and it's fixed. Enjoy.