Trying to get Wifi Printer to work on a Load Balanced Router

[Phunk]

I have a small office at work with 6 clients (3 Mac and 3 PC)

All machines are connected via lan into a switch which is then connected to a Tp-Link TL-R470T+ Load Balanced router which is connected to two BT broadband WIFI modems.

All works well, computers can see each other etc.

We have a HP OfficeJet 6950 which is connected via WIFI to one of the BT Modems.

The issue is that none of the computers can see the printer, unless they connect via wifi to the relevant BT Modem.

On the MACs I can connect to both LAN and WiFi at the same time and the problem is solved. However I cannot get the PC's to connect to both.

Any ideas?

[Matt600]

Should be able to connect to the WiFi whilst using ethernet too. If you open Network & Sharing center, it should look like this.



You should be able to ping the printer IP once connected like this.

[chris285]

Your printer is on the same subnet as the router not on the same subnet as the workstations, this is your problem

[nyt]

As above, your printer needs to be on the same subnet as the computers.

You have 2 options:

- Plug the printer into the load sharing device (or switch) using the printer's RJ45 network connection (and turn off its wifi)

- Plug the printer into one of the computers using USB and then share that printer over your network using the standard Windows or Mac sharing facilities (probably easier to attach the printer to a Windows box).

[Phunk]

nyt said:

As above, your printer needs to be on the same subnet as the computers.

You have 2 options:

- Plug the printer into the load sharing device (or switch) using the printer's RJ45 network connection (and turn off its wifi)

- Plug the printer into one of the computers using USB and then share that printer over your network using the standard Windows or Mac sharing facilities (probably easier to attach the printer to a Windows box).

Aha - plan B sounds like the best idea. The printer doesn’t have a network port!

I’ll give it a bash, thanks!

[tankplanker]

Phunk said:

two BT broadband WIFI modems.

I'm confused as to what these are, you mean WiFi access points or do you mean the ADSL/Fibre is plugged directly into them?

For either option with only 6 devices you should look at moving both of the WiFi subnets onto the same subnet. It'll be marginally quicker as you won't have to go to the router to route between the two networks and it'll solve this problem properly, you do not need such a complicated setup for that amount of devices. The Tp-Link TL-R470T should be providing a single DHCP service for both WiFi access points, not each WiFi access point providing their own.

If you insist on using each WiFi access point for DHCP then set them to the same subnet but set the IP range they can assign to only half of the IP range, like this:

192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.128
192.168.1.129 -192.168.1.254

both 24 bit subnets. You'd need to release and renew the IP addresses on the PCs, and check the routing on the router as well.

[megaphone]

Do you only have the BT hubs? Which model? Do you have the white BT/Openreach modems?

The best set-up would be to switch your two BT hubs into modem only mode, all they should be doing is providing the broadband to the WAN ports on the router. The router should be doing all the routing.

Then add a WiFi access point of some description on the switch for your WiFi, this will ensure everything is on the same sub-net and behind any firewall settings in the router.

[Phunk]

megaphone said:

Do you only have the BT hubs? Which model? Do you have the white BT/Openreach modems?

The best set-up would be to switch your two BT hubs into modem only mode, all they should be doing is providing the broadband to the WAN ports on the router. The router should be doing all the routing.

Then add a WiFi access point of some description on the switch for your WiFi, this will ensure everything is on the same sub-net and behind any firewall settings in the router.

Yes - BT Hubs Business Hub 5 (Type A)

I'll get these switched over to modem mode.

I've added this into the switch and connected the printer to it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00APZZ30W/ref...

Seems to work (only tested on Macs through ethernet, still need to set the PC's up)

Thanks for your help all!