Stupid wireless printer doesn't work

I don't own a mac but I was helping out a friend.

I wasted 3 hours trying to figure out this stupid wireless printer. He said it worked before and then it just stopped working. Apparently fail Telus came and switched his router because he was complaining about their internet (which is awful).

The Printer is called Brother MFC-7840W. I spent 2 hours just searching google and I found only 2 similar questions. 1 of them gave me no results, the other was unanswered.

The printer software was installed, but I reinstalled it.

Now listen to this.

The printer is added/detected in the Macintosh system preferences. It can be seen under the shared devices as well. But this stupid printer using it's own software says 'the remote device is not found.' I also use the printer's software brother something.jar and I find nothing.

I went to the router's page and got the information. Then I went to the printer in the other room to set it up. On the little lcd menu I went to wireless. I then reset it to factory settings. Then I went SSID it searched and found the network name, I went WPA, entered the security key, then it goes CONNECTING for 40 seconds.

Then it says CONNECTION NG. Which is FAILED.

SO IN SHORT.

The MAC CAN see the printer in preferences.
The PRINTER in the other room CANNOT connect wireless.
The printer SOFTWARE cannot find the printer on the computer.

useless thing is making me very mad. I only have tomorrow to fix it.

Not familiar with that particular printer but I have had similar problems with two Canon printers. Try the following:

1. Connect the printer with the Mac using a USB cable.

2. Go into System preferences and add the printer. You may need to download drivers from the Brother site but I doubt it. Try printing a page from the Mac just to make sure.

3. Now disconnect the USB cable and follow the steps for adding the printer wirelessly. It might help to have the router broadcast the network name (SSID).

When this process is complete things should be set up properly. Although you could delete the USB driver once wireless printing is working I keep them installed. In a bind I can print by wire if wireless printing is not working.

Slydude said:

Not familiar with that particular printer but I have had similar problems with two Canon printers. Try the following:

1. Connect the printer with the Mac using a USB cable.

2. Go into System preferences and add the printer. You may need to download drivers from the Brother site but I doubt it. Try printing a page from the Mac just to make sure.

3. Now disconnect the USB cable and follow the steps for adding the printer wirelessly. It might help to have the router broadcast the network name (SSID).

When this process is complete things should be set up properly. Although you could delete the USB driver once wireless printing is working I keep them installed. In a bind I can print by wire if wireless printing is not working.

Click to expand...

the printer is already added in system preferences. the drivers are also already installed.

Like I said there is this 'brother' software that I installed from the CD. There is a button to detect the printer but it just says failed or device not found.

I'll give the usb a shot though in the morning when I wake up.

When I installed my Brother 2170w I started with wired connection because of reviews I had read suggesting it and had no problems. It seems that for whatever reason doing a straight wireless setup doesn't always work.

To add to what was already said until the printer is recognized and printing since SL all updates for various brands have been issued and it will only give an update for the printer
the system sees thats in use. So as Slydude recommended its best to do the initial USB connection first.

when you install the cd software though it asks if you want to do wired, wireless, or some other choice.

Should I just not install the software again and just plug in the USB and see what happens?

umad said:

when you install the cd software though it asks if you want to do wired, wireless, or some other choice.

Should I just not install the software again and just plug in the USB and see what happens?

Click to expand...

I always go to mfg.'s site because the software packaged with the unit might not be up to date as in unit could have been packaged 6 months before purchase.

lol isn't that convenient. brother's website when I go to drivers for this printer is having temporary issues please check back later.

gonna test this usb thing now.

I don't think a Printer can be stupid considering its a machine.
That being said things like this is either the users fault or the printer just won't work with your current set up.
Just saying

Cheers

it was working before. again this isn't my computer or my printer. I don't use macs but I still know a decent amount about them.

my friend said his printer was working fine. He was doing wireless printing for months, he bought this in May. Then last week it just stopped working.

I wasted 3 hours trying to figure out this stupid wireless printer. He said it worked before and then it just stopped working. Apparently fail Telus came and switched his router because he was complaining about their internet (which is awful).

Click to expand...

If it was working before, and now won't work with a new router, it's likely a setting that changed and caused the printer to stop functioning wirelessly. The same thing happened to me with a wireless Canon printer.

The resolution was to completely uninstall the printer and drivers and start over. I finally got it to work that way.

I suspect you're going to have to do the same thing with the Brother. Check everything: IP address, etc. Also as a quick test, turn off security and broadcast the SSID in the clear to see if the printer can detect the network.

Pain in the *** but I fixed it. Thanks to all above for the suggestions.

Nothing would print even when it was connected via USB.

Here's the steps I used because I still had troubles...

- Went to system preferences and deleted all printers shown.
- plugged printer in with USB
- put in brother driver software from CD
- installed "wired" usb connection first.
- went through steps & restarted.
- printer was detected and with it's own software it was detected through remote status.

For Wireless those exact steps did not work.

First I changed the router WPA/WPA2 password from it's default to something easier. The printer had no problem detecting the SSID before I made this topic.

On the printer LCD menu:

- Go to Wireless LAN
- Go to factory settings reset.
- Go back to Wireless lan and it will search SSID.
- Chose my SSID and chose WPA/WPA2 with encryption AES.
- entered the new password.
- it connected within 3 seconds. before it took about 40 seconds just to say CONNECTION NG (FAILED).

- Go back to the computer and run the brother mfc installer software again.
- choose wireless.
- install it and you have to restart again.
- once the computer is back up you will see the brother mfc window and the printer device should be recognized. It should then disappear quick and say install success!
- Double check the wireless connection in the brother mfc software at the top. Click remote status and the other one signal test I think it is.

Hope this helps someone because this was a pain. Glad it's fixed for my friend though.

cheers

Glad you got it working.