I recently switched to Telus internet in Canada and am using the supplied gateway and Boost Wi‑Fi router. The printer and all of my devices appear to be on the 192.168.1.x network: the printer is listed as 192.168.1.213, the router is 192.168.1.34, my wired computer is 192.168.1.209, and my phone is 192.168.1.155. The printer is a Brother HL-L2390DW connected to the 2.4 GHz band.
The printer appears in the router's device list, but printing is unreliable or does not work at all. Computers connected by Ethernet or Wi‑Fi cannot print, and my Android phone's default print service cannot discover the printer. Adding it manually by IP address and trying Wi‑Fi Direct also failed. Occasionally I can open the printer's web page, but most of the time the connection times out.
I have restarted the gateway, router, printer, computers, and phone, and have factory-reset the printer several times. The printer's configuration page says it is connected and gives it the 192.168.1.213 address. I can successfully ping the router, but pinging the printer results in timeouts or "destination host unreachable." The printer worked normally with my previous ISP when I used my own router, so I suspect a network setting or a problem with the printer's Wi‑Fi connection. What should I check next?
3 Answers
The important test is that the gateway responds but the printer does not. That means the general network connection is working, while the printer is either isolated, has incorrect network details, or is not actually reachable on that address. Check the Boost settings for guest-network isolation, wireless client isolation, or a setting that separates wireless clients from wired devices. Make sure the phone and printer are on the main network, not a guest SSID. Some managed Wi‑Fi systems also isolate 2.4 GHz clients from other devices.
First verify that 192.168.1.213 really belongs to the printer and is not being used by another device. From a computer, ping that address while the printer is powered off; it should stop responding. If it still responds, there is an IP conflict. Also check the printer's network configuration page for its subnet mask and gateway. They should normally be 255.255.255.0 and 192.168.1.34 in this setup. A DHCP reservation for the printer can prevent its address from changing.
I reset the printer and reconfigured it, but the address still cannot be pinged. The printer shows as connected and the router lists it, so I am trying to determine whether it is actually communicating beyond the association with Wi‑Fi.
Print the Brother network report and confirm the IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and connection status directly from the printer. If the printer says it is connected but every device gets timeouts, try temporarily assigning it a different unused address or reserving its current address in the router. Also check whether the router has an “AP isolation” or device-isolation option enabled. The printer's sleep mode should not prevent normal printing, but disabling deep sleep temporarily can help rule out a printer firmware or wake-up problem.
The network report shows 192.168.1.213, and I can ping 192.168.1.34 successfully. Pinging the printer gives timeouts and then “destination host unreachable” from my computer, so the next step is checking isolation and possible address conflicts.
Since both wired and wireless computers fail, isolation between Wi‑Fi and Ethernet may not be the only issue. I would still test from a wireless computer on the same 2.4 GHz network and compare it with a wired computer.