I'm using Telus internet in Canada with their gateway and Boost WiFi 3 router. My Brother HL-L2390DW is connected to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network and reports the address 192.168.1.213. The router is at 192.168.1.34, my wired computer is 192.168.1.209, and my phone is 192.168.1.155. All devices appear to be on the same 192.168.1.x network.
The printer sometimes appears in the router's device list, and I have occasionally been able to open its web page, but printing works only intermittently. No computer can print reliably, whether connected by Ethernet or Wi-Fi, and my Android phone's default print service cannot discover it. Adding the printer manually by IP address and trying Wi-Fi Direct did not help.
I have restarted the gateway, router, printer, computers, and phone, and I have factory-reset the printer several times. The printer's configuration sheet still reports 192.168.1.213, but pinging that address from my computer times out or returns "Destination host unreachable." I can ping the router successfully. The printer also sometimes enters deep sleep, although waking it does not resolve the connection problem.
The printer worked normally with my previous ISP when I used my own router. What should I check next to determine whether this is an IP conflict, a Wi-Fi isolation setting, or a problem with the printer's network connection?
3 Answers
Check the Telus equipment for wireless client isolation, guest-network settings, or separate LAN and Wi-Fi network options. Those features can allow devices to access the internet while preventing them from talking to each other. Make sure the printer and phone are on the regular home network, not a guest SSID, and that the wired computer is connected to the same LAN.
Because the printer is on 2.4 GHz, also verify that the router is not treating the 2.4 GHz network as an isolated or separate network. The fact that the printer appears in the router’s device list only proves that it associated with Wi-Fi; it does not prove that other clients can reach it.
Avoid relying on the old address until the network is stable. The printer may be showing a stale or conflicting DHCP address, especially if the router changed after the ISP installation. Delete any old printer entries from the computers, reset the printer’s network settings, reconnect it to the main Wi-Fi network, and reserve the newly assigned address in the router.
Once you can consistently open the printer’s web interface and ping it from both a wired computer and a wireless device, reinstall the Brother printer using that address. Deep sleep can delay discovery, but it should not cause permanent ping failures when the printer is awake.
The important test is whether the printer actually responds on 192.168.1.213. Since your computer can ping the gateway but gets timeouts or “Destination host unreachable” from the printer address, the issue is below the printing software level: the printer is not reachable on the LAN.
After resetting it, print a fresh network configuration page and confirm the address, subnet mask, gateway, and connection status. Also try pinging the address while the printer is powered off. If it still responds when the printer is off, another device may be using that IP address. In that case, let the printer obtain a new DHCP address or create a DHCP reservation for it in the router.
I reset the printer and entered the Wi-Fi password again. It says it is connected and prints the expected address, but pinging 192.168.1.213 still fails while pinging the router succeeds. I’m going to check whether the address is being used by another device.