Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)
  • Stupid wi fi printer question
  • ononeorange
    Full Member

    Firstly, let me say that I am an idiot with anything pc related and don’t understand the simplest thing about them.

    With that out of the way, we bought a wireless printer a couple of years ago and had a mate set it all up – it worked fine. Not long after, the internet connection kept dropping and Virgin’s helpline insisted it was our password(?!!). Once they changed it, the printer has never worked wirelessly since. Internet has continued to drop and I lost patience again with it today and rang Virgin who again had me change the password. Whatever.

    When I (bravely) try to reconnect the printer to wifi, it finds our network, I put in the password on its display but every time it comes back telling me that it has failed to connect.

    In very, very simple terms any ideas please or do I just give it up as an expensive failure?

    somouk
    Free Member

    It could be one of many things such as the printer not being compatible with the encryption type on the wireless.

    My advice would be to change the wireless encryption back to simple old WEP which is more than adequate for 99.9% of folk and then give it a go.

    ononeorange
    Full Member

    WEP???? I am trying but what does that mean, please? (if it helps it used to work fine until the password was changed)

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    scaredypants
    Full Member

    what model printer ? (so we can see what sort of encyption it can live with)

    (how do you enter a password on its display – is there a keyboard ?)

    To reset my wireless printer I have to connect it to the pc via cable and then it sorts out the wifi after running the printer software disc

    somouk
    Free Member

    ^^^ That’s probably sensible to save changing settings that may upset other devices on the network so post the model number and we can go from there 🙂

    ononeorange
    Full Member

    Sorry – hijacked by Mrs putting up pictures!

    Right – it’s a Kodak C310. Yes there’s a tiny little display which allows you to use a “wifi setup wizard” to input the code.

    Ah. Will have to look for the setup disc – could be anywhere.

    cranberry
    Free Member

    Note that the default password for connecting wireless devices to your router should be on the underside of the router ( probably ). It is not the same as the password that you need to supply to connect to your service provider ( Virgin in this case ).

    You will need to know the SSID for the wireless network as well- look in the same place, or in the router config.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    802.11b/g/n, WPA/WPA2, WPS, and WEP

    so no problem with the encryption

    I’m assuming that virgin has had you reset something that’s preventing proper connection

    Ive never used a virgin router and I’m not a proper IT person; for those reasons, I’m out 😳

    ononeorange
    Full Member

    OK Cranberry – it has the username and password on the router, I tried that in the printer setup wizard but it just told me that it was an invalid name for a WEP key, whatever that means. It is asking for the security string which is why I thought it was the password Virgin had me set up on the router (the SSID?) which doesn’t work either.

    Aaaaaahhhhhh – I guess just leave the printer as an expensive ornament then. Thanks for trying though.

    Greybeard
    Free Member

    Cranberry has it, I think. It’s a question of finding the right password. The one for wifi connections is not the one to connect to Virgin, nor is it the one on the bottom of the router – that’s for logging in to the controls for the router – which is what you need to do, to find out the wifi password.

    1. Hold down the Windows key, the one with a flag on, and hit the R key.
    2. In the box that pops up, type cmd, then hit return
    3. In the black window that pops up, type ipconfig and hit return
    4. Look for where it says ‘default gateway’. There’s a number like 192.168.0.1 – write it down.
    5. Now open your internet browser, and type that number as if it was a web address – you should then see the router login page.
    6. Log in with the user name and password on the bottom of the router

    Now I have to guess a bit as I don’t know how Virgin routers are arranged. Look for a menu for Wireless or Wifi, and then a WEP key. If you can find it, that’s the password you need to give the printer.

    allthepies
    Free Member

    Forget WEP, the Virgin Hub won’t be using that.

    You want WPA (might be listed as “WPA2/PSK”) or similar.

    Once you’ve selected that on the printer then enter the SSID and passphrase (this is the “new” password you set recently).

    ononeorange
    Full Member

    Nearly. I followed Greybeard’s list and found the different password. It was something called WPA rather than WEP – I tried that. It worked to a point – the printer says it’s connected, blue light on and ready to print. But trying to print just gives a response “printer not responding” and “printer offline” – I have even uploaded the software again just in case.

    So near I sesne but so far…….! Thanks for your suggestions.

    somouk
    Free Member

    Sounds as though you now have the printer on the wireless but the print driver is pointing to the wrong place.

    Try uninstalling the printer off the laptop completely and starting again from there.

    ononeorange
    Full Member

    Thanks somouk. However I avoided this earlier as the Kodak donwload on the web totally lost me – it keeps insisting that I log on my pc using an administrator account and as I don’t know what that is I don’t dare wipe the Kodak stuff off (we obly have log ons for me and my mrs as far as I can find).

    My head is now about to burst so I think I will pay the callout and have a pc person come out and do that installation for me.

    As I said above I really struggle with this sort of thing, you lot must design fighter aircraft as a hobby to be able to understand all this!

    Thank you all for trying to help – we nearly did it. Much appreciated.

    scaredypants
    Full Member

    is the pc telling you that you aren’t an administrator or is it just that the software wants you to be sure you are one ?

    Who else uses the pc – what other accounts are on there ?

    If you can install programmes on for yourself, you’re probably an administrator as far as windows is concerned

    ononeorange
    Full Member

    scaredy – the latter, ie Kodak told me I needed to be one.

    Yesssssssss – I went ahead and uninstalled and reinstalled it – AND IT WORKS!!!!!!!

    Thanks all. I am so happy!

    (You don’t know what it is to be technologically illiterate!! That only took 3 hours!).

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