Making a piece of junk reliable?

[mrbios]

I've got a piece of junk little printer that's used for nothing more than exams printing, it's a little HP P1102w printer that needs to connect to the wireless.

 

It seems it has many issues with our wireless, the first issue was resolved by changing the WPA key message time from 1000ms to 3000ms. Now a second issue has arisen....the printer will eventually connect to the wireless but it'll take about 20-25mins for that to happen, until then it'll get a message of "Multicast Encryption Mismatch" in the process logs, which suggests that it's trying to use the wrong encryption type.

 

Now the printer only has the option of WPA/WPA2 rather than specifically being able to set WPA2 (which is what the SSID is set for) so i'm presuming that's the issue as it's trying to connect to WPA first, failing and then it should connect to WPA2, but that seems to take an annoyingly long time to happen.

 

Any suggestions? Is it even possible to update the software (firmware?) on these printers per chance? or are there any wireless settings that are likely to effect this?

 

I'm on an Aruba Controller based wireless setup.

 

Thanks

[jtoland]

Connect a raspberry pi to it and use the pi as a print management for it

[3s-gtech]

There's a fresh firmware for this machine, got to be worth a try:

 

HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Support

[mrbios]

There's a fresh firmware for this machine, got to be worth a try:

 

HP Software and Driver Downloads for HP Printers, Laptops, Desktops and More | HP® Support

 

Damnit why couldn't i find that previously! Thank you!

[Muz]

Do your APs support both AES and TKIP encryption?

[mrbios]

Do your APs support both AES and TKIP encryption?

 

They do indeed, the SSID in question is currently set for AES.

[psydii]

Personally I wouldn't let that thing anywhere near my wireless for fear of the impact it may have on performance of other devices on the same frequency.

[mrbios]

Personally I wouldn't let that thing anywhere near my wireless for fear of the impact it may have on performance of other devices on the same frequency.

 

I'm not overly concerned about that, it's used for roughly 2-3 months a year, it's on an SSID that only iPads, learnpads and exam laptops are on which is also within its own subnet, in an area of the school that has no wireless devices in use besides those exam laptops. It fills a purpose for a tiny cost (invigilators can't leave the rooms unattended to pickup the exam prints from a shared printer even 2 rooms away), it's just a bit of a PITA.

[psydii]

in an area of the school that has no wireless devices in use besides those exam laptops.

That is the crucial element. Everything else you mention wouldn't isolate its potential impact on a network otherwise populated by modern clients.

[mrbios]

You seem entirely overcautious and possibly presumptuous as to its usage case.

 

I don't need to explain the setup in full, but i can assure you there's no issues with other clients, the printer itself is causing no issues to our network and hasn't done for the past year it's been owned by the school. It's a cheap piece of tack to fill a tiny role so that up to 10 laptops (rarely more than 5 to be honest) can print with mobility, and once the printer has connected to the network this works perfectly. If you can suggest a cheap alternative then please do, but for now this is a working solution with minimal fuss (bar the time it takes to connect)

 

The only thing that would make me give up and remove the device entirely at this point is if the only way to get it working was to compromise on security or stability of the wireless.