Dual band router - problem printing to wireless (or wired) printer

[Raff98]

Looking for some help. My router just died after great service for 4 years. I have purchased top of the line dual band routers as a replacement. I have three printers - all have NIC cards, 2 of 3 have wireless (Epson WP-4530 and HP office jet 8500 premier)

Routers I tried Asus RT-Ac66R and Netgear R6300. Working with Internet from surfboard 6141 Modem with Bright House connection at 67mb down, 5.5mb up.

With Asus router, and printers connected wireless, I have to be connected at 2.4 ghz to print, and print is VERY slow (1 page minute tops - used to be 10 pages a minute minimum, just black & white text). More than 3 pages in que it locks up. Cannot print from PC when connected at 5ghz (blazing fast, wireless speeds at 50mb on N card. Tried hooking printers up via Ethernet (Asus router to gigabit switch to printer). Same issue. Very slow or no printing. Even connected printer via Ethernet directly to Asus router still slow print, 3 or more pages gives error.

Netgear not as fast wireless, but can print, but only when PC is connected at 2.4ghz. Computer again does not "see" printer when connected at 5ghz, even if printer is connected Ethernet. Basically, no luck at all with these routers, since 5ghz appears "disconnected" from any printer on 2.4ghz.

I LOVE the range (power) and speed of the dual band, but I need to print.

I see two choices:

what is best wireless N router with MIMO? That only runs at 2.4ghz

Is there I dual band router where internally the 2.4ghz can connect to 5ghz so my PC can see my printer no matter what band.

Ready to just buy a cheap N router and live with slower speeds - but it was SO NICE to be connected at 50mbs plus..

Thought I saw somewhere where D-Link had a option where you could isolate 2.4/5ghz internal to router, or uncheck the box and 2.4/5ghz could cross over internal to the router

Looking for real good high speed router so I can surf at extreme rates, but yet print to printers in another room via wireless (printers only recognize 2.4ghz)

Thank You!

Ralph

 

[eibgrad]

Hmm. How devices are connected, whether wired or wireless (2.4GHz or 5GHz), is irrelevant. In fact, there's no way for one device to even know how another device is connected since ALL are bridged to a common switch. IOW, once a device is connected to the router, they’re all treated as EQUALS. So something is terribly amiss here. It’s not normal. All this should be SEAMLESS. Even the slow printing is odd. It’s not as if the router is acting as a print server/spooler, right?

The only thing I've seen that even comes close to this is the AP isolation feature you find in some routers (which is usually disabled by default). This will prevent wireless users from accessing wired devices, and w/ a dual band radio, perhaps wireless users on other freqs.

 

[Raff98]

I tried everything I can think of. Install via latest drivers, firmware updates to routers, restart all equipment after each change. Asus was worst. BB says they have had many returns, so I got the netgear. If computer is connected to 2.4 - no problems. However, as soon as I connect to 5ghz, it shows printer as offline. These are both new AC routers as well, maybe a bug? My PC is modern, 6 months old, Samsung Series 7 (I think). Latest I7, 8gb ram.

Only hint I have seen similar is a response on D-Link with same issue where it says to make sure isolation is not checked. Local BB only has these AC models, or old Belkin, limited choice.

Will order online if I can find someone using a good router with no issues printing between bands.

Thanks!

 

[Raff98]

And no, not using the router as print server. It has that capability via USD - but running all Ethernet or wireless