I have had the hardest time getting this printer to work. I installed Snow Leopard - and when I go to add new printer - no list is available under the default tab. I am using a USB connection between the printer and the computer.
When I go try and print something, says, no printer selected. I go to add printer - and there is no list in the right of available printer drivers. I went and downloaded the Apple Snow Leopard print drivers for Brother. Still, nothing is listed.
Please help - I bought this printer 6 months ago - I could not get it to print then - and now I cannot even get Brother (or any other) print driver in the list.
I have a Brother 2170W and I can print over USB just fine with the drivers that came on disk with Snow Leopard. Try to make sure the printer is turned on and connected correctly.
Does it show up in the System Profiler (Apple menu -> About This Mac -> "More Info" button)?
Under the USB section of the System Profile, if you don't see the device then there is something wrong with your USB connection or the printer isn't functioning correctly.
After about 10 hours (light estimate) and about a quarter-ream of paper printing out reset pages and network status pages I finally got it this thing working wirelessly.
This is my first mac so forgive me if these things sound rudimentary, anyway here goes…
And FYI, mine is a new 21.5 imac out of the box with Snow Leopard 10.6.2.
Before you start:
a) Throw away the CD that came with the printer.
b) Reset the printer to factory defaults (turn on, hold GO, then release and press 7-10 times)
c) Create your internal Airport home network (I used a WEP 128-bit security setting with a 13 character password). Confirm password, case, special characters, whatever before you begin. I’ll say this again: confirm that your password as you know it is really as you know it.
d) Turn off your firewall
e) Go to the brother site and download the BRAdminLight_120.dmg utility. I didn't need the printer driver.
Then here you go:
a) Run the bradminlight.dmg program, so that you get the utility up and running.
b) Plug an Ethernet cable into your printer and run the other end into your Ethernet jack on the back of the mac. (Presumably this would work with USB too, but I lost the cable some time ago)
c) Press the GO button on the printer (for some reason this helps queue up the Ethernet jack on the printer).
d) Click on the “Search” button on the bradminlight utility (sometimes it can take about a minute for the printer to properly communicate with the mac/if it doesn’t communicate after about two minutes turn off the printer and start again with c) above)
e) Once the printer shows up in the bradminlight utility click on the fourth button of the utility that brings you to the printers homepage.
f) Click on “configure wireless”. From here on out be careful, I think I inadvertently hit a spacebar once in a box I shouldn’t have and this set me back about 10 resets.
g) Set communication mode: Ad Hoc (this is was the missing piece for me, all other attempts were using the infrastructure mode, but this doesn't work with the Airport card I guess)
h) Search for your Airport network name or add it manually (my search worked fine)
i) Set Channel: “11”
j) Set Authentication method: “Open System”
k) Set Encryption: “WEP”
l) Set WEP Key 1: [type your Airport network password]
m) Click Submit
From here the utility asks whether you want to establish a wireless connection. Remove the Ethernet cable from the back of the mac. If you hear the printer start to hum less than 10 seconds later, you’re good to go. If it takes longer, you’ll get the dreaded “failed to establish connection” sheet after about 30 seconds to a minute.
When you go to System Preferences → Print & Fax → Add Printer, you should see this printer with the CUPS driver ready to add.
I am not getting BRAdmin Light to recognize the device. It "searches" for a second and then I stare at it for a minute and 2 and then turn it off, hold GO, push GO 7 times, hit GO, hit Search....
I have it working in snow leopard but every time I want to print I have to manually turn AIrport (on the imac) off and then ack on. The computer finds the printer every time if I do this but loses it only a minute or two later after the print job.
After getting a Time Capsule, I ran into the same problem as i had to reconfigure the printer and for some reason it didn't print anymore. after a while i got it work again, though none of the particular solutions listed here worked for me. i am not certain what exactly got it to work but in the hope that somebody else may benefit from this i will list a few things i did. the sum of it helped:
- factory reset printer
- use BRA
AdminLight
- i noticed that the printer works fine in wifi when there is no protection used (no WPA2)
- i connected using ethernet to configure
- This i think was the key that solved it: When using WPA2 use AES Encryption ⚠ it didn't work with TKIP.
may be somebody else can confirm that AES vs. TKIP may be the culprit.
Using a Brother HL-2170W on Snow Leopard 10.6.4 on an iMac I am able to set up the printer wirelessly but the Airport quickly loses contact with the printer. If I turn the Airport off and back on with the Mac, the printer is re-found and prints fine. It's a bit of a pain, but it always seems to work.
I got the (blasted) thing to work by updating the CUPS driver from Brother's site and then running the original setup utility that came with the install cd.
I connected the printer to Airport Extreme with an ethernet cable. I did create a non-encrypted network with the name SETUP. Could that be the key, I'm not sure...
Please, I need assistance. I'm trying to setup / install my Brother HL-2170W printer. I follow the instructions and according to the wonderful pop-up window, I installed it successfully.
But after the restart of the laptop, the pop-up window asks me to select the printer - no printer is there. I then have to set it up manually using System Preferences / Printers & Fax. It does set up using the IP address but when I try to send a print job to it. The printer queue shows it times out, can't find printer, etc.
Have: reset, shutdown, rebooted, restarted, inserted Printer CD multiple times. Nada, zilch, zippo in printing. (I have downloaded the latest print drivers from Brother.)
The HP allin1 works fine as a wireless device.
This is disappointing. All the posts here are a year old or more. And the Question is not answered.
It took hours, but I did get my Brother HL-2170W installed. Downloaded driver from Brother for OS X 10.6.4. Tests verified. Status "In Use."
When I attempt to print a test page (or anything) the printer utility shows that the job is printing. But it doesn't print.
I get the message: "Unable to reserve port: Address family not supported by protocol family."
I disconnected my Airport Extreme, shut off the printer, did everything I can think of and I still get the same "not supported" message.I don't understand what the message means, but it appears to relate to the router.
Here's what worked for me (after hours of frustration):
1. Open Airport Utility. Click "Manual Setup".
2. Select "Add wireless clients ..." from Base Station drop-down menu
3. In Wireless Setup Utility: Select "Allow client by PIN" and click "Continue"
4. Push HL-2170W's reset button(between Ethernet and USB ports) with pen or
paper clip for 3 seconds or so until yellow toner light flashes. The Brother will print a PIN number. (Yellow light will continue to flash as it searches for a network)
5. In Wireless Setup Utility enter PIN number and click "Continue"
6. After a minute or so Airport should recognize the Brother; press "Done"
7. Open "Print and Fax",and click "+" to add printer. HL-2170 will show in the Printer options and you should be good to go.
I was able to set up the printer (it took quite a while). Mine is connected to an airport via ethernet cable. The airport connects wirelessly to an Extreme base station. I'm very frustrated that the connection is frequently lost. Why is the connection timing out? Restarting the airport seems to fix the issue eventually, but come on, this is not why I bought the printer!
My stupid 8 year old HP Deskjet 960 squats on that connection tirelessy, but my brand new Brother falls asleep at the wheel. SO frustrating. Is there even such thing as a laser printer that will STAY, RELIABLY on basic home network?
This worked perfectly! The only thing I had to do was make sure the wireless interface was active. I did a reset of the printer just before pushing the button with paper clip. To reset the printer I powered it down and then pressed the go (blue) button until all the lights were lit. Then press the go button 10 times.
Yeeeaaahhhh!!!! Thank you! If you're ever in Boise, you get a free tour of the Blue Turf!
I've been working for DAYS on this, to no avail. I don't know what government insider ops you needed to pull to get this information, but it works. Why didn't the Brother site tell me this? Good grief!
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to share your information.
Not seeing the answer that helped me solve the "rastertobrother2140" consuming all CPU power problem; so posting in the hope it will help someone down the line (it just re-happened to me for the second time in 1 year, so had forgotten how to solve it):
