Can't Find Epson Artisan 710 over wireless network

Question

Can't Find Epson Artisan 710 over wireless network

My Epson Artisan 700 All-in-one died last October, and I finally got around to upgrading to the 710 this week. Both the 700 and the 710 have wireless LAN cards, so they do not need to connect to the Airport Express via USB. The 700 installed and worked brilliantly, scanning and printing wirelessly.

I can't get my Macbook Pro to locate the 710 over the wireless network. FWIW, my husband's Windows XP PC also couldn't find it either, though he could print to the 700 no problem. We both loaded the most resent Espon drivers from their web site.

For my part, I have updated all the firmware for my Airport Express and I'm on OSX 10.5.8 with all the software updates. I plugged in the network password on the printer, and the 710 believes it's on my network and has a strong signal. I'm using WEP 128 bit, and I don't have it configured to require MAC addresses from wireless devices. The only thing I haven't been able to do is manually add a wireless client via the Airport Utility. One of the Apple Troubleshooting guides said to try that, but the option to add a client is grayed out.

I have gone through Epson's support, but since the printer will work when connected directly with USB, they're saying I need to follow up with Apple support.

It was so easy to install the 700 that I feel like I must be overlooking something really obvious. Any ideas?

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Apr 1, 2010 7:10 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 15, 2010 7:59 AM in response to Jennifer Carr

Jennifer Carr wrote:
I just checked the logs&stats of the Express. I don't see the MAC address under DHCP clients. BUT I see something like you describe (00:00:48:x) under the "Wireless Clients" tab. So it seems that the Express does know it's there, but it's not really communicating with it?

It would be better if you could set your printer to get an IP address using DHCP. That way you can be sure it has an IP address that's compatible with your LAN.

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Answer 2

Apr 1, 2010 7:39 PM in response to Jennifer Carr

Jennifer Carr wrote:
I can't get my Macbook Pro to locate the 710 over the wireless network. FWIW, my husband's Windows XP PC also couldn't find it either, though he could print to the 700 no problem. We both loaded the most resent Espon drivers from their web site.

This may be unrelated to your problem, but did you install the wireless drivers for your printer? Epson has different drivers for USB and Wi-Fi.

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Answer 3

Apr 2, 2010 1:45 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Yeah, there's a different install for "network" than USB. I would think that even if it was a bad driver, you'd still be able to see the printer on the network.

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Answer 4

Apr 2, 2010 1:46 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

I did check that. Plus, I would think that if the driver was bunk, you'd still be able to see the printer on the network. Epson support thinks it's the router.

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Answer 5

Apr 2, 2010 5:44 AM in response to Jennifer Carr

Jennifer Carr wrote:
II would think that if the driver was bunk, you'd still be able to see the printer on the network.

The non-network driver is only going to look for a USB-connected printer, so it wouldn't be able to see a printer that was connected wirelessly.

You can check to see if your AirPort Express can see the printer. Launch AirPort Utility, enter "manual setup" mode, pull down the "Base Station" menu, select "Logs and Statistics", then click on the tab for "DHCP Clients". If your Epson printer is anything like mine, its MAC address will start with "00:00:48".

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Answer 6

Apr 15, 2010 6:37 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Sorry to reply so late. I've been out of town.

I just checked the logs&stats of the Express. I don't see the MAC address under DHCP clients. BUT I see something like you describe (00:00:48:x) under the "Wireless Clients" tab. So it seems that the Express does know it's there, but it's not really communicating with it?

I have no idea what to try next... but it's definitely frustrating that the Artisan 700 worked out of the box with no issue. I still have the old Epson 700 around and I'm going to see if my Express can still find it.

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Answer 7

Apr 15, 2010 9:21 AM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

As far as I know it IS set up to get an IP address. When I look on the screen on the computer it shows that it has one. Hmm...

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Answer 8

Apr 15, 2010 10:28 AM in response to Jennifer Carr

Jennifer Carr wrote:
As far as I know it IS set up to get an IP address.

To confirm that, use these menu options:

- Setup
- Network Settings
- Confirm Network Settings

It should say "Obtain IP Address: Auto".

If it doesn't, use the menu options Setup, General Network Setup, (give the printer a name), Auto, Auto, Do Not Use.

These steps work on my Artisan 810. Your printer may be a little different.

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Answer 9

Apr 15, 2010 2:00 PM in response to William-Boyd-Jr

Yup, it's been set to Auto, and it is getting an IP address.

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Answer 10

Apr 15, 2010 3:23 PM in response to Jennifer Carr

OK I've managed to solve this problem but there's no rhyme or reason why what I did had any effect. I dug out the old printer and noticed that it was getting a 10.x IP address whereas the 710 was getting a 168.x IP address... that should have been my first clue, but I wasn't thinking. Nevertheless, I had no idea why it was getting that sort of IP address.

So, I went through the manual set up (again) on the printer, and instead of searching for the SSID, I typed it in manually. Now it gets a 10.x IP address and it's showing up on my network.

In the end, there is something screwy with the way the network software on the printer is handling its network search feature. Definitely an Epson thing, not Apple.

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