Brother printer keeps dropping from network

I'm leaning that way. Still, for my needs, finding an equivalent multifunction with good reviews at a decent price is not that easy. But ultimately I think that will be my end result.

You lost me here. When I go to system profiler there is nothing under USB that looks remotely like it has to do with Wi-fi.

Never even heard of this so it was not something I have considered. Even trying to look it up after you mentioned it didn’t really help me understand what it is or how I would possibly give it a try.

Sorry put my response to the wrong reply. I have looked this up but still have no real idea what this socket/jetdirect protocol is.

As I dig deeper I am getting more and more confused. Using Network Diagnostics both Macbooks come back saying

However, the router was restarted, and when I open network preferences it says I am connected to Wifi network and shows me the IP address, and I have full internet connectivity. When I run a diagnostic scan it shows no outside networks, but does show my 3 networks - 5 ghz, 2.4 ghz and a guest network, but it shows duplicates of each of those - perhaps from my access point?

As far as I could tell none of the devices were actually connecting through the AP - AP was a bit of a misnomer as the device was configured as a network extender to boost signal strength in parts of the house.

So I finally had another few minutes to try to troubleshoot this, since for the past couple of months our printing has really been a problem. This time I took out the extender again and the printer responded right away. So for now I am going to assume the extender is the main culprit in the printing issue. However, this leaves me once again looking for a way to extend the range of the wifi signal wirelessly since running hard wired connections through the walls is not really an option for me. Are there other access points/extenders that will work better than what I had which was an Actiontek WCB3000N configured as a network extender.

In the time it took me to write my question, the printer came on, printed one page, then dropped right off the network again and can't be found by any devices.

Aha a powerline adapter. Not sure that would be the way to solve my problem. Might work for stationary devices like smart tv but for laptops and phones and tablets?