New Printer - Can't Setup WiFi

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Level 1

92 points

New Printer - Can't Setup WiFi

Canon TR8620a is the printer.

EERO - 3 router WiFi system.

MacOS Sonoma.

I thought that setting up this printer with WiFi would be a simple matter of entering the network name, password and presto! we’re in business but no! The setup software does not recognize the printer. So I’ll spend the rest of the day trying to figure this out but my first questions are - there’s a small red X in the top window beside the WiFi so what does that mean? Right off the bat, the printer can’t see the network? - which choice do I make in the bottom window? One? Multiple? Does it even matter which?

So I’ll just leave it at this for now. No doubt this is only the beginning on the path to getting this WiFi connection established? I can’t figure out why in this day and age, it should be so difficult.

Mac mini, macOS 14.1

Posted on Nov 25, 2023 9:29 AM

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Answer 1

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Nov 25, 2023 6:49 PM in response to ttibsen

Hi,

The Canon TR8620a is an AirPrint-supported printer. Additional drivers should not be needed. AirPrint works with wireless (Wi-Fi) or wired (Ethernet) network connections.

Just as a test, what happens if you wire the printer by Ethernet cable to a LAN port of a Wi-Fi router instead (the same router used for the wireless or wired Mac network connection)? The printer setting in this case would be Wired LAN.

If one prefers a wireless printer connection, it is often possible to bypass special setup software, and just try to connect the printer to a Wi-Fi router using WPS. Your router may not support WPS, though.

https://support.usa.canon.com/kb/index?page=content&id=ART179403

Add a printer to your printer list so you can use it on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

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Answer 2

ttibsen Author

Level 1

92 points

Nov 26, 2023 7:37 AM in response to Jan Hedlund

Greetings Jan - thank you for that detailed response to my query. I am afraid that I didn’t try the Ethernet cabling between the printer and the LAN port of the WiFi router. I bought the printer knowing that it could operate via WiFi and so should not need any sort of wired connection. Hence, all my efforts were towards achieving this WiFi connection. I didn’t understand why it was proving to be so difficult to do this with the printer when in all other instances it’s a straightforward matter of

entering the network’s name
the password

and presto! - connection established. I was hoping that a Canon tech could guide me through the process but surprise, surprise, Canon has NO live tech support. Disappointing for a giant enterprise like Canon! When I tried their support pages, I got bogged down in fun stuff like -

TTLS - authentication method uses a user name and password for the client authentication and a CA certificate for the server authentication. MSCHAPv2 or PAP can be selected as the internal protocol. TTLS can be used with PEAP at the same time.

Duh! Really? This wasn’t anything I could pursue with my very limited knowledge. Fortunately for me, the nice people at EERO (I have a 3 piece MESH system of routers from them) do have a real live tech person that one could talk to. In 10 minutes we had the wireless connection established and all is working well now. I have no idea of what I did to get this success but all is well that ends well. Thanks again Jan for your input though. If it weren’t for EERO, I might have subjected you to 5 days of correspondence on this forum so you should be pleased that you were spared that🙂

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Answer 3

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,235 points

Nov 26, 2023 2:24 PM in response to ttibsen

Thank you for the report. Good to hear that it is working.

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New Printer - Can't Setup WiFi

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