Can’t connect wirelessly HP Photosmart C4780 to MacBook Pro OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion.

Thank you for your prompt response. I'll be honest I'm a retiree and a newbie to all of this stuff. I don't even know how to do a thread. (Embarassing)😟 This is my first ever contact with the Apple Community so I'm slowly trying to figure this out as well.

As to your thread request, I'm assuming you want to read my post with HP. Not knowing how to thread, I've copied it below.

I have an Apple MacBook Pro laptop with Mountain Lion software. I also have an Apple Airport Extreme. My Internet service is AT&T. AT&T just upgraded my service with a new modem/router (AT&T U-Verse). Prior to the conversion, my wireless printer connection was working perfectly.

Now can’t print wirelessly. For your information, everything is connected via Wi-Fi. The AT&T technician stated that I no longer needed my Apple Airport Extreme, so it was removed. Naturally, after the tech leaves, we find out the HP printer wirelessly no longer works. Thinking that removing Airport Extreme may have been the problem, I reconnected it to the AT&T modem/router, however no change.

Ran the HP wireless network test report and it states that HP printer can’t find wireless router and to verify that the HP printer network name (SSID) matches the wireless router network name (SSID) exactly. The Diagnostic Summary in brief: Wireless On & Working & Security – Pass; Network Name (SSID) Found – Fail. Nothing else under diagnostic summary ran. Under Configuration Summary: It shows old SSID name and Mac Hardware Address but no IP Address.

Next ran the Network Configuration Page and everything is enabled except the 802.11 Wireless. It shows status – disconnected. Under general information it states the following: Network status - Offline; Active Connection Type - None; URL(s) for Embedded Web Server – http://0.0.0.0

To be honest, don’t know what this means or where to find. The AT&T tech provided me the new SSID Name and a wireless key number but that’s it. Also I uninstalled and reinstalled via USB. The HP message states can’t find router. At this point, I’ve read your forum and tried everything to reconfigure without success. Any direction or help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Can't connect wirelessly HP Photosmart C4780 to MacBook Pro OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion.

I finally figured it out! (Sorry that I'm replying to my own posts btw, but I want to post the solution for anybody else with the SigmaplusEOL1 problem). If you have the SigmaplusEOL1 as your SSID when you print the "Wireless Network Test Report", you do NOT need to return it (I know that's hassle for people). To fix the problem, follow these steps.

1) Unplug your printer.

2) Go to your router's IP address (like 192.168.1.1 or whatever it is for your router).

3) Change the SSID of your wirelss network to "SigmaplusEOL1".

4) For the Security option for your wireless network select none (so that a password is not required to access your wireless network).

5) Power your printer back on and reprint "Wireless Network Test Repor". It should say "No problem found..."

6) The report should also have a the IP Address of the printer (under Configuration Summary at the bottom). Type that IP Address in your browser to get to the printer's settings page.

7) Click the "Network" Tab at the top.

8) Under the "Connections" header in the left pane, click "Wireless (802.11).

9) Click "Start Wizard" at the bottom right.

10) In the wizard, change the SSID and encryption (wep or wpsk) password to whatever you want your wireless network to be. So probably whatever it started out as before you changed the SSID to SigmaplusEOL1

11) Click "Finish" at the end. The page will probably try to keep loading but it won't because you changed the network settings of the printer. Just ignore that

12) Go back to your router's IP address and change the SSID and encryption password to whatever you changed the printer's SSID and password to.

13). Reprint the Wireless Network Test Report. It should say the SSID is the same as your wireless, and everything is good.

That's it. You should be good to go now.

Re: Can't connect wirelessly HP Photosmart C4780 to MacBook Pro OSX 10.8.2 Mountain Lion.

Unfortunately I am unable to offer any further advice as I only followed the instructions listed on the other page.

Finally, as to having WEP enabled, I don't know. Don't even know where to look. The best that I could determine is that my security is WPA/WPA2 Personal.

I'm truly sorry about all of this. Thank you for your time and patience. After reading all of this and you change your mind, I would understand.🙂

Thanks for educating me.

As to the printer, as far as I can tell the printer is set to “Enable Wireless” which means the radio is on. My HP printer has the following buttons:

Wireless Settings: (Print Network Configuration Page, Run Wireless Network Test, Restore Network Defaults)

Wi-Fi Protected Setup: (Push Button, PIN) When I press either Push or PIN, the message states trying to connect, then it times out.

As to the Network in System Preferences, with the AT&T Network it shows Wi-Fi connected and Network Status all green and working. But the HP printer test report states can’t find wireless router. When I change the AT&T Network to SigmaplusEOL1 (in Airport Extreme), I am no longer connected to Wi-Fi but HP printer test report now states, “Printer settings do not match wireless router settings.”

You mentioned password. I don’t recall ever putting in a password to set up the printer. The only place that I can enter a password is when I go to Airport Extreme, Configuration Other. (This is the only place where I could type in SigmaplusEOL1. With or without a password I get a configuration error and Wi-Fi disconnects.)

Regarding Airport Extreme (which we both agree we shouldn’t need) it appears to be linked to the HP printer in some way. Again before the AT&T upgrade, the printer was working via Airport Extreme.

For the heck of it I disconnected Airport Extreme and ran all of the HP printer diagnostics. Same results with or without Airport Extreme connected. Without Airport Extreme, I can’t make any configuration changes.

Finally, System Preferences – Network, as you are aware, when I click “Advanced”, I have the following buttons: Wi-Fi/TCP-IP/DNS/WINS/802.1X/Proxies/Hardware. If I need to make any changes here, please direct me.

Again thank you for your patience.

Followed your steps to the letter. No luck. In the HP install, I can only get as far as “Network Setup – Select Network”. I entered my AT&T wireless network name and the HP message states “No Wi-Fi Network Discovered”. The next HP step is “Security Settings”, however can’t move forward until HP finds my AT&T network.

I’m at wits end. I don’t know what else to do at this point. Nevertheless, thank you very much for your help and patience in assisting me.

Didn't wish to leave you hanging. Sadly, I gave up. I went to AT&T and paid for wireless tech service. However after talking with you, I knew more than their tech did but we finally got it to work. As you know the wireless network couldn't find the HP printer. We had to use the HP wireless pin number from the printer to connect with AT&T. The initial HP PIN number didn't connect, so we had to try a different one. In the Wi-Fi Protected Setup: (Push Button,PIN) when we pressed either Push or PIN, the message states trying to connect, then times out. We had to keep pressing the Push/PIN button until a new HP PIN # appeared. (This took up a lot of time.) Then they went to the Wireless Status on the computer, changed the Mode to G-only (don't know why), turned WPS "On" on the computer (It was originally Off) then type in the new HP wireless pin number and click - submit. That did it.

For what its worth, if this helps anyone out their with similar HP printer problems, this was worthwhile. For you personally, thanks for everything, especially your time and patience with me. Sincerely.