Print from wireless devices on 5 GHz to printer on 2.4 GHz

Question

Print from wireless devices on 5 GHz to printer on 2.4 GHz

I am using an Airport Extreme that was purchased in August of '15, model: ME918LL/A. I've noticed that if I want to print from an iPhone, iPad or MacBook which is on the 5 GHz band the Air Print will show my wireless printer, an Epson XP-410 (which is on the 2.4 GHz band), but the "Print" button on the device will be grayed out. However, switching the iPhone/iPad/Mac to the 2.4 GHz band will allow the device to print. Is there a wireless isolation or other setting that I've overlooked on the Airport that is preventing printing from different bands or is this a limitation of one or more of the devices? I should add that Windows PCs on the 5 GHz band don't have this problem.

iPhone 6

Posted on Feb 22, 2016 11:02 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 13, 2017 12:19 PM in response to metropink

This thread is 18 mos. old and I haven't had any issues since I turned off the guest network, and have printed from devices on the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands multiple times. I don't have any empirical evidence (beyond the fact that with it off I haven't had any issues) to name it as the culprit but I believe it was the cause.

I had other issues with the guest network on (can't remember what they were because it has been so long) but I regret ever enabling that feature.

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Answer 2

Nov 11, 2017 12:19 PM in response to ImminentTechnologies

Most printers only work off of the 2.4GHz band. If you have a dual band router, you will not be able to print when logged into the 5GHz band. Use the same wireless band/login as the printer and it should solve the problem.

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Answer 3

Nov 11, 2017 1:29 PM in response to metropink

If you have a dual band router, you will not be able to print when logged into the 5GHz band.

This is not correct.

With an AirPort Extreme dual band router, I have no trouble at all with my Mac, which connects using 5 GHz, printing to the printer, which must connect using 2.4 GHz.

Also no trouble printing from an iPhone or iPad, both of which connect using 5 GHz, while the printer connects at only 2.4 GHz.

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Answer 4

Feb 22, 2016 11:35 AM in response to ImminentTechnologies

Are you using the guest network at all on the AE?

If the windows computer running on the standard 5ghz wireless can print to printer on 2.4ghz I see no reason for the other apple devices to also be able to do that.

From the macbook on 5ghz can you open a network diagnostic and give me the netstat routing table.

It looks like this.. I only need ipv4 side.

Then do the same thing when you are on 2.4ghz and please point out the computer and printer IP.

You might need to wake up the printer.. I just realised my printer is not showing either.

In Safari there is a function to check what is on bonjour network.

You have to turn it on in Safari preferences.

You can then use it to locate your printer.

I only recently discovered this function.. and whilst it hasn't been as helpful as I hoped to fix airplay issues.. it turned out to be neat in printer issues.

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Answer 5

Feb 27, 2016 3:25 PM in response to LaPastenague

I'm actually having trouble replicating the issue; the first thing I did was disable the guest network and tried to print w/ several devices and they all seemed to work. After reenabling the guest network I can still print from all of the devices; not sure what's up w/ that. I captured the routing tables and truncated anything outside my LAN:

I'm using a combination of static and DHCP assigned IPs; the printer and the Mac are both assigned static IPs based on their MACs. One thing I noticed immediately is that my iPhone 6 (.17) is visible when viewing the 5 GHz routing tables but not on the 2.4 GHz ones in the screenshot. These were taken after I reenabled the guest network and tried to print w/ my iPhone and iPad so I know it was connected to the 5 GHz channel and had not "gone to sleep" or disconnected itself. Not sure what was using the .16 as it is part of the DHCP range and I don't want to go digging through every device to find it.

To answer the question about security software, no there is no security software on the Mac.

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Answer 6

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Feb 22, 2016 11:56 AM in response to LaPastenague

LaPastenague wrote:

…

I only recently discovered this function.. and whilst it hasn't been as helpful as I hoped to fix airplay issues.. it turned out to be neat in printer issues.

Safari is showing bonjour advertised 'web servers'. As such you won't see Airplay devices, they use different ports & offer different services.

Use another app to view bonjour services on your network…

I think BananaGlue's iNet Pro is nice on iOS. An ad supported free version is available

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inet-pro-network-scanner/id305242949?mt=8

There is an OS version too…

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inet-network-scanner/id403304796?mt=12

Or 'discovery - bonjour browser'

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/discovery-bonjour-browser/id305441017?mt=8

I have previously used this on OS X

http://tildesoft.com

'dns-sd' in the command line will allow you to view & create records if you need to do so & understand what to look for.

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man1/dns-sd.1.html

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Answer 7

Feb 22, 2016 11:57 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks for the quick reply, I am using the guest network, but I don't think I've ever signed someone into it (last time I tried I forgot the pw!). If that's a factor, I can disable it.

I should add one other thing; recently the one Win7 PC on the 5 GHz has been having issues seeing other Win machines in the same homegroup (wired and wireless) and when trying to stream a game using the Steam streaming service from that PC to a bootcamped Mac running Win10, Steam doesn't show them as on the same network. What I've done is just disabled and then re-enabled the PC's wireless NIC and it'll see all the PCs in the homegroup. I chalked that up to Windows behavior but maybe it's related?

I'll have to run the netstat later when I get home and will reply w/ the details.

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Answer 8

Feb 22, 2016 12:12 PM in response to ImminentTechnologies

Thanks for the quick reply, I am using the guest network, but I don't think I've ever signed someone into it (last time I tried I forgot the pw!). If that's a factor, I can disable it.

I doubt it is a factor but please turn it off.

I should add one other thing; recently the one Win7 PC on the 5 GHz has been having issues seeing other Win machines in the same homegroup (wired and wireless) and when trying to stream a game using the Steam streaming service from that PC to a bootcamped Mac running Win10

There are issues reported between win10 (win X) and latest AC version AE and TC. Especially on the wireless side. I do have a PC on win X I recently completed but it has no wireless so is only ethernet and that has been OK.

I would take all strange behaviours as pointing to something going wrong. I am just not sure where to look as Apple have removed so much detail from the airport utility.. like no log.. no dhcp list.. no route table info etc.

Did you turn off security software in the PC? There are some issues with windows finding the Apple routers as foreign.. and changing network locations from home, to work or public. You might need to force the connection to home. Also anything by McAfee can be an issue.

Did you install any security software on your Macs? This leads to all kinds of problems.

Safari is showing bonjour advertised 'web servers'. As such you won't see Airplay devices, they use different ports & offer different services.

Thanks Drew.

I have only begun to appreciate how important bonjour is to Apple networking but have no idea of the tools. I will check out your list. And dig a bit deeper into the mysterious world of bonjour.

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