Problems printing to Brother laser via wifi?

For over a year I’ve had trouble printing to a Brother HL-5470DW via the wifi network. The printer so incessantly lost connection that I switched to USB.

I was finally escalated to the top level of Brother support today and learned why I was having a problem. The modem/router that Spectrum had provided is Ubee brand. It is made by the same company as Arris, according to Brother, and both modem-routers have a defect which prevent’s Apple’s Bonjour printing protocol from functioning properly. Brother says that it tried to create a solution for months, and Arris promised to fix the problem, but no fix has been forthcoming. This problem may affect numerous Brother printers.

The solution is to swap your Ubee/Arris for an unrelated brand, such as Motorola, NetGear, or Technicolor. After having done that I’m having no problems, though this is the first day with the replacement Technicolor modem. (So far, web pages also seem to load a bit quicker.)

Of course, another solution would be to use a cable modem with an Apple router, if possible.

Be sure to check the Brother USA site for the the latest firmware update and drivers for your printer and Mac. Unfortunately, Brother’s installer does not replace old driver files with new ones, so it is important to remove the old drivers from your Mac. You do that by going to Macintosh HD (or whatever you renamed it) > Library > Printers > PPDs. Trash all of the Brother files in the PPDs folder (I had 401 such files), and then download and run the Brother driver installer. The support page will display your OS options, and I’m told that Mojave drivers were made available just two days ago.

Disclaimer: While this process should be problem-free, I cannot take responsibility for any problems you might encounter. I can only relate what Brother explained to me, and my subsequent experience.