PIXMA Wi-Fi - No Wi-Fi Mesh (roaming) support

[gandolf]

My Wi-Fi is a "Fritz" mesh with numerous access points spread throughout my quite large house.

I bought a PIXMA TS-6350 and tried to connect it to my Wi-Fi yesterday. I had to go through the setup wizard about 10 times before the Wi-Fi setup was finally successful. But even then I couldn't print to the printer because the connection kept dropping. A ping to the printer's IP address had quite bad readings (500-2000ms RTT, lost packets over and over).
In my Mesh-Config I saw that the printer connected to an access point which is far away in my house. According to this, it also had an extremely bad connection.

When I temporarily turned off this access point, the printer finally connected to an AP nearby and everything worked fine.
As soon as I turn this AP back on, the printer connects to it again and the problems start all over.

Could it be that the printer just can't handle a mesh WLAN?
Can't it do Wi-Fi network roaming?

Cheers,

V.G.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

This sounds like a network issue, not a probelm with the printer. The printer does not care about the type of network or how many access points it has.  The printer is stationary and does not "roam" on the network.

I suspect the following might be happening?  You are are using a dual or tri-band mesh configuration.  All of your access points are using the same SSID name for both/all bands.  The printer is only capable of connecting to a 2.4Ghz broadcast b/g/n using security standards WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK or WEP.  

To confirm this, give your 2.4Ghz network broadcast a different SSID name.  Disconnect and reconnect the printer to this broadcast.  The printer should attempt to associate with the strongest single (closest) AP.  See if this resolves the behavior.

I am using several Canon products (at different locations) on multiple (dual and tri-band) mesh networks without issues. My 2.4, 5G-1, 5G-2 all have different SSID names.

I do not rely on a manufacturers "claimed" ability to (load balance) for lack of better words devices or traffic for best performance.  Using different SSID names allows you to determine which broadcast your devices connect to and not what it might "perceive" as best.

[gandolf]

Hello shadowsports!

Thank you for your answer!

My mesh is single-band, 2.4Ghz only, so this should not be an issue. Only WPA2 is activated, nothing else.

In a mesh, the end-devices have to support roaming technologies like STBC, 802.11k, 802.11r or 802.11v. Otherwise a device cannot follow the best-in-reach AP and will always select an AP with the lowest MAC Address (or any other algorithm to select from a list of available MACs).

For my 5-Year old Brother Laser I can see (in the router config) that is supports STBC. Apple Devices (iPhone, iPad etc) is 11k+11v, Lenovo Thinkpad STBC+11v and so on. Even a cheap Reolink video camera supports STBC.

Canon: nothing.

"The printer is stationary and does not "roam" on the network."
- Not in my case. I won't go into the exact reasons here, but I have to run the unit every few days in other places in my house. No problem with my Brother HLW.

Any other idea?

Cheers

-G

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Thanks for the helpful information;

I searched for "Brother HLW", Nothing came back. Maybe you are missing some HL####W in between?

I then looked for Canon, HP and Epson printiners that supported 802.11k, v, or r....  Nothing came back.

Searched for Brother ... STBC nothing came back 

Zebra label makers support 802.11r

802.11k (Neighbor Reports)
802.11v (BSS Transition Management Frames)
802.11r (Fast BSS Transition)

Fritz is not as popular in North America as it is elsewhere.  I remember when the Fritzbox was released and I had to support it for my UK and Benelux users abroad.  Some of the xPATs who relocated brought them to the US as well.

I guess wireless mesh was the next step for them.  I'm more of a Meraki or Ubiquity guy myself. 

The 600 series is the only single band system I found

FRITZ!WLAN | AVM International

I saw many of the devices you mentions as supporting one or all of the wireless standards above.  Also intel.  I'm not seeing any printers claiming support for fast roaming, but I'm sure they exist.   

[gandolf]

Hi!

Sorry, my fault, it's a Brother HL-3172CDW.

Unfortunately the vendors do not publish such details in the specs publically available.

I like Fritz's equipment, it simply works well and hardly ever causes problems. For many years already.

Thanks for your support! If I find out anything, I will post it here.

Cheers,

V.G.

[chipus]

Hi,

I have the same problem on Devolo Magic 2 + Pixma 6000 devices.

My way bypass the problem:
1. Reset the wireless network settings (or all settings) on your printer.
2. Temporarily disable Mesh support at the WI-FI point closest to the printer.
3. Re-register the printer in your WI-FI Network.
4. Enabling Mesh support.

It helped me, the printer is connected every time when MESH support is enabled.

As I understand it, the connection will be valid until the MAC address of the WI-FI point is changed.