New Router Can't Find Network Printer!

tweakit · 06 Sep 2021

I’m having a Network headache with my printer. Windows 10 ver 21H1. I have a Dell 2330dn Ethernet wired network printer. Its not new but still works great. Recently I bought a new router and I can’t get windows (under “Add printer or scanner”) or the new router to find the printer. The old router still finds it. Here are some additional facts.
I’m pretty confident the problem has to do ip addresses and not hardware. Long ago when I got the printer, I installed the drivers and then set the printer ip address to static and reserved that address in the router. This solved some problem I was having. All worked well for a long time till now.
I can only see and make adjustments to the printer via its ip address in a browser but only on the old router. The new router won’t find it.
Here is the printer addressing used with the old router:

New Router Can't Find Network Printer!-image.png

And here is the LAN setup in the old router:

Below is DHCP setting for the new router:
Start IP: 192.168.68.100
End IP: 192.168.68.250
Default Gateway and LAN IP: 192.168.68.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.1
So far, I've tried: I checked ‘enable DHCP’ in the printer (1^st picture) but nothing changed. The printer still could not be found with the new router. I thought about changing the printer IP address and gateway to match those of the new router but once I do that, I won’t be able to talk to the printer using the old router so if it still doesn’t work on the new router then I’m dead.
I need a little guidance here! Maybe some suggestions.

Samuria · 06 Sep 2021

The new router is issuing ip in a different subnet Start IP: 192.168.68.100 so it wont find it ever your old router was 192.168.1.
So you have 2 options set the new router to the same ip range as the old one with dhcp as well or reset the printer ip to the new router ie 192.168.68.150 subnet 255.255.255.1 gateway 192.168.68.1

tweakit · 06 Sep 2021

Thanks for responding! I had a feeling it was something along these lines. I would rather make the changes to the router then to the printer because if I have to, I can more easily reset the new router. However, this new router is a TP-Link Deco router. The only way to talk to it and make these changes is using my smart phone. The phone talks to the TP-Link cloud and also to the router via wifi. Here are a few questions remaining:

I will set the start and end IP points on the router to be the same as seen on the old router. The default gateway is also different. Will I need to change that also?
Is there anything else I need to change on the new router?
When I make these changes and save them, will my phone be able to find the router after that?
Will the printer need to be in DHCP mode for the new router to find it, or will the router find it if its address is static?
If I need to put the printer in DHCP, will I need to check any other boxes in the first picture of my 1^st post besides the DHCP box?

Thanks again for helping!

Samuria · 06 Sep 2021

You have to be carefull you set the router the same as the old one and change the dhcp change the same as the other one do the ip first as when you set dhcp it can reboot.

The printer can remain static ip

You should be able to access the router on any pc on the network via 192.168.1.1

tweakit · 06 Sep 2021

Thanks Samuria, I did as you explained and all went smoothly! Thanks very much for the help and I appreciate your quick responses. The only issue remaining is that my new TP-Link Deco router does not display the router in the list of devices or anywhere. The printer works fine though! I suspect this is a problem with the new router not being fully compatible with a printer that's about 12 years old. I'll see if TP's customer support can shed light on this. Thanks again!

MaloK · 09 Sep 2021

You should be able to access a web interface at

http://tplinkdeco.net

From your local network

tweakit · 09 Sep 2021

Yes, that works as well as entering in the router IP address.
Thanks

MaloK · 09 Sep 2021

Cool I know there are some versions that doesn't support it.

You should be able to change your subnet easily.