Vicenarian
Active Member
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2 laptops (one HP and one Samsung), both running Windows 8.1, both connected to the same wifi network. There is also another HP laptop on this network, but it's running Windows 7.
Installed a brand new Brother printer, connected to the network via wifi, and given a static IP outside the DHCP range. Start to install the Brother software package on each PC, and it works. 2 minutes later though, and the 2 Windows 8.1 laptops can't print. So, I try pinging the IP of the printer from the laptops, and get timeout/Destination Host Unreachable (IIRC) errors...so I try a few things (can't remember all the things I tried), but troubleshooting included rebooting the router, disconnecting/reconnecting the laptops to the wifi network, releasing/renewing IP addresses on the laptops, giving the printer a totally different static IP, etc. I could ping any other IP address fine (internal and external IPs, including the router/default gateway), but not the printer's IP! To make things even more confusing, I noticed that once in a while, I would get a successful ping to the printer's IP address...which was weird.
The laptops had norton on them before, so I ran the norton removal tool, too, for good measure, but that didn't help.
So, I tried disabling the Windows 8.1 firewall, and guess what, that fixed it! The printers could now reliably ping the printer's IP address, and print/connect fine. The Brother software tool is supposed to open up the necessary ports in the Windows Firewall, but for whatever reason, I had to actually disable the firewall to be able to ping the printers' IP!
But what I don't understand is, why could I ping the printer's IP every once in a while, when the Windows Firewall was still enabled? Shouldn't a firewall be either completely blocking, or completely allowing that connection? Is there some magic hocus-pocus knowledge I'm missing about how Windows 8.1's firewall treats cmd prompts/ping commands? Or maybe there was just something wrong with the Windows 8.1 firewall?
And as I mentioned, the whole time I was troubleshooting, the Windows 7 laptop could ping the printer fine, and I didn't have to touch the firewall at all. I also used the latest version of the Brother software, so that shouldn't have been an issue.
Has anybody seen this problem with Windows 8.1?
Installed a brand new Brother printer, connected to the network via wifi, and given a static IP outside the DHCP range. Start to install the Brother software package on each PC, and it works. 2 minutes later though, and the 2 Windows 8.1 laptops can't print. So, I try pinging the IP of the printer from the laptops, and get timeout/Destination Host Unreachable (IIRC) errors...so I try a few things (can't remember all the things I tried), but troubleshooting included rebooting the router, disconnecting/reconnecting the laptops to the wifi network, releasing/renewing IP addresses on the laptops, giving the printer a totally different static IP, etc. I could ping any other IP address fine (internal and external IPs, including the router/default gateway), but not the printer's IP! To make things even more confusing, I noticed that once in a while, I would get a successful ping to the printer's IP address...which was weird.
The laptops had norton on them before, so I ran the norton removal tool, too, for good measure, but that didn't help.
So, I tried disabling the Windows 8.1 firewall, and guess what, that fixed it! The printers could now reliably ping the printer's IP address, and print/connect fine. The Brother software tool is supposed to open up the necessary ports in the Windows Firewall, but for whatever reason, I had to actually disable the firewall to be able to ping the printers' IP!
But what I don't understand is, why could I ping the printer's IP every once in a while, when the Windows Firewall was still enabled? Shouldn't a firewall be either completely blocking, or completely allowing that connection? Is there some magic hocus-pocus knowledge I'm missing about how Windows 8.1's firewall treats cmd prompts/ping commands? Or maybe there was just something wrong with the Windows 8.1 firewall?
And as I mentioned, the whole time I was troubleshooting, the Windows 7 laptop could ping the printer fine, and I didn't have to touch the firewall at all. I also used the latest version of the Brother software, so that shouldn't have been an issue.
Has anybody seen this problem with Windows 8.1?
