I are experiencing issues where Macbooks are not able to find printers consistently.
We have a Linksys SRW2048 and a Linksys SRW224G4P connected together via their gigabit Ethernet uplink ports. We have a TimeWarner cable modem connected to a port on the SRW2048. There are no VLANs. We have 10 HP ProCurve 420 Wireless Access Points all connected to the SRW224G4P and are powered by PoE. The HP WAPs are all have the same settings and SSID and are configured to hand off from one to the other as a person moves around the building.
This is mostly a Mac shop (all laptops), but we have a few Windows 7 and 10 laptops as well. Most systems are on WiFi.
Internet access is flawless. All printers are on static IP addresses (simple 192.168.1.x network).
If on a Macbook I try to add a printer, not all of the printers list consistently. When opening the printer list, sometimes all the printers on the network are listed, sometimes only some are listed, sometimes none are listed.
We have one user with a wireless HP printer in his office. When they brought the printer in, I set it up (bonjour) and it worked fine. After several hours, they were unable to print. I deleted the printer from his system and tried to re-add it, but it would not list. I tried to add it via it's IP address, but I got a message the printer was not currently available. But if I opened Terminal on his system, I could ping the printer! I used a PC laptop and tried to ping the printer. It would ping fine, but if I stopped and waited a moment, maybe the printer would respond, maybe not. What I mean by that is that if I pinged the printer, it would continue pinging no problem. If I stopped the ping, it would ether not work at all or consistently reply to the ping (it wouldn't drop packets during a string a pings).
I had another user down the hall. They tried to connect to a Sharp business printer (wired in on the other switch) via their Macbook. I couldn't find it on the network, it was unavailable when I tried to add it via IP, and I could not ping it. If I turned off their WiFi and wired their laptop in, they could see the printer just fine! Others in the same room trying to connect to the same printer would sometimes print and sometimes not.
Even more confusing, some are able to print consistently once they were connected to the printer. Even if the printer list didn't show everything, they had no problems printing to the installed printer, be it via bonjour or IP; WiFi or Ethernet.
Since there is WiFi coverage overlap, I cannot be certain if both the printer and the user (in the first case) were on the same physical AP or not, but all APs are together on the same switch. But they should either see each other or not. I shouldn't see them appearing and disappearing. And I certainly shouldn't be unable to connect to the printer, either by bonjour or IP, but be able to ping it.
Again, all the switches and APs are at their proper firmware levels (in the case of the APs, the same firmware level). All the APs are on a single switch together. All the APs are configured exactly the same (right down to the SSID and password, security, etc), and same firmware levels. No one is having any issues with internet connectivity.
It's as if some people are being intermittently blocked randomly.
I've tried resetting all the APs to factory and reconfiguring them one by one. I've factory reset the SRW224G4P and only configured a static IP to access the web interface. I've done the same with the SRW2048 (with this one, the firmware was one rev back, so I updated it, but had to do it via the console because the browser will not completely load the web interface, but that's a different, and apparently known issue). It doesn't matter if the firewall on the Mac is on or off.
Yes, I know the equipment is a bit on the old side, but it came with the building and I have been told to work with what I have. And since internet access is working flawlessly, regardless of whether they are on WiFi or Ethernet (and regardless if the Ethernet is connected to either switch), packets appear to be moving around as they should.
I'm out of ideas on where to look next.
Help!
