can't get wireless printer to work

[chopin1397]

I have the Lenovo z565 laptop and the HP all in one C309a printer with Win 7. Both have wireless so I want to be able to print from the laptop without a wire connection. I have a dsl phone line and a Medialink Wireless N Router.

I had an old Belkin router and hooked the printer up wireless but when I used the printer the internet connection thereafter failed and I had to turn the modem and router off just about every time to get the internet back.

I installed the newer Medialink and that seemed to solve the conflict problem. The computer connects much faster to the net than before. However, I can't get the printer to work wirelessly.

The printer works fine with a usb connection, printing normally.

I went through the setup process on the HP and it recognizes the wireless network and says it is connected. I've rebooted everything several times and went back through the hp setup. When I try to print a document from the laptop I get an error message from hp saying the printer is offline.

I go to the windows printer page under control panel and install the printer again under 'add a printer'.

In Word, under 'File', 'Print' the dialog box has a box that says "Find Printer". I click and it says "The Active Directory Domain Services is currently unavailable". This leads me to believe the laptop is not communicating with the printer wirelessly. I do have the wifi turned on on the laptop and the button lights up. Any suggestions?

[chopin1397]

Thanks ja. One of the windows troubleshooting thingys said the printer driver was either not installed or not working so I reinstalled it. This also caused it to set up the printer to the network. I appears to be working wirelessly now.

[chopin1397]

Well, I spoke to soon. It worked briefly before it stopped printing. Now it won't print wireless, just sits silently. If I plug the usb cord in it will work but since I set it up wirelessly I get an error message saying to unplug the usb so I will have go back and install it and choose the wired option.

The thing worked well in another location. The only difference is the modem. Before, the modem was connected to cable, this one is dsl. The modem is netopia, and probably not too new. I wonder if that could be a problem.

The other thing I wonder about is that the medialink will not reboot. It gets about half way and freezes. However, when I went through the re-installation of the drivers it ended by saying the printer was connected to the network ok. It said to disconnect the usb and then printed out a test sheet with everything passing. But coming back later it would not print wireless. Really frustrating because another laptop is not near the printer and it would be good to have that one print wireless.

[chopin1397]

Thanks ja. Yes, the usb seems to work okay. It's puzzling that the medialink stops half way in a re-boot. I'm going to call them and see if they have any ideas. HP won't help beyond their web site which says to uninstall-reinstall the drivers. They also have an update for win7 where the network causes the printer to stop functioning in wireless. I thought for sure that was the solution but it did nothing I can see.

[chopin1397]

I unplugged the medialink and plugged in the old belkin. It worked! I now have wireless. So it appears the problem is the medialink. I again tried to reboot it. One of those % bars comes up showing the progress. It stops around 75%. The install manual has nothing as to what to do when this happens.

The belkin was working fine except when I used the printer. I would then lose the internet connection & have to unplug then plug the modem and the router to get wireless again. I switched to medialink and it worked great until now. I'll try to call them when the sun comes up. I was running this thing through my head so much I couldn't sleep. Got up a 3 am to tackle it again.

[scuzzy]

Well, I'm glad you got somewhere with this.

Do call Medialink, as their customer service is top notch.

[chopin1397]

I finally got time to call medialink and they are good, very good. 1st u get to talk to someone who speaks engish! How nice. I thought the problem was connected to the fact it would not reboot, go about half way, then freeze. She said yes that's the problem & said just to switch to a difference browser. Holy cow!! Who would think of that. My router won't reboot so try ie? It worked. It rebooted normally and reinstalled the router. It's working very well with 2 wireless laptops. However, it takes time to see if it has really solved the problem.

So the next time you have a problem try a different browser. If you're having a bad day, try a different browser. Holy cow!!