Why don’t my printers work after upgrading my AT&T gateway?

We are here to help with your Internet connection to your printer, @gracewenz,

The printers will not work on dual Wi-Fi band. You will need to separate the networks since printers are only able to connect to 2.4 GHz networks.

To separate your network:

1. Open up a web browser.
2. The in the address bar type 192.168.1.254
3. Enter in the username and password.
   • Username is admin.
   • Password is the access key or A/C located on the AT&T router.
4. Click "Settings" tab.
5. Click "Lan" tab.
6. Click "Wi-Fi" tab.
7. Click "Advanced"
   • Located around the bottom right hand corner.
8. Find the 2.4 GHz or 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi sections. 
   • Change at least one of the network names to something different.
9. Save
10. Exit

Afterwards connect your printer to the 2.4 GHz network.

Let us know if this helps.

Max, AT&T Community Specialist

I tried to do this. However, I could not get to a page where I needed to enter a username and password.  I opened to my network details.  I could see all my devices and their details. I could not see a settings tab.

Hello @gracewenz,

When you use a web browser to access 192.168.1.254, what do you see? You should be prompted for a login screen, where you will have to type in your Wi-Fi name and password in order to sign in.

FYI, once you're signed in, you can separate the 2.4 and 5.0 bands by visiting the settings in this screenshot, and following the steps in our last post.

Please let us know if this helps, or if you have other questions, @gracewenz.

Genevieve, AT&T Community Specialist

This is what the screen looks like after we enter the number in the browser. It never once has prompted me to log in.

Hello again @gracewenz,

So it does look like you're already signed into your Gateway, which is good. Try checking the steps in this article specifically. You're using a different Gateway than the type we were able to test earlier today. In that article, select the type of Gateway you're using, and follow the steps to rename your network. That should help you get your two channels separated.

Let us know if you have other questions!

Genevieve, AT&T Community Specialist

I changed the name of the 2.4 GHg network, saved the change, confirmed I understood the consequences, etc.  I then tried to connect my printer to the renamed network.  It didn’t recognize it.  I tried entering the SSID and password into the printer and that didn’t help either.  

Thanks for the update, @gracewenz. At this point we'll need to refer you to the printer manufacturer. The steps we've taken should've got this reconnected. You may need to download an update for the printer, or possibly change some of the printer's network values. Checking with the manufacturer for would be the best way to get the right information for this.

Please let us know if you have other questions.

Genevieve, AT&T Community Specialist

I have worked with HP experts.  We have tried everything.  The final conclusion is that the dual band router is the problem.  They recommended separating the bands.  I’ve tried that, and it didn’t work.  I have left two messages with the technician who upgraded our router.  He promised to help us if we had problems.  However, we are still awaiting his return call.  It has been six days.  I’m hosting my granddaughter’s online learning. Having devices work is very important.  I appreciate this community’s willingness to help me.  However, I believe AT&T has a responsibility to finish the job of getting my network working properly.

Gotcha @gracewenz, thanks for going into some more detail. We definitely know how important it is to have your printer working, especially for school. We went back over the thread again, and do have a few additional questions:

• Are other devices having connection problems, or only your HP and Brother printers?
• Do either of your printers have a WPS button? If so, have you tried using that to connect? You may need to first enable the setting on your Gateway.
• Does the printer have a wired Ethernet port? If so, if you plug the printer directly into the Gateway, does it connect?
• You said that both printers worked for several days after the new router was installed. Besides renaming the Wi-Fi networks yesterday, did anything else change in your home setup around the time the printers disconnected? Even using something like a VPN or adding a new device to the network? If so, try disconnecting or disabling what was added, then try reconnecting the printers.
• Lastly, have you tried factory resetting your printers, or repeating printer setup? We found this guide from HP for factory resetting. There may a connection issue within the printer. And oftentimes, downloading the latest printer drivers or rerunning setup can fix common connection problems.

We want to make sure we get this problem fixed. But your printers working while the technician was there, then disconnecting days later, may indicate the problem is something outside your AT&T equipment. We have some limited options to tackle that, but want to ask these questions to make sure there's not a bigger issue with your network.

Please let us know.

Genevieve, AT&T Community Specialist