FOR~GO
(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
3 December 2017
Recently a lot of people have been experiencing their network printers going offline and having great difficulty getting them back online or keeping them from going back offline. These are printers that had been working fine in the past and something must have changed to create the problem. It could be due to a change in the router firmware by the internet service provider, an operating system update, or a printer driver update. It has occurred with various makes and models of printers, multiple internet service providers with various makes and models of routers, and both Windows 7 and Windows 10 operating systems.
An internet search on the problem will show that it has appeared widely for one reason or another at various times at least as far back as 2011. Perhaps one of the many recent changes to address security vulnerability issues has caused the problem to appear again. So far I have been unable to identify one specific reason for the problem, which means resorting to a long list of troubleshooting procedures to find and correct the problem. A couple of recent and fairly comprehensive troubleshooting links are below.
http://windowsreport.com/windows-8-printer-offline/
https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10/troubleshoot-printer-stuck-in-offline-status-in-windows/
A good explanation for what I believe is the most common cause for network printers going offline is in the following video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEqvUKxWmq4
I suspect that the majority of the printer offline problems could be solved by setting up a static IP address for the network printer. If it still goes offline after that, then I would look at disabling the printer SNMP feature in addition. I suppose it is possible that some implementations of SNMP have been affected by recent security changes.
Access to Spectrum (Time Warner Cable) provided routers:
https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/connect-to-wifi-network?cid=spt-hlp-ica-chr-060319
Access to AT&T provided routers:
https://www.att.com/esupport/index.jsp?product=internet
Access to Comcast (XFINITY) provided routers:
https://www.xfinity.com/support/internet/comcast-supported-routers-gateways-adapters/
