Can not print to Brother Printer from a second VLAN :( Why !!?? and how to fix this ???

[Louis2]

Hello,

I just bought a brother MFC-J5340DWE to replace my previous printer. That printer is connected via wired LAN to of one of my VLAN's. Printing should be possible form PC's in that VLAN but also from devices / PC's in some other VLAN's. As usual all VLAN's are interconnected by a firewall which allow full access to the printer.

After start or after a print session the printer will be active for a couple of minutes (definable). After that period the printer is going into a sleeping state. If you try to access the printer GUI or send a document to the printer, the printer should wake-up.

However .... not so, or more exactly not so if the involved PC is situated in another vlan that the vlan in which the printer is situated.

So the situation is as follows:
- starting a printerjob from a PC inside the printer-vlan => OK (the same when trying to access the printer GUI)
- trying to access the printer / to print something from another vlan, works as long as the printer is ^not sleeping^
- however if the printer is in (light) sleep mode, every try to access the GUI or to print something from the other vlan will fail

I spend a lot of time trying to understand why that does not work, but I did not manage.
My previous printers (now replaced by the brother) did work without issues!

Hopefully someone knows how to fix this !!

Louis

 

[davidparker]

Hello, i am also facing the same problem in Brother Printer and in this case here is the reason and solution for this problem.

Reason:

The most probable reason for your Brother printer not printing from a second VLAN is network segmentation. VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) are used to segment network traffic for improved security and efficiency. If your Brother printer is connected to one VLAN and your device trying to print is connected to another VLAN, they may not be able to communicate due to network restrictions.

Solution:

To resolve this issue, you need to ensure that both the printer and the device trying to print are on the same VLAN or that appropriate routing and firewall rules are configured to allow communication between VLANs. Here are steps to troubleshoot and resolve the problem:

1. Check VLAN Configuration: Verify that both the printer and the device are configured to be on the same VLAN or that VLAN routing is properly configured to allow communication between VLANs.
   
   
2. Firewall Settings: If VLAN routing is in place, ensure that firewall settings are not blocking communication between the VLANs. Adjust firewall rules as necessary to allow printing traffic between the VLANs.
   
   
3. Network Permissions: Check network permissions and access controls to ensure that the device has the necessary permissions to print to the Brother printer across VLANs.
   
   
4. Update Printer Firmware: Ensure that your Brother printer has the latest firmware installed. Sometimes, firmware updates include fixes for networking issues that may improve communication across VLANs.
   
   
5. Contact IT Support: If you're unable to resolve the issue on your own, consider reaching out to your organization's IT support team or network administrator for assistance. They can provide further troubleshooting and guidance specific to your network configuration.

I hope you found the solution to your problem.

Thank You!

 

[Louis2]

Thanks for your reaction. My reaction below

Unfortunately the problems I noticed are not that strait forward. Below my reaction / experiences
1) Yep, logical
2) Yep, the only problem is that you need to know which firewall ports to open. I opened 54925, 54926, 514, 161, 9100, 515, 80, 631, 443 .
Note that I did also test with the firewall between (test) pc and printer wide open
3) Yep, logical. I am not using ACL's so that was not a problem
4) Yep of course. The first thing I did is upgrading the printers firmware (to the actual 1,14)
5) Terrible, the person I got on the phone, did not even know what a vlan is

Note I found the following issues:
- IPV4 unbelievable long ping times, IPV6 OK
- network communication printer not reaction on tcp frames, incredible lot of retransmissions (observed with wireshark)
- printer not waking from sleep mode when using IPV4 from another LAN.
- given above results, I have to define the driver using an IPV6-address (bizarre but not a drama)
- the tcp driver is giving slightly better print results as the ^modern^ Microsoft driver
- and I can only access the printer from the other vlan using IPV6 (not a drama)
- iPrint&Scan does not see or use the defined driver. Even worse it is not possible to select the defined printer
- iPrint&Scan want to define its own driver (bizarre), what is not working because it only supports IPV4
- So never tried iPrint&Scan it simply does not even work
- I am not convinced from the print quality, it is not terrible, but I would not qualify it as good as well
- the major advantage of the printer is that it can print A3!