MXC301W Wireless issues

[mbcruzin]

Had a service call yesterday for an MXC301W that wouldn't scan to email. I remoted in to the customers pc to correct what I thought was just a setting issue. However while interfacing with the web page of the copier it would lose connection and display the standard cannot find web page message. Preformed several ping tests, and would get less then half good replies. Had the customer reboot the machine with no change. One of my other technicans went out today and to see if it was a router issue or something else. His report back to me was the same. Copiers internal WiFi keeps droping off. He tried connecting with a different IP address and through a hotspot on his iPhone. Still had the same issue of the copier dropping in and out. Has anyone seen this? Or any ideas other then Board replacement at this point?

[bdcrandall13]

Had a service call yesterday for an MXC301W that wouldn't scan to email. I remoted in to the customers pc to correct what I thought was just a setting issue. However while interfacing with the web page of the copier it would lose connection and display the standard cannot find web page message. Preformed several ping tests, and would get less then half good replies. Had the customer reboot the machine with no change. One of my other technicans went out today and to see if it was a router issue or something else. His report back to me was the same. Copiers internal WiFi keeps droping off. He tried connecting with a different IP address and through a hotspot on his iPhone. Still had the same issue of the copier dropping in and out. Has anyone seen this? Or any ideas other then Board replacement at this point?

I've had this happen with an MXC300W although it wasn't through the wireless connection. When I attempted an SMTP connection test it would lock up the machine's web interface and the NIC would not respond until the machine was rebooted.
From what I gathered, this ONLY happened when I tried a connection test with a mail server that required SSL.

[mbcruzin]

I have a new USB wireless device ordered for the machine along with the USB connector. Hopefully this will solve my issue.

[bdcrandall13]

I have a new USB wireless device ordered for the machine along with the USB connector. Hopefully this will solve my issue.

What do you mean by a new USB wireless device? Are you using a wireless bridge to connect this to the network?

[mojorolla]

If you are attempting to use the built in Wifi feature, good luck. These will constantly drop offline, go to sleep and not wake until you reboot, 20-25 foot connectivity range, etc....
I am also hearing that certain HP wireless radios can interfere with the Sharp radios.
I have not had a single one of these work consistently while using true wireless.

[bdcrandall13]

If you are attempting to use the built in Wifi feature, good luck. These will constantly drop offline, go to sleep and not wake until you reboot, 20-25 foot connectivity range, etc....
I am also hearing that certain HP wireless radios can interfere with the Sharp radios.
I have not had a single one of these work consistently while using true wireless.

We've used these as a substitute for any devices' built in wifi in the past. They work great. They work well for just about any networked device that you do not have an available Ethernet connection nearby.
TRENDnet | Products | TEW-640MB | N300 Wireless 4-Port Media Bridge

[mbcruzin]

If you are attempting to use the built in Wifi feature, good luck. These will constantly drop offline, go to sleep and not wake until you reboot, 20-25 foot connectivity range, etc....
I am also hearing that certain HP wireless radios can interfere with the Sharp radios.
I have not had a single one of these work consistently while using true wireless.

That doesn't sound promising. Thanks for the heads up I take a wireless bridge with me just in case.

[ruben]

If wireless connectivity is a must, then I would recommend using a cheap wireless router instead. You can connect it directly to the copier, turn off the new router's DHCP and gateway, and set the SSID to the same as the customers current wireless network. Some routers will need to be set to "Router mode" or "Repeater mode" or some other similar terminology.

This solution will work with all devices, that have a network port, of all ages.

[mbcruzin]

Update: After heeding the advice here I had one of my other IT guys install a Wireless bridge unit. Plus the wireless USB device and USB connector board had not come in yet. After some issues with the customers main router not wanting to play nice with our wifi bridge. The customer decided to just run a network line to the machine.......I believe I had told the customer to do this in the first place, but what do I know.

Anyway fair warning to all. It seams that the built in wifi on these machines is on the weak side. I'm going to recommend that My sales team not sell or tell the customer about this option. Also it seams that Frontier set my customer up With an obsolete router ( according to two of my IT staff ). I'm not sure what others experiences have been with Frontier, But I cringe every time a customer uses them ( Your mileage may vary ).