Wireless printers give you the ease of printing from anywhere in the house as long as you are connected to the home network. However, if you encounter an error saying wireless printer not detected by the network, there might be some settings that you need to check and modify to resolve this issue.
- Update the virus scan patterns of your antivirus or Internet security software.
- Add exceptions for your printer manually.
- Wireless network name (SSID) – This is the name of your network
- Network password or passphrase – This is the password that you use to connect wirelessly
- Security mode – The type of encryption that your network uses. Choose a security that is compatible to all the devices in your home.
- Network mode – The wireless technology that your network utilizes. Linksys routers operate on the following modes: A, B, G, N, and AC technology.
- SSID Broadcast – This should be Enabled. If the SSID broadcast of your router is disabled, you need to add the network manually on your printer. Refer to the user manual for instructions on how to add the network manually.
- MAC Filter – If you intentionally turn this ON, add the MAC address of your printer to allow access to the network. Otherwise, you can disable this security feature.
- IP address
- Subnet Mask
- Default Gateway
- DNS Servers
NOTE: Check the user manual to learn how to check the network settings of your printer.
After you added exceptions to your firewall or Internet security software and verified that the settings of your router matches the settings saved on your printer and you are still getting the wireless printer not detected by the network error you need to further isolate the problem. Here are some things that you can do:
- Check if your other computers can detect the printer
- Check if you can print directly to the printer (via USB or Ethernet cable)
These are the basic fixes that you can do to resolve the wireless printer not detected/found error message. If none of these steps fix your issue, you may also contact your printer manufacturer to verify if there are special troubleshooting steps that you need to do to make your printer work with the Linksys Wi-Fi and Smart Wi-Fi Routers.