Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
jgfinnegan1
Enthusiast - Level 2

I just bought a brother wireless printer, MFC-255CW, and tried to get it to connect to my fios wireless router.  During the setup it does find my broadcast SSID.  However it then says to enter the password, and I do.  It goes through and attempts to connect for about a minute and then ends up with 'Connection Fail'.  I have the printer right next to the modem so it's not a problem with distance.  I also moved it away a few feet and tried again.  I turned off the WEP key and tried again.  This time it finds the SSID and immediately then tries to connect, but I end up with the same result.  This particular model does not come with an ethernet connection, so I can't test it directly.  The other thing is that each time I get the 'Connection Fail' error, I need to issue the reset network, it won't even attempt connection after that. 

Can someone help with this.  I tried calling Verizon last night but the tech told me this is a Brother issue.

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
fdb2
Enthusiast - Level 1

Thank you thank you! Everytime I have an internet crash my Brother printer's wireless crashes and it takes me forever to reboot. I now have your instructions saved on my computer. You have saved my life!!!

View solution in original post

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
VZ_Javier
Enthusiast - Level 3

Dear jgfinnegan,

I would like to know if you have any other wireless devices?  If you do and they work on your wireless network, then it will be a printer issue.  If not please factory reset the router.  By using a pin to press and hold the reset (30seconds) button in the back of the router.  Please let me know if that helps. 

Thanks for your patience

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
MichaelHewitt1

I am having exactly the same problem. I have found similar questions on other forums but have yet to find a solution. Any information would be appreciated

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
jmw1950
Specialist - Level 2

I can only guess, but I suspect either a firewall or port forwarding issue.

You probably need to ask Brother what ports they use, and then make sure the Router is configured to handle them.

You  might also temporarily change the firewall setting on the router to minimum security and see if it makes any difference.

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

The firewall has nothing to do with it.   The firewall is for traffic on the Internet side getting into the private network -- don't go messing with those.

What are the particulars of your wireless setup?  Go into the router and bring up the Wireless Settings page and provide us with everything it says on the status page (you can replace the wireless password with "xxxxxx" as we don't need to see that, but we do need to see the values for everything else).

Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
MHewitt2
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thanks for trying to help. Here are the settings from my router

Wireless:    ON
SSID:    I4267
64-BIT WEP:    ON
64-BIT WEP KEY:    XXXXX
Channel:    Automatic
SSID Broadcast:    Enabled
MAC Authentication:    Disabled
Wireless Mode:    Mixed accepts 802.11b and 802.11g connections
Packets Sent:    22512534
Packets Received:    20996299

Let me know if you need more ...

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

OK ... so how much experimenting would you like to do?   Let's start with the easiest first ... keeping you existing wireless setup.

On the printer, let's do the following configuration (starting on page 31, even though you don't have a hidden SSID):

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/BSC/public/files/dlf/doc002478/cv_dcp375w_eng_net_a.pdf

At Step #7, manually type in your SSID: I4267

At Step #9, choose Infrastructure

At Step #10, choose Open

At Step #11, choose WEP

At Step #12, enter the WEP key (your XXXXX from your status screen)

At Step #15, choose YES

Check results.

If that didn't work, repeats changing from "Open" to "Shared" in Step #10.

Check results.

If it still doesn't work, let's play around with the wireless settings on your router.  This WILL break anyone currently using wireless, so make sure you are making the router changes from a PC that is WIRED into the router and make sure you write your settings down BEFORE making changes so you can put them back if necessary later.

In reality, you shouldn't be using WEP -- it's OK, but not a great encryption protocol.  What you really want to be using is WPA2.  So,  let's change the router to use WPA2 and then see if the printer will connect:

Login to the router, pull up the Wireless settings page.

On the Basic settings page, turn OFF WEP and save the configuration.   If you want you can not try to connect using the sequence about choosing "Open" and No Encryption -- but DO NOT leave the network this way.   You would be an open access point for any drive by computer person to steal bandwidth from.

On the Advanced settings page,  choose WPA2

Complete the WPA2 setup screen:  Pre-shared Key, create an 8 character or longer "passphrase" in ASCII and remember it, encryption algorithm - AES, Group Key Interval - checked and set to 900.   Apply

On this Advanced settings page, select Level 3 - 802.11b/g mode -- change to 802.11g only (assuming you have no 802.11b older wireless devices),  Apply

Now go back to Wireless Status page and write down all the settings and post them here (except for the passphrase) just so I can make sure you got it all right.

On the printer, go thru the setup process that you were initially using (choosing the SSID from the list) and this time when it asks for a password, give the new passphrase you just created.

Check results.

If that didn't work, use the process:

At Step #7, manually type in your SSID: I4267

At Step #9, choose Infrastructure

At Step #10, choose WPA/WPA2-PSK

At Step #13, choose AES

At Step #14, enter the WPA2 passphrase (cAsE iS iMpOrTaNt!)

At Step #15, choose YES

Check results.

Hopefully the printer has now connected.   If not, undo your changes (so your wireless network gets back to working).

If the printer is connected, you will now need to go to each of your wireless machines and change them to use WPA2 instead of WEP.   If for some reason WPA2 is not available -- you'll need to repeat the configuration process on the router and choose WPA and TKIP instead on the router and on the printer.

Let me know how it goes!

Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
MHewitt2
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thanks very much for going to all of that trouble. I will venture in this evening and post the result. Much appreciated.

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
MHewitt2
Enthusiast - Level 2

No luck with any of those methods. Thanks for trying, though. The upside is, I upgraded my security to WPA2.

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Re: Brother Wireless Printer Setup Getting 'Connection Fail'
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

I note that there is a firmware update for that printer on Brother's site ... not sure if it addresses anything specific to your situation, but might be worth a shot if you haven't ever updated it.

So you tried with the "open" and "no encryption" setting and it still didn't work?   That's sounding like a bad radio in the printer.

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