Question about printer IP in brothers MFC-L3720CDW

waveform

waveform

New Member
Hello

Just want to say that everything seems to be working, I can print from the PC via USB and even send from my phone to the printer. All works:

However, I'm not clear on where the printer is getting this APIPA IP from that I'm seeing in the printer's display. Note: I use IP assignments on my router for port forwarding. With my old dell printer, I would reserve an IP address for it and the router would always assign 192.168.50.7 to that printer via DHCP.

Why am I seeing an automatic IP on the printer screen? It almost seems like the printer is acting as a server and making it's own IP address. That's what it sounds like from what I read in the manual. But I just want to be clear. My router has a reserved IP for the Brothers printer that I added with the Mac address, but the printer is not using it, it's using it's own APIPA and nothing for gateway.


Model: Brothers MFC-L3720CDW


Thank you
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
If it is assigning an APIPA address then it is not receiving DHCP requests from the router.

My recommendation is to set the static reservation on the router just so the IP is excluded from being handed out, and then manually setting the static IP on the printer itself.
 
beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Should be able to pcap it and see the (or lack thereof) dhcp discover/offer.
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
Usually if you've connected the printer to the router for the first time and left all the printer network settings on default for the first time, it'll be on automatic IP mode which will pull the next IP address available from your router's dhcp.

Even if you've set a static IP afterwards on the router side to force a specific IP for the printer, your router's already connected via automatic until the next time the printer's reset or restarted.

As above, just manually set the IP on the printer side and restart the printer. It should update and use the right one.
 
waveform

waveform

New Member
Yes, it's strange, When I got home and looked again, now it's showing my reserved IP I set in the router myself.

@ Intel_man
I did restart the printer many times. The IP field was all zeros, the only way I was able to get an IP address yesterday was when I installed the phone app and set that up, then the printer screen had an IP address, but it was only a APIPA address and it was nothing like the 192.168... of my router's sub addresses. Then when I got home from work today, that APIPA was gone and my routers reserved address was showing up. All my home devices have a reserved address. I don't allow room in the pool for outside addresses, there are 11 reserved spaces and all being used. Although there is a guest section of my router, but that is disabled. The fact that the printer can create it's own IP makes me think it's also capable of acting as a server. The support guy says No, but it just seems that way. Maybe in direct mode.

Router
ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX55)
 
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C

Couriant

Member
It sounds like the printer is not getting the information from the router in a timely manner. You should really just have it statically assigned.
 
Intel_man

Intel_man

VIP Member
waveform said:
Yes, it's strange, When I got home and looked again, now it's showing my reserved IP I set in the router myself.

@ Intel_man
I did restart the printer many times. The IP field was all zeros, the only way I was able to get an IP address yesterday was when I installed the phone app and set that up, then the printer screen had an IP address, but it was only a APIPA address and it was nothing like the 192.168... of my router's sub addresses. Then when I got home from work today, that APIPA was gone and my routers reserved address was showing up. All my home devices have a reserved address. I don't allow room in the pool for outside addresses, there are 11 reserved spaces and all being used. Although there is a guest section of my router, but that is disabled. The fact that the printer can create it's own IP makes me think it's also capable of acting as a server. The support guy says No, but it just seems that way. Maybe in direct mode.

Router
ASUS AX1800 WiFi 6 Router (RT-AX55)
Click to expand...
Not uncommon for printers to have APIPA enabled by default nowadays. If you had room on your DHCP to allow your brother printer to have a dynamic IP assigned initially, before you were able to setup a static for it, you probably wouldn't have noticed the APIPA address feature on the brother.

Unless you specifically set up the printer to be connected locally initially and copied down the mac address so you can assign a static IP on your router... then everything is functioning as intended. APIPA kicks in normally when it can't receive an IP from DHCP requests.
 
waveform

waveform

New Member
Couriant said:
It sounds like the printer is not getting the information from the router in a timely manner. You should really just have it statically assigned.
Click to expand...
Setting up IP reservations is the same as setting up a static IP. It's just that it's handed out by the router, but it's always the same address. I don't see the difference. I don't know if it was the router's dhcp that was delayed, the router reboots itself when you make a change and save. Could have also been the printer that didn't want to release it's IP at that particular time.
Intel_man said:
Not uncommon for printers to have APIPA enabled by default nowadays. If you had room on your DHCP to allow your brother printer to have a dynamic IP assigned initially, before you were able to setup a static for it, you probably wouldn't have noticed the APIPA address feature on the brother.

Unless you specifically set up the printer to be connected locally initially and copied down the mac address so you can assign a static IP on your router... then everything is functioning as intended. APIPA kicks in normally when it can't receive an IP from DHCP requests.
Click to expand...
Regarding the first thing you said about the pool: I think you're right, it would have grabbed a free address had I gave it room.
And to the second thing you said: When I set up reserved IP (manly for port forwarding) I always enter the layer 2 mac address. You pretty much have to.

On a side note: I have this printer running on windows 10. But I also have a Win 7 machine but they didn't make a driver for 7. But I installed the Win10 driver on windows 7 and it works perfect. The only thing strange is: The toner level on the Win7 machine shows 90% full - and on the Win10 machine it shows 100% full. Although this website seems to have compressed the image as my original looks much sharper. This thing almost prints like an ink jet.

Quality is amazing for a laser
IMG_1376s.jpg IMG_1382s.jpg
 
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beers

beers

Moderator
Staff member
waveform said:
I don't see the difference.
Click to expand...
The only real technikuhl difference is that you rely on that DHCP service to function, if the DHCP service doesn't function or has an erroneous config then you are not reachable and won't self assign an address on that same segment. DHCP is easier though since it's the default setting for any system if you ever have to hard reset it.

Also in larger environments you can more easily integrate DNS with your DHCP reservation without having to manually define it.
 
C

Couriant

Member
beers said:
The only real technikuhl difference is that you rely on that DHCP service to function, if the DHCP service doesn't function or has an erroneous config then you are not reachable and won't self assign an address on that same segment.
Click to expand...
What Beers said. With static in place, you will be reachable within seconds. Using DHCP, while helps with set up, can bite you if the DHCP part goes down. Static can be a little overhead to set up, but it's more like set it and forget it.
 
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