Canon Printer - Networking PITA

Over the summer, I bought a Canon MG 6420 all-in-one printer/scanner system.  It's been great.  It has wireless capability so that anyone in the house that's connected to the network can use it.

Well, the kids have been complaining that sometimes it won't print.  I've also experienced it several times first-hand.

I was trying to print a Walmart product web entry so that I could dispute the price at a local store.  The printer wouldn't print...I spent 10 minutes trying to troubleshoot before I ran out of time.  An hour later, when I returned from the store, the document was printed and waiting for me.

What error was the printer generating?  "Couldn't connect to printer".

One day, I spent a good amount of time trying to determine what was going on.  I found out that the printer was configuring itself to use the 192.168.2.0 subnet.  My home network uses the 192.168.1.0 subnet.  I've no idea why it tries to go to 192.168.2.  When I tried to manually configure the subnet information to 192.168.1, network connectivity is never established (can't ping the device, from the gateway router).

So, I just set it up to use a USB connection with our main home computer as a workaround.  This means we can't print from anywhere in the house.

As much as I've grown to hate HP inkjets, this has never happened to me when using that brand of printer/scanner.  The biggest issue I've had with HP is that the damned ink cartridges sometimes don't work (even new ones straight from the box).  The problem with this Canon is mild in comparison...at least I can still use the printer -- I couldn't do that with the HP and had to chuck it.

In researching if someone else has experienced this issue, I've not seen any complaints, but maybe the words I'm using to search the issue aren't the best...it's difficult to search against without having to slog through thousands of hits.  So, I thought I'd post about it to see if I eventually get an e-mail from someone confirming that it's a widespread issue (and maybe them supplying a solution).

I haven't reached out to Canon for support (yet).

Smartphones NOT So Smart!

Me: If I don't move for 5+ hours, my phone should be aware and quit polling for nearby wifi hotspots. Not found in 10 min, try again in 10 min.

Friend: I just turn wifi off

Me: I turn it off too, but by the time I remember, it's already used 25% battery life. I use wifi at home, otherwise I'd turn it off altogether. They make this crap seem like its innovative, but they stop just to make the phone look pretty. Apple: Fix the software and make it more intelligent...THEN beautify!

Installed three new software packages:

coconutBattery
coconutIdentityCard
coconutWiFi

I can tell you now that coconutIdentityCard is pretty much useless, as it doesn't really do much. It'll tell you if your Mac is possibly stolen and also your unit's build date (estimated). coconutBattery will also tell you how old your machine is, amongst other things. coconutWiFi is also useful, as it will tell you how many WAPs it sees and will make a sound everytime it detects a new WAP.

coconutBattery and coconutWiFi will stay installed, but coconutIdentityCard will be removed.

You can get these three apps at http://www.coconut-flavour.com