Brother 2270DW Offline Error and Solution

I have had several printers through the years.  For the last decade I have been in the monochrome laser camp, due to the high quality of laser printing, and the affordability compared to inkjets.  My previous printer was a Brother 2140, which I still have, but as it was very low on ink, I decided it was time for an upgrade.

The new printer is a Brother 2270DW.  The significant advancement is that network printers have come way down in price.  This allows one to put the printer anywhere there is space and it can be hooked up to the network, while having a number of users and devices be able to send print jobs to the printer.  This is how most business environments do their printing these days, and most households can get by with one printer if it is networked.

The Brother 2270DW can be connected by three methods:

1. USB port like a non-networked printer
2. Wired Ethernet (LAN)
3. Wireless (WiFi)

When I hooked it up, I obviously wanted it on the network, but as I change my routers sometimes, for simplicity I went with a wired connection.  I plug the printer with my length of CAT 5 cable, and it is physically connected to my router.  Not super exciting, but at least I can see it is connected.  There is also a rule that the printer can be connected via a wire, or wireless, but not both simultaneously.

One criticism of this printer is that one of the areas they cut costs on were the LED's.  It does not have any display, and rather just has a few LED's for power, toner and error.  These a basically "Idiot lights" and unfortunately, there is no LED for "Network connection," or WiFi on.

If you hold down the Power button for 10 seconds, it prints out a test page.  It also converts the printer from wired to wireless connection, or vice versa.

So the other day, my printer lost the network connection.  It was most frustrating as the printer was still connected via the wired LAN.  I decided to go to the Brother website, and it had information specific to this problem.  In fact, it even directed me to a special software tool that would reestablish the connection, or in my case not so much after running it no less than three times.  I also uninstalled and resintalled drivers as recommended, but the printer was still not connected.

I was reading the manual after nothing seemed to be working, and realized that the printer was probably in WiFi mode.  I held down the power button, out printed the page, and it was now reconnected.  I still find it silly that the 2270DW does not have a light to tell me whether it is connected or not, and whether the WiFi is on or off.  Perhaps when I upgrade again in several years I can get these essential "features."

--Jonas

Dlink 820L: Notes on Firmware 1.03b

I have had my issues with my Dlink 820L router, but at the last tech call, they did get it up and running.  I recently noticed that there was a firmware upgrade available for the router.  The release notes for firmware 1.03b were:

Firmware 1.03 

Date: 06/12/2014 

Release Notes: 

Fix the bug in web filter rule 

Update wireless driver 

Update copyright 

I figured it was worth giving it an upgrade.  My Sony Bluray player was still getting slow speeds from the Dlink of around 3 Mbps and to stream video was painful.

I downloaded the update, and upgraded the firmware on the Dlink screens (available by pointing your browser to 192.168.0.1).  I went from firmware 1.02 to 1.03.  The process took about 5 minutes.  They suggest that this is done via a wired connection, but I did this over WiFi and it was fine (although YMMV).

This firmware upgrade was a good one.  The 820L router's weakness has been on wireless performance, and this gets exposed in my testing, and is especially annoying obvious with my Bluray player when streaming.  After the firmware upgrade to 1.03, the signal is stronger and more stable to my WiFi devices.  I had no disconnects.  My Bluray player on another floor and a distance away from the router now is able to stream at 4 to 7 Mbps, which is a significant improvement, and far more usable.  While I have seen 14 Mbps from another AC router, with the firmware 1.03 the Dlink can now keep up easily with the streaming video of the Bluray.

For those experiencing WiFi issues with the DIR-820L from Dlink, this firmware upgrade is a welcome gift.

Firmware available here.

-Jonas

Apricorn Aegis Padlock DT

Apricorn is a market leader in secure data storage.  They make a variety of external drives, in a full selection of capacities, all with built in security features.  The Apricorn Aegis Padlock DT is at the larger end of the scale, and represents a full size desktop hard drive in an external enclosure.

What's in the box?

• Aegis Padlock DT (available 2,3,4 or 6 TB)
• USB 3.0 cable
• Power supply
• Quick Start Guide
• Manual is supplied as a PDF on the drive