If you have been following our reviews on Wi-Fi routers (read them here), you know that one constant has been our inability to get our Brother HL-2270DW Laser Printer to join the network after we changed to the new router. Initially we thought the problem was with the router but after having it happen multiple times we conceded that the problem must lie with the printer.
Brother HL-2270DW Wireless Issue
After doing some additional troubleshooting and research, we determined that this issue applies, not only to the Brother HL-2270DW but to all of the similar style Brother Laser Printers in this series.
These printers do not have any kind of built-in control panel or display so there is no way for the user to interact with the settings. Even the initial set-up requires the use of a web based administration panel and that “hard codes” the assigned IP address to the printer’s network interface card (“NIC”). As a result, when we changed the router, the printer’s NIC was not able to accept the new IP address assigned to it.
You may recall that we initially used an Airport Extreme Base Station (read our review here) as our router, which by default, set an IP range of 10.0.1.xxx. Moving from an Airport n router to an Airport ac router was an easy switch because they both use the same IP range, so the printer was able to get its previously assigned address. All of the other routers set an IP range of 192.168.1.xxx which the printer could never connect to. That also explains why the printer immediately started to work again when we returned our Airport Extreme router to the network.
It wouldn’t be fair to say that there is something wrong with the printer. Although now a discontinued model, we have owned this printer for several years and it has been a workhorse, pumping out thousands of pages without so much as a paper jam. Updated models with a similar design are available for only a little more than $100.00 and we wouldn’t think twice about getting another one if and when this one finally reaches the end of its useful life.
We also acknowledge that it’s possible (and may people do), change the DHCP settings on their Airport routers to the more common 192.168.1.xxx range when they set up their networks and we suspect, had we done that initially, we might not have run into this issue at all. That said, regardless of the IP range of your router, you’ll need to know how to configure your printer on your network.
Brother HL-2270DW Set-Up Instructions
Although the Brother HL-2270DW documentation and web site lists multiple ways to configure the printer for wireless access, and even provides a software “wizard”, we found the only successful way to get the printer on line was to use their web based administration page, and even that requires multiple steps.
You can certainly find these instructions on the Brother web site but we found that they bounce you around to multiple pages and it gets hard to follow. So we decided to pull everything together in this one set of instructions, in the order you need them, to save you some of the pain we experienced.
As you will see below, in order to complete this process, you will need to connect the printer to your router via an Ethernet cable. In our case, the printer and router were in completely different areas which required us to physically bring the printer to the router. If you do not have an active Ethernet connection at the printer’s location, you will need to do the same.
Before you begin the actual process, gather these settings for your wireless network:
| SSID or Network Name | The name of your Wireless Network or Access Point |
| Authentication Method | Open System, Shared Key, WPA/WPA2-PSK* |
| Encryption Mode | None, WEP, TKIP, AES |
| Network Security Key (Password) | Encryption Key, WEP Key, Passphrase |
If your printer was previously installed, we recommend uninstalling the printer from your Mac by doing the following.
- Select “Print & Scan” in the Hardware section of System Preferences. A list of printers with drivers installed on your computer appears on the left side of the Print & Scan window.
- Click the printer you want to remove from the computer to highlight it.
- Click the “-” button below the list of printers to remove the printer information from the list.
With the printer removed, you are now ready to configure your Brother printer.
STEP ONE – Reset the network card to factory default
All network settings, such as password and IP address, will be restored to the factory default settings.
- Power the machine off.
- Press down the GO button and power the machine on.
- Keep pressing GO until the Toner, Drum, and Error LEDs are on. The Ready LED will be off.
- Release GO. All LEDs will be off.
- Press GO six times. Your machine’s network card will be reset.
STEP TWO – Assign an IP address to the printer
- Make a Temporarily connection with an Ethernet cable
- On the back of the Brother machine, remove the protective cap from the Ethernet port.
- Connect an Ethernet cable from your router to the Ethernet port on the back of your Brother machine.
- Wait about a minute and then print the Network Configuration report to verify that your Brother machine has acquired an IP address. To print the Network Configuration report, press the GO button three times within two seconds. The Printer Settings report will now print which includes the Network Configuration.
STEP THREE – Configure the wireless card in the printer
- Open a web browser on your computer.
- Type the IP Address of the Brother machine Printer Settings report into the web browser address line and press ENTER. The Brother Web Management screen will appear.
- Click the Network Configuration on the top menu.
- Type the User name and Password and then click OK.
User name: admin
Password: access
- Click Configure Wireless.
- Choose Infrastructure for Communication Mode.
- Click the Browse button next to Wireless Network Name (SSID).
- Choose your network name from the Name (SSID) list and then click OK.
- Choose your Authentication Method.
- Choose your Encryption Method.
- Enter the Network Key or Passphrase and then click Submit at the bottom.
- Disconnect the Ethernet cable from the Brother machine.
- Wait about a minute and then print the Network Configuration report to verify that your Brother machine has acquired a valid IP address from your router.
An invalid IP address would be all zeroes, an APIPA address (169.254.x.x) on an Infrastructure network, or an address within an incorrect range for your network.
- Is the IP Address listed on the report valid for your network?
- Yes: Your machine is successfully connected to your network. You may now install the printer driver.
- No: Here are some things to check
- Verify the wireless security settings for your network. They may have been entered incorrectly.
- Make sure that your router is not configured to use WPA2-PSK with TKIP. Your Brother machine does not support this combination of Authentication and Encryption. However, it does support WPA2-PSK with AES.
- Verify that DHCP is enabled on your router so that it will automatically assign an IP address to your Brother machine.
- If you’re using MAC Address filtering, make sure that it’s configured to allow your Brother machine to communicate.
- Verify the wireless security settings on the router’s configuration menu match what you’ve been using. The information printed on the outside of the router may not be correct.
- Sometimes you can cycle the power to your router to reestablish communication. Turn off the power to your router for about 15 seconds and then turn it back on. Once the router powers back on, wait about a minute and then print the Network Configuration report.
- Otherwise, go back to STEP ONE to rest the network card and try again.
The Bottom Line
The Brother HL-2270DW wireless printer, as well as several other similar printers from Brother requires an extra level of work to get it connected to your network and while it may seem complicated, you will find that after doing it once or twice, it really isn’t very hard at all.
Since this process requires the printer be connected to the router via an Ethernet cable, it may be a little inconvenient but there really is no other way to do this.
We also think that this entire process is a small price to pay when you consider the reliability and value we have gotten from this printer. Keep in mind that we created this problem because we kept swapping out the router in our network. Had we not been using an Apple router in the beginning, or if we had changed the IP range of the router to the more common 192.168.1.xxx range, this may never have been needed. We have been using this printer for years with no issues.
That said, having these instructions available will save you a lot of time and frustration in managing this, or similar style Brother printers.
What wireless printers do you use and how easy is the wireless set-up process for it? Why not join the conversation by adding your comments below.
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APPLE TECH TALKER
Thanks for the helpful step-by-step instructions – they worked. To get an ip address for the printer, I used AirPort utility to change from Bridge mode to DHCP and NAT. Now that the printer works wirelessly can I change this setting back to Bridge mode?
Matt:
Glad to hear our instructions were helpful.
If your Airport Router is in Bridge mode I assume you have another router that is acting as the DHCP server since a router in Bridge mode generally means it is not providing IP addresses to your network devices. If that is the case, and your main router (the one providing the IP addresses) uses the same IP range (i.e. 10.0.1.xxx), then you should be OK to put the Airport device back into Bridge mode. Otherwise, you may have to go through this process again and use the main router to get the IP address.
Hope that helps.
Apple Tech Talker
Nice job laying out easy, step by step instructions.
Worked out great connecting to my home network- eliminating need for using USB connection every time.
Dave:
Thanks for letting us know this was helpful. We appreciate hearing from our readers that they find our site helpful.
I hope you continue to enjoy Apple Tech Talk.
Apple Tech Talker
Wow. Thanks! I just got replaced my old router with GoogleWIFI and the brother website was not helpful at all. Thanks for the clear instructions I was able to get it working in 10 minutes!!!!!!
I used the instructions above but have had intermittent success.
I have a Brother HL-2270DW and recently switched out my wireless router from an AirPort Extreme to one from Optimum. I know that the printer connection was valid, because I finally have gotten some pages printed. But 9 out of 10 times, I still see that the printer is offline, or it cannot be found.
On my configuration settings – I see 192.168.1.8 for IP and IP Gateway says 192.168.1.1.
Step 20 says: Wait about a minute and then print the Network Configuration report to verify that your Brother machine has acquired a valid IP address from your router.
I cannot find on my configuration report any IP address for my wireless network. It is 192.168.1.5. I’m not even sure on the report where that would be – and if that is the issue. As I noted, there definitely has been some connection made, but it is spotty.
I’m at a loss. Anyone?
To clarify, my print dialog box goes from. – Looking for printer, Connecting with Printer to the printer is not responding.
I noticed that same issue. On my Mac I previously used a USB connect exclusively. After setting up wireless, I found that I had 2 Brother printer options to select from- and the prior USB option was still the default (and had offline status). When I selected the ‘other’ Brother printer in my list (and the 2 options are identically named- which seems odd), which corresponds to the wireless set up, I had no issues.
Thank you, thank you! I had been struggling to get the printer going again after upgrading the router.
You saved me hours of puzzling.
Sarah:
Thanks for being an Apple Tech Talk reader. We’re always glad to hear that our tips and reviews are beneficial. Glad it worked well for you.
Thanks – useful. But my report never showed that my printer had an IP address. Instead, I typed in the Primary DNS server address, which showed a list of all the home network devices, included my ethernet-connected printer. I was able to type that device address into the browser, and it allowed configuration from there.
THANK YOU! I had a never-unboxed “new” (but very outdated) HL-2270DW that I got for free that I was trying to connect. All was a failure until I read your instructions and now I’m printing normally!
Hello, Could you please do let me know what should I set for the step 16 and 17, authentication method and encryption mode.
That depends on how your wireless network is configured. Most authentication is via a password but you should check your router settings for this information.
Hope that helps.
Hi, these are great instructions, much better than having to read the Brother manual – just one thing is missing…
After you configure your settings in the browser and BEFORE you either close the browser window or disconnect the ethernet, you must click YES to authorize WiFi set-up. The instructions will then tell you when to disconnect the cable.
If you disconnect the cable before you give this approval (which I did), you will not be able to print.
If you accidentally disconnected the cables before accepting the WiFi connection, you don’t need to go through the entire process over again – just reconnect the cable, click YES and disconnect when told to do so – and you’re good to go.
Literally can’t thank you enough! Your advice saved my hair, and my marriage, and my dear 2270 that has been such a loyal servant. THANK YOU!
(oh … and yes … JD’s comments just above very true. I missed that vital bit of giving the approval, and only by chance caught it on the next & final attempt!)
Hi thanks for the detailed instructions. I switched to Eero wifi from Linksys. It worked and it did not work :)…I have a mac book pro and it worked and I am able to print. documents. But I have a Windows 10 laptop and I did successfully installed the driver and the Printer was showing ready. But when I give print, the Printer status is erroring. I am not able print at all from Windows laptop though the status is Ready.
I can’t thank you enough for this detailed information to connect my Brother printer wirelessly to my new Eero 6 network. I called support 3 times at Eeros and was helped but ultimately was told that the Brother site has a statement announcing most of their printers will not consistently work wirelessly with the Eeros mesh network. I knew their was a way using the Ethernet cable from my last experiences but couldn’t find it anymore on Brother! Your instructions are perfect and if followed exactly will work! I have AT&T fiber optic, Motorola BWG210-700 gateway in IP passthrough; wireless turned off; deleted all Brother drivers from my MacBook Pro & used your instructions to connect wirelessly & print with no problems!! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this tutorial. I have been messing around with this issue for a very long time and thought I was going to have to give up my printer, which I’ve happily used forever. Much gratitude!
Hey Apple Tech Talker! We can totally relate to the frustration of getting the Brother HL-2270DW to join the new Wi-Fi network. It’s never fun when devices refuse to cooperate. Have you tried any specific troubleshooting steps so far? Maybe resetting the printer’s network settings or reconfiguring the wireless connection? We’d love to help if you need any assistance in resolving this issue. Keep up the great work with your reviews on Wi-Fi routers! ️