U

Wednesday, June 26th, 2024 12:36 AM

Closed

HP 8600 wireless printers quit working after upgrading to Xfinity XP8 Gateway

Resolution: The XP8 Gateway requires a service level wifi configuration change to enable/set the 2.4 GHz configuration for 802.11b.

The following information is my best interpretation from the conversation and observation with the Xfinity field service agent that got my HP 8600 wireless printers working after Xfinity replaced my prior Xfinity gateway with the newer XP8. The new gateway (XP8) now has 3 wifi frequencies; 2.4, 5, and 6 Ghz. To support configuration for 6GHz, Xfinity eliminated 802.11b, which is used by many legacy devices like the HP 8600 printers, as part of the default 2.4 GHz configuration. The service level wifi configuration does have a drop down option selector, so the gateway can still be configured for 802.11b, but it is not accessible by a user and questionable as to whether Xfinity phone agents can access the setting. 

Another caveat is that once a user goes in and makes a change to the gateway via the user level wifi configuration, then even a field service agent using a laptop to access the gateway can’t access the service level wifi 802 setting as the selections are grayed out and no longer selectable. This happened because the Xfinity phone agent I spoke with earlier had me make changes in the user accessible wifi configuration and split the network, attempting to force the HP printers to connect at 2.4 GHz; which still didn’t work because the default 2.4GHz setting doesn’t use the needed 802.11b setting, and is not configurable as a user level. 

The field service agent had access to service level wifi configuration settings, but still had to do a factory reset on the gateway to gain access to the wifi 802 setting drop down so he could make the right 802.11b selection for the 2.4Ghz band. He then had to reconfigure the new gateway to my prior network and password to match what it was before. Once this was done, we went to one of my HP 8600 printers and ran its setup wizard to re-establish connection with the gateway. By time we went to my other HP 8600 printer, it had already automatically connected to the network.

Expert

 • 

107.4K Messages

6 months ago

Thank you for sharing this valuable information with the community ! I'm going to pin your post to the top of this help board so that other future readers here may be helped,

Visitor

 • 

2 Messages

6 months ago

This is great information!!!  I too am having the same issue with my HP printer after upgrading to the newer XP8 gateway.  I signed into my router and saw the 802.11 was grayed out.  Now, the big concern is how to reach someone with this knowledge and make the password changes so the rest of the devices don't get messed up.  How do I actually get in touch with a human technician?

3 Messages

Unfortunately, you will probably just have to go through the painful automated processes and keep responding that your problem is not fixed until they eventually agreed to setup an appointment to send out a tech. At some point you would also hope that a phone tech would be able to remotely access the gateway configuration to make the needed change.

Official Employee

 • 

1.9K Messages

 

user_8nzxh3, We appreciate you greatly for taking the time to share this valuable information. This is definitely not the experience we like to hear about. I am sorry to learn that we have made you feel this way. Over social media, we are a team of experts who can also assist with accessing the gateway configuration or scheduling an appointment if you do not wish to use our automated system. @Sparklequeen, Do you still need some help with the HP printer at this time?

 

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick

3 Messages

I thought I did post publicly, and if not then I am not sure how the post ends up ‘public’. As an official Xfinity  employee I would suggest you create a knowledge base post directing your customers on how they can resolve this issue with their legacy 802.11b printers/ devices that stop working after an Xfinity gateway upgrades; because your normal channels too easily want to dismiss the problem as “you need to upgrade your printer/s” or contact the printer manufacturer, which in my case HP, and they weren’t any better at figuring out the problem and also wanted to dismiss it as “you need to buy new printers.” I can’t tell you how I appreciate the Xfinity field service that was in the area and took his own initiative to come by prior to the actual techs that were assigned the call. He knew and understood the issue and had it resolved very quickly.

Official Employee

 • 

1.7K Messages

 

user_8nzxh3 Thanks for your feedback and for actively using our Forums. We are happy to hear that you had a positive experiance getting this resolved and if you ever have any issues in the future, please let our team know. 

 

I am an Official Xfinity Employee.
Official Employees are from multiple teams within Xfinity: CARE, Product, Leadership.
We ask that you post publicly so people with similar questions may benefit from the conversation.
Was your question answered? Please, mark a reply as the Accepted Answer.tick
forum icon

New to the Community?

Start Here