Star Printers disconnects -- would assigning static IP addresses help?

[mayatdistrict]

Our Star MCP30 printers would occasionally drop from the network causing missed tickets. This issue happens with Square for Restaurant app and also with our GrubHub and UberEats tablet connected to a different Star MCP30 printer in the kitchen. Our network setup looks like this:

- Square Stand and iPads are connected via WiFi

- printers are connected to a switch connected to our Router Modem

Would assigning static IP addresses to all our devices minimize the dropped printer issue? I'm at my wit's end because we constantly have to disconnect/reconnect WiFi, restart tablets, etc. 

[nika]

Hi there @mayatdistrict- Thanks for reaching out here in the Community.

I'm going to loop in one of our Super Sellers, @ryanwanner. Ryan- I know I've seen you help with printer questions in the past. Do you happen to have any idea on this?

[ryanwanner]

Hello @mayatdistrict , and thanks for the h/t @nika ! 🙂

Yes, what you’re experiencing is definitely a problem I’ve experienced many times in the past. 

I don’t think a static IP will help you unfortunately. From what I can tell, Square looks for the MAC address of the printer versus the IP. And since you’re experiencing the same issues with other tablets, I don’t think it’s a Square issue either. 

Please describe your network setup a little further: do you have a firewall device located between your providers modem and your network? What kind of switches/hubs and WiFi devices are you using? Do you have a dedicated network for both public and private use?

The reason I ask is because my network gets hit pretty hard with devices connecting, and I don’t have that much seating available. If I use regular switches and WiFi devices I can get from WalMart or Best Buy, I’ve found that I can only get about six months out of them before they go brain dead from the heavy use. With Squares help I even tried the eero wireless systems and they ended up eating themselves too. When the switches start to die, my Ethernet thermal printers start dropping with no explanation. Oddly enough my kitchen printer doesn’t. 

Ive just started the hardware replacement cycle again since my printers were dropping 5-10 times an hour. UGH. 

I'm trying to go up a level this time to see if it helps. I’ve bought a Security Gateway, two WiFi access points, and two small switches from Ubiquity. I’ve used their WiFi access points in the past and they have always been really stable. My hope is that upgrading to a managed network that gets regular firmware updates will help slow down the brain dead issue. 

I wish I had better news, but I really think the regular over the counter hardware just can’t handle the volume for long. 

Hope this helps!

[mayatdistrict]

Wow, glad and not glad we're not the only one experiencing this problem.

We have a modem/router combo from Spectrum--I've read they're not the best kind of equipment to be using when the connected devices need to be communicating with each other. Currently the modem/router is connected to what looks like a large Netgear switch (apologies for lack of proper terminology) and that is connected to smaller what I assume are unmananged regular Netgear switches (one switch in the kitchen, one switch in the dining room, one switch in the bar) and then all the thermal printers are connected to those switches and we access them via WiFi from Square and delivery platform tablets. The two Square iPads we have are also connected via WiFi. We have a dedicated Star printer for GrubHub and UberEats tablets, which have been giving me nothing but grief. The other 2 Star printers connected to Square have been dropping constantly too. OH BOY. I'm not too sure about the firewall and we do not have public WiFi for our guests. 

You're probably absolutely right about the dead hardware issue as our smaller switches are close to 5 years old. Yikes. I've heard a lot of good things about Ubiquity so we will look into that. 

Thank you @ryanwanner for your reply and @nika for the mention. We so appreciate your time! 

[ryanwanner]

Following up with you @mayatdistrict with some new information I've gleaned...

As I said, I upgraded to the Ubiquiti (whoops on prior spelling) Security Gateway (which sits between the cable modem and the network), two switches, and two new access points.

30 minutes after turning everything back on, my printer disconnected from the network. Again.

One of the best things about the Ubiquiti system is that you have a way to have a computer act as a network monitor. I have my office computer set up so if I wanted to I could monitor everything going on with my network. So I power cycled the printer and watched the network. We were closed at the time, so the only thing the printer should have seen is an occasional "are you there?" ping from the Square tablets. In less than 30 minutes, the printer uploaded 15+MB of data then disconnected again.

I talked to one of my network tech friends. His thinking is that the network card in the printer got hijacked and it was part of a botnet spewing junk and either it disabled itself or my ISP did.

I ended up buying a new printer as well. It's now been on and connected to the network for over 24 hours without a problem.

Something else to keep in mind! Stupid hackers.