Cannon printer not connecting to network

because John's computer died, I have no printing/scanning capability. My laptop simply will not connect to the existing printers for some reason.

i bought myself a Canon 3420 scanner printer. The guy in the store set that the setup wizard made everything easy.

However, the printer is unable to connect to my wireless.

It asks me to select the network, my network shows up, I select it, and after a few seconds I get the error message that "the encryption type of the network SSID does not match the encryption setup."

However, when I select my network's name, it shows no encryption type, in other words none. I don't have an option to enter anything here.

The other thing is, when I select my SSID it's showing what looks like a MAC address???? I don't have a MAC

There IS no option to enter any information at any point, in other words, I have no option to actually enter the SSID number myself, or a WIFI key, or anything else.

I need this printer to work TODAY. I have some very important financial transactions that have to happen, and today and I have to send and receive/print things!

How frustrating. I don't know squat about connecting printers to wireless. The only thing I can do is google the issue (which took me to a Canon printer manual). Hopefully someone else will be able to help.

John had one, too, and he could never get it to connect to the internet, wither.

I have THREE printers, none of which will connect to the internet, even though we SPECIFICALLY said that's what we wanted when we bought them.

For the time being most printers have an USB connection so if you have a USB cable, you can connect your Laptop directly to your printer and at least you will be able to print. Also, connecting directly to your printer helps find the Wifi connection easier, I have had to this on several occasions for myself and others who I help with their computers, laptops and printers.
Good luck

USB cable samples:

https://www.google.ca/search?q=usb+...AaQGkgEDOC4xmAEAoAEB&sclient=gws-wiz

OK. #1. The MAC address refers to media access control, not a computer brand.

#2. Encryption is set up in your router settings. I don't know what kind of router you have or if it is provided by your ISP, but with my WiFi router, I have to enter an IP protocol address - a bunch of numbers and periods - to get to the settings. In those setting, you can change the encryption type.

#3. If no printers will connect, this is something you will either need to resolve with your ISP or if you purchased the router yourself, get me the brand and model and I'll look this stuff up for you.

#4. First option in the meantime is to do as Starcom suggests and go purchase a printer/USB cable. Then you can bypass all the WiFi and connect directly to the printer from any computer with a USB port.

SO, I went back to the store and they told me the encryption type. The problem is that now I cannot get back into the installation wizard, which automatically started when the drivers downloaded, and I cannot figure out how to trigger it again because my computer can't find the printer, and on it goes. There seems to be no way to start the installation wizard now.

I have a USB, but the whole of buying the new printer was to bypass the problem I had with the other Canon printer, which refuses to connect to the Internet. Now I have two Canon printers that won't do what I need them to do.

Just go in and uninstall the printer completely. Go to settings, Devices, Printers and scanners and see if it's listed. If it is, just uninstall. The suggestion of using a cable was just a stop-gap measure.

As Draclvr mentionned "using a cable was just a stop-gap measure." Since You wanted or[b] Needed to print something Today[/b], and from experience, it is easier to Set up your Wireless via USB cable, print your Important documents, After setting up your Wireless via Usb cable, you can then unplug the USB cable and you should be on your way to connect wireless.

I did try to install my wireless using the USB and it still didn't work.

The printing is fine with the USB cable, but there's no way to scan them back to the person I need to send them to. All I can do with a scanned document is copy it -- really useless. This machine has a scanner, and the guy who sold it to me assured it had that capability, but I see no way to do that.

The machine is going back. It just doesn't work. I hope I can find the bill .

The document you scanned in question, does it not or can you not Scan it to your Hard Drive?, this is what I do, I scan it to my Hard Drive, then I take the scanned document in question and send it as an attachment via Email to the person in question.

No, you can't "scan it back" to anyone. Scanning etc. is local to your network, not the internet. The scan will save either as a PDF document or a .jpg file as you select. It will be saved to a location on your hard drive which you also select. Then you will be able to attach the document to an email. I do it all the time.

And I've never had any luck connecting wirelessly after using the USB cable as Starcom has. Once you get your documents scanned, attached to an email and sent, then you can uninstall the printer and start over with the WiFi setup.

Thank Draclvr for making the scan to hard drive more clear than I can say it. As for connecting Wireless via USB, I guess it depends on the Printer and Software that comes with it, in my case(s) using the USB method finds the Wireless connection or finds your printer that allows it to connect to the wireless setup, hard to explain as mentioned often by yourself "That when you are not in front of the person's computer it is hard to explain".

Starcom, there is NOTHING I hate any worse than network issues! I've torn my hair out with printers, so I feel your pain.

The scanning will only send to an Import file and nowhere else, and not directly to an email address like our other printers did when they were hooked up to John's computer.

I could live with that, but the main problems are more serious -- the scanned copy of the document is very faint, and when I adjusted the resolution it somehow decided to scan the one document into little tiny pieces, multiple documents, like a puzzle, not the whole thing. I adjusted the resolution back to the default but it didn't correct the issue. Very peculiar. Adjusting the contrast and brightness didn't change how the document looked.

All in all a fail.

Were you using the printer software to adjust the document? Did you save as a PDF or as a .jpg file? All those changes would be made before you saved the document.

It should give you the option to save to a file on your computer. Your other printers must have been connected to the internet. Were you able to scan, then select an email address and attach to that email directly? There definitely are printers out there that can do that - I had an HP that had that capability.

Yes, the other computer saved scans directly to an email address. But john's computer died, so the has nowhere to go because it was sending to his email on his computer. He was using a USB connection since the prnter would never connect to the wifi.

Here's another question:

Since John's computer has died, I though I would try to connect his Canon printer to my laptop. But the printer doesn't seem to know it's connected to my laptop. I'm not sure how to proceed, hoe to get it set up on my laptop.

John's Canon shows up in my list of devices, but it shows as offline.

Sorry, had to head out to pick cucumbers and tomatoes. OK. This is all so easy to fix. Would you mind if we switched to email so I could send you screen shots? That would make it all SO much easier!

Never mind. I looked this up online, it told me to uninstall John's printer, and then reinstall I did so, and now it cannot be found. Period.

So I unplugged it, and now I'm trying to set up the new printer, and now even the basic setup, the one I did last time, fails. A file didn't extract.



I give up. I have to have a printer, but I just can't do it. Five more minutes of this and both printers are going off the balcony. I even had to take a sedative but now I'm so stressed I can barely breathe.

Did you uninstall the new printer first before trying again? If you did and it still won't work, then if you can send me the model number of the printer, I can look up the driver downloads for you. You should just chill for awhile and let me look it up!

Well, this time the printer connected to WIFi using the cable, so theoretically it works.


As I was getting ready to pack it up, I realized that the printer only wants to work on my 2.4 WIFI instead of my 5G, which is why it wouldn't connect because I've got my laptop on the 5G This is frustrating because it means I will have to switch back and forth between them when I want to print, but at least I have functionality. At least I hope I do...

I almost fell off my hair when I saw that green checkmark on the screen.


It's annoying because a couple of years ago I set up out new Smart TV, connected the BOSE system to it, connected my laptop to it, and so on, with not a hitch. You'd think a simple printer would take five minutes.

Thanks for all the patience and suggestions.

For sure, you need to use the 2.4 Ghtz bandwidth on your network for a printer! I didn't realize you also had the 5 Ghtz bandwidth or I would have told you to switch! I only use the 2.4 Ghtz bandwidth for that reason. SO GLAD you got it figured out!

Very happy for you that you got it working and as Draclvr said, stay at the 2.4 Ghtz bandwith, more apps and devices work better for now at the 2.4 Ghtz bandwidth.

Glad you got it working, hagatha. I do have a question though. When the phone systems all change over to 5G.... will that affect the printers?

This 5 Ghtz/2.4 Ghtz is specific to WiFi, Winfrey. It's not the same as the cell phone bandwidth. 5G in cell phone jargon simply means 5th Generation. This explains it pretty well.



As Starcom says, almost all devices work on 2.4 Ghtz... my security cameras, my printer, the TV and Rumu my robot vacuum all use 2.4 Ghtz.

I was told by our internet tech that the 5G network is best for streaming. I also thought it was best for gaming, too, for the same reason. Is that not correct?

It is definitely best for streaming, especially if you have multiple people on the same network. It really has nothing to do with gaming unless you are playing an on-line game.

5Ghtz is faster, but doesn't have much range, so it's not best for a larger home. 2.4 Ghtz is slower, but has a much larger range.

Good to know, thanks Drac.

Ah, thanks for that explanation, Draclvr. I have all my TV's on the 5G, so that's correct.

Interestingly, now that the printer is connected to the 2.4 internet connection, I can use it on my 5G and don't have to swap each time I want to print.

Of course, this being a cheap little Canon printer, the ink cartridges are half the price of the printer each! However, once I get the office downstairs up and running again that won't be an issue because I'll have a permanent computer down there. Not sure what to buy. My impulse is to get a Razer desktop so the machine can be multi-functional.

No you no longer have to swap, along with Draclvr's explanation it is easier to set up "Stuff" with 2.4, but once set up, you can then use the 5G, I did the same with my Security Camera, I had to use 2.4 to set it up but once it was up and running I could go back to 5 if I so wished, but for now I stay at 2.4 for Distance, again as mentioned by the Tomato Queen or the Goddess of Computers or just simply a Great Person.

Oh, my, Starcom! I am none of those things! Well, maybe I try to be a nice person! But thank you.