HP Wifi Direct, Officejet 5740, connect automatically?

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New HP Officejet 5740 printer, couple year old Pavilion 500-098 computer, Windows 10. I don’t have wifi, so rather than using an Ethernet or USB connection for the printer, I used HP’s Wifi Direct. Connected the printer to the computer, installed software and drivers, everything went well, everything works. When the printer is on and I click on the system tray network icon, the printer is listed there, and is set to automatically connect. I thought that meant that when I tried to print something, my computer would automatically connect to the printer, and it would print. But this doesn’t happen. I need to click on the system tray network icon, click on the printer, then click on “Connect”. I don’t have to do this every time I want to print something, just the first time I want to print something after I’ve turned on the computer and / or printer. Not a big thing, I’m just wondering if there’s a setting somewhere that I have to turn on (or off)? I asked this in HP’s support forum a few days ago, but so far haven’t received any replies.

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Probably a consequence of having 2 networks on your computer. Using a cable from you router to the printer would fix it.

cheers, Paul

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Probably a consequence of having 2 networks on your computer. Using a cable from you router to the printer would fix it.

cheers, Paul

Thanks for the reply. You may be right, but the reason I connected the printer using Wifi Direct was because I didn’t want to use a cable to connect it. None of the information I’ve read about HP’s Wifi Direct mentions anything about having to click on the system tray network icon to connect the printer after it or the computer has been off. So I thought maybe I was missing something.

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It looks like there’s no workaround for this. If you connect your printer using Wifi Direct, whenever the printer or computer has been turned off and back on, you can’t print unless you first connect the printer by going through the system tray network access icon. Why doesn’t HP mention this anywhere in their Wifi Direct guides?

When this happened to me, I thought something had gone wrong with my printer setup. I was able to figure out what the problem was, but I was getting quite frustrated and annoyed. One or two sentences explaining about the system tray network access in one of HP’s Wifi Direct guides would have helped me a great deal. I wonder how many people couldn’t figure it out, gave up on Wifi Direct, and ended up buying a USB cable to connect their printer

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The router does not have WIFI?

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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The router does not have WIFI?

No, it’s not a wireless router. It’s a cable modem, cable wire connects to the modem, and the modem is connected to the computer with an Ethernet cable to the computer’s Ethernet port.

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I have a different model ( HP Officejet Pro 8100 ) but should be the same as to the WiFi hookup/installation. I have 3 computers ( 2 win 7 and 1 Win 10 ) and I don’t have to click anything other than the print icon to get something printed. I don’t have to click anything in the system tray, never have had to. When any of the 3 computers are on, I can start the printer and they all see and can use it.
I think something went wrong on your original setup or your router/firewall is looking for an ok to use it for some reason.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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I have a different model ( HP Officejet Pro 8100 ) but should be the same as to the WiFi hookup/installation. I have 3 computers ( 2 win 7 and 1 Win 10 ) and I don’t have to click anything other than the print icon to get something printed. I don’t have to click anything in the system tray, never have had to. When any of the 3 computers are on, I can start the printer and they all see and can use it.
I think something went wrong on your original setup or your router/firewall is looking for an ok to use it for some reason.

Remember, I don’t have WiFi here. And I don’t have a router, it’s a cable modem. I used HP’s WiFi Direct to connect the printer to the computer. WiFi Direct is different than regular WiFi, it’s for people (like me) who don’t have WiFi. I assume it works by the printer sending out a WiFi signal that the computer finds.

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Ahhh, I guess that’s the difference in access then.

Don't take yourself so seriously, no one else does 🙂
All W10 Pro at 22H2,(2 Desktops, 1 Laptop).

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Ahhh, I guess that’s the difference in access then.

Thanks for trying to help.

In HP’s WiFi Direct guides they make out as if a printer connected to a computer with their WiFi Direct is exactly the same as connecting a printer with regular WiFi, but it’s not – you have the (minor) annoyance that I ran into (having to connect every time the printer or computer has been shut off and back on). I’m thinking that HP doesn’t want to mention this fact in their WiFi Direct guides, because people might think “well, that sucks a little bit”. After a person buys an HP printer and connects it with WiFi Direct and discovers this glitch – well, it’s a bit late, they’ve already bought the printer…

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Reading thru the guides I noted that with the HP flavor of WIFIdirect you can not connect to the internet and print at the same time. While this does not seem to be the flavor on your printer it maybe worth noting. I gather there is no plane adhoc option in the HP wizard?

:cheers:

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Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Reading thru the guides I noted that with the HP flavor of WIFIdirect you can not connect to the internet and print at the same time. While this does not seem to be the flavor on your printer it maybe worth noting. I gather there is no plane adhoc option in the HP wizard?

:cheers:

I am able to connect to the Internet and print at the same time. I think you were reading about HP’s “Wireless Direct” which is an older version of their “WiFi Direct”. With “Wireless Direct” you can’t connect to the Internet and use the printer at the same time, but with “WiFi Direct” you can. As for you question, do you mean the printer install wizard? When I ran it, it downloaded and installed the drivers needed, and installed the printer, but to get WiFi Direct to work I had to press the Wifi Direct icon on the printer screen to turn WiFi Direct on, then it showed up on my computer and I entered the WiFi Direct password, and the printer finished installing.

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Just to make things clear, I like the printer and would have bought it even if I’d known before hand about the WiFi Direct annoyance. I just think that HP should mention this in their WiFi Direct guides so that people who connect using WiFi Direct won’t think they’ve screwed something up (like I thought).

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I was just wondering if you had access to plain old ad hoc mode.

:cheers:

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Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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I was just wondering if you had access to plain old ad hoc mode.

:cheers:

Since I’m not sure what that would be, I’d have to say I have no idea.:confused:

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Just to make clear what I’m asking…
I don’t have my printer on all of the time. I turn it on when I want to print something. When I turn the printer on, I can’t print anything until I do the following:

I click on the system tray network icon. When I do, I see this:

41942-prin2t

I click on my printer and see this:

41943-print

I click on Connect and after about 20 – 30 seconds, I see this:

41944-printlast

Now I can print. I don’t have to do this every time I want to print something from now on, only if I shut off the printer and then turn it back on again. The “Limited” means that the printer itself has no access to the Internet, meaning the printer can’t do stuff over the Internet, like check HP’s website for updates, and I can’t use HP’s ink saver program to buy ink cartridges. I still have access to the Internet.

When I turn on the printer, my computer “sees” it (when the printer is off, it doesn’t show up when I click on the system tray network icon). So why do I have to go through all of this clicking to connect the printer? Is there a way that when I turn on the printer, I can print without having to go into the system tray network icon? This isn’t a big thing, but I just think that somewhere there’s a setting that has to be turned on (or off) that’ll let this happen.

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Your attachments are not valid.

Ad hoc was a kinda peer to peer type connection some printer drivers/sw had that option. Replaced by WIFI Direct I guess.

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Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Oh, okay.

When I click on the attachments I see them.

But I see that when I’m not logged in I don’t.

Sorry about that, I thought that inserting the images in the message had worked.

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Can you see the images now?

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Sure can, thanks for updating them

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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