Printer not connecting / printer not showing

@billygunn111

Annoyingly, there can be several causes of the printer not being able to connect to your web host. You are absolutely right, certificates can be an issue too.

Which printer do you have? If it’s an mC-Print, then any firmware from 3.0 should be ok, but I would recommend installing the latest 3.5 anyway. You can update the printer firmware using either the “mC-Print Utility” or “Star Quick Setup Utility” apps from the Google Play/Apple App stores.

If you have a printer with HIX interface, then you definitely do need to update to the latest firmware to support current LetsEncrypt certificates, which you can do using a web browser connected to the printers configuration UI. Alternatively, you can use older firmware, but update it’s certificate package, instructions are available on the Star EMEA web site.

It looks like you are in the UK, which means that you can also get direct support from Star EMEA (also UK based) if you are still having trouble.

It is unlikely that your hosting company would be blocking any IPs. But what they do often do is additional caching on the server side this helps speed up access to parts of your web site that don’t often change. This can lead to problems, such as the printer not being able to determine that a print job is available. Usually, in this case your printer will connect ok initially, but then have problems like not printing, or worse reprinting the same job repeatedly.

Also, do you have any other software running on your site which uses the same printer? Which maybe control the printer by USB, Bluetooth or over the network? Usually, sharing access to the printer is no problem, but this does depend on third party applications not claiming exclusive access to the device, which some do.