New HH3 - Issues with Kodak Printer and iPhone 3GS

Question

Hello,
Here is the background:
Previously had a D-Link DSL-G624M router and everything connected wirelessly. This included 2 laptops, Kodak ESP 5250 Printer and iPhone 3GS. Router broadcasting on channel 6 (locked).
Since upgrading to Infinity replaced the D-Link with a HH3. Laptops connect fine but have issues with other wireless devices.
iPhone: Seems to lose internet (not necessarily wireless connection though) intermittently. The phone remains connected to the HH3 and can be seen in the DHCP table and Home Network screens. The iPhone also reports that it is connected to the HH3. However, when attempting to access the internet using either Safari or apps it doesn't work. This can be fixed by forgetting the network and re-joining or turning Airplane Mode on and then off.
Kodak ESP5250 Printer: This connects fine to the HH3 and remains in the DHCP table and Home Network with the correct IP Address. Laptop A is able to connect and print successfully. However, after putting the laptop into sleep mode and re-waking it it is unable to Print. The Printer is still connected to the HH3 and laptop claims it is 'Ready' but unable to print. The only way i have found to fix this is to re-install the entire Printer software!! However, Laptop B does not have this problem and can be put into Sleep mode, Hibernate or restart and the printer remain connected. I do not think it is a firewall issue as able to connect until re-waking from sleep.
You're probably thinking the same as me that this sounds like hardware issues and not the HH3. Maybe coincidence that it started happening after changing to HH3. Maybe something wrong with the iPhone or Laptop A and/or Printer?!? Tried setting a manual channel on the HH3 as suggested by other posts but this had no effect. (Used inSSIDer to determine best channel). Also increased the IP Address lease time from 1 Day to 21 Days - but again no difference.
Current situation: Connected the D-Link router to the HH3 using Ethernet cable. Disabled DHCP and DNS on the D-Link router and kept SSID different. Now connected all devices to the D-Link router and nothing to the HH3 and everything is working as it did previously. The iPhone remains stable and the Kodak printer remains connected to both Laptops after re-waking from Sleep Mode.
I haven't yet contacted BT but i'm leaning towards it being a dodgy HH3. Anyone have any suggestions??
Thanks,
Martyn...

Answer 1

For starters, there's nothing wrong with your Iphone or Kodak prn. The issue is the HH3
I had a very similar issue connecting iMac, iPad, Macbook Pro, iPhone, Thinkpad and Canon prn via wireless to the HH3... Lots of disconnections, devices that couldn't log in, very low wireless speeds, printer not recognized, etc,etc
I went mad, pretty much did the same things as you did: inSSIDer, changing channels, re-installing whole softw drv !, reorientating HH3 position, manually assigning IPs and channels... nothing would seem to work!
Then I connected a Netgear router to HH3 via ethernet cable -like you did- and suddenly everything seemed to go back to normal. Here's what I found out after much head knocking:
1) The issue is the HH3, not that it's faulty but simply put it can't deal with lots of wireless traffic. The minute you connect several devices it gets clogged up
2) HH3 seem not to recognize WiFI printers that have a 'static' IP (not sure why)...  this was a nightmare
3) if you have many devices connected, HH3 doesn't  seem to 'like' Apple devices or wifi Airport powered (not sure why). After sleep mode these device can't pick up IP over the air, and you need to manually renew DHCP leases. There are several reports about this in Apple forums.
So here's what I did:
1) I ditched the HH3
2) I connected the Openreach router to a dual-band Netgear wndr3400 **cable** router (PPPoE connection)
3) I re-installed the prn drv in USB mode and then added wifi printer in wifi mode while usb connected
4) I created two-split WIFI networks; one in the channel 6/2.4Ghz frequency and another in the channels 44-48/5Ghz freq to which I assigned most devices (It seems BT Infinity wifi works best in 5Ghz channels)
Results: all devices recognised & connected via WiFI, no disconnections, steady WIFI speed almost as fast as ethernet cable, wifi prn prints fine from all devices... No more WIFI connnectivity issues.
I hope this helps, good luck
(note: my current issue is that my profile dropped from 34/8 to 21/2 during testing phase)