★★★★★ 4
Printing is great, wifi is a problem (I figured out how to make it work!)
Color: White, Style: ET-2800-W, Pattern Name: Printer
I was on the fence about buying this printer because most of the 1 star reviews all said the same thing... "The Wifi would not work"
So I followed the instructions, Turned on the print, downloaded the IOS app, connected to the printer via Bluetooth, installed the ink, initialized the printheads. While that was going on, the app asked me to setup the wifi. a List of SSID's came up and I selected the one I wanted. I put in the password and it connected and the icon on the printer turned blue. I have a Unifi setup and I could see that the printer connected to access point #3 @ 2.4ghz and got an ip address. I locked the IP address to the printer.
(For my instructions to work for you, you need to make a reservation or lock the ipaddress that your DHCP server provided to the printer. ) If you don't do this, you will get a different address every time you turn the printer on and the computer and app will not be able to find the printer.
When the initialization was complete, the app on my phone said it could not connect to the printer. I decided to try to connect to a computer and come back to the phone app. I downloaded the software package from Epson and ran it. When it went to connect to the printer it could not find it and brings up a list of troubleshooting steps that are not likely to do anything.
There are videos about this problem and they are all useless. I am an IT professional with 26 years of experience. I am not going to unplug the printer and wait five minutes, I am not going to re-boot my router, I have a Unifi network environment with over 150 devices connected... (I have great wifi coverage, I am not moving my printer anywhere) My network works just fine, this printer is the issue!
So at this point, I know that the printer IS connected to my wifi and it got an IP address. This is not a wifi problem as everyone seems to think it is. It is an issue with the Epson software.
I decided to try to install it via the windows printer installer. I selected install via TCP/IP and put the ipaddress that my Unifi system provided to the printer. Windows found the printer and since the Epson app had already installed the drivers... just asked me what drivers I wanted to use. The ET-2800 showed up on the right hand side of the screen. I selected it, it installed and I was able to try a test print. It worked fine. I can print from my computer to the printer via the network.
Next was the phone app. The phone app has the option to find the printer via the IP address. I put the IP address in and it found the printer. The phone app works now too.
So, It took me some time to get this working, it should not have taken any time at all if the software worked correctly. The printer is really nice, it is a shame that the software is so bad when it comes to connecting to the printer.
So if you decide to buy one of these printers, save yourself the headache and just install using the ip address, it is quick and easy that way and it just works. I would have just purchased an HP printer, but I did not want to deal with all the issues of their subscription ink service. I feel like the cost of ink makes this printer worth the hassle of getting it to work.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2024
