@craig34 

Over a few routers, I've 'given up' on using Smart Connect, especially on a tri-band router.

Smart Connect has many options, and it seems it could be implemented differently on routers, even from the same vendor.

So will do Load Leveling, that is even the number of devices connected to each band. Usually though the router will detect if the device can use the 5Ghz though? On tri-bands I want the AC devices on the higher SSID and the N devices on the lower SSID, and Load Leveling doesn't help here, especially if you have uneven number of speed devices.

Some implementations will also auto change SSID's to level as devices disconnect.

In your case, I'd think the router could figure out what bands the printer could connect to and limit it to the 2.4Ghz?

Since all bands use the same SSID and P/W under Smart Connect, how can you tell it is trying to connect to one of the 5Ghz bands? Just curious how you can tell that? My HP printer always connected under Smart Connect for me? However I never have used Smart Connect on my A20?

@craig34 

To add to @IrvSp stated Smart Connect will connect devices based on their capablities.  If a printer can only connect via 2.4GHz it will not even see the 5GHz connection.  Band confusion as i call it, has happened on dual band devices but typically one using older cards or who's drivers or software haven't been updated.  Another option to would be to enable Guest Network and attach the printer to this band.  Nat Boost may also be causing connection issues so you may want to disable that feature if it is enabled and see if you see improvement. 

@Carl and @IrvSp Thanks for your help here.

No matter what I do, I cannot get the printer to connect to the Smart Connect enabled main network.

I am able to connect to the guest network (I'm only broadcasting on the 2ghz band) just fine. But then, I can't get my computer to see the printer, since my computer is connected to the primary network. Any ideas here?

@craig34 

Make sure the guest network is set to allow it to communicate with the main network.  Otherwise it will basically be firewalled off and no main network device will be able to see the printer.  

@Carl Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of even having a guest network though? Will doing this allow the guest network to basically have full access to everything on the primary network? For instance, a disk share?

@craig34 

Yes, that opens the 'guest' to full access. I am not sure if it is a 2-way street though? Of course you could protect yourself using p/w's on devices. Does sort of pose other problems depending on how you access the devices that you put p/w's on. I did that with a USB drive on a router and discovered that the ability to reach the DVD's I ripped to it varied by device and application used to access it. My SmartTV couldn't handle the password request nor could an iPad app.

If you do have 2 way access you could remove the Guest name from the 2.4Ghz and not give out the p/w. Also just allow the 2 5Ghz to be Guest accounts. Most recemt devices are dual-band so that would work.

Of couse, dropping Smart Connect would solve the problem too.

EDIT: Oops, only one P/W for all guest access it seems so it is Guest SSID used or no Smart Connect....