Brother HL-L2340DW Goes Offline on Eero 6 Plus: How to Fix It Permanently

Why this Brother printer keeps dropping off an Eero 6 Plus network and the practical fix that stops the cycle of resets and reconfiguration.

f you’re using a Brother HL-L2340DW laser printer on Wi-Fi with an Eero 6 Plus mesh router, you may notice a frustrating pattern:

• The printer works after a power cycle
• After a few minutes of idle time, it becomes unreachable
• Printing fails until you reboot the printer again

Factory resets and Wi-Fi reconfiguration don’t solve it — the problem keeps coming back.

This is not a defective printer. It’s a compatibility issue between modern mesh Wi-Fi behavior and an older printer Wi-Fi chipset. The good news: it can usually be fixed with the right settings.

Why This Happens

Modern mesh routers like Eero aggressively optimize wireless traffic using features such as:

• Band steering (2.4 GHz ↔ 5 GHz)
• WPA3 transition mode
• Client power-saving optimizations
• IPv6 networking

The Brother HL-L2340DW:

• Is 

  2.4 GHz only

• Has a 

  basic Wi-Fi radio

• Often fails to reconnect after the router marks it as “idle”

The result: the printer appears to be “asleep,” but it’s actually dropped from the Wi-Fi network.

Required Eero 6 Plus Settings (Most Important Section)

Open the Eero app and apply the following changes.

1. Disable WPA3 (Critical)

Settings → Network settings → WPA3

• Turn 

  WPA3 OFF

• Use 

  WPA2 only

WPA3 transition mode frequently breaks older Wi-Fi devices.

2. Turn Off Client Steering

Settings → Network settings

• Disable 

  Client Steering

This prevents Eero from trying to move the printer to unsupported bands.

3. Force a Clean 2.4 GHz Connection (Setup Trick)

Eero doesn’t allow permanent band separation, but you can do this temporarily:

Settings → Troubleshooting → My device won’t connect → Pause 5 GHz

Then:

1. Pause 5 GHz
2. Power-cycle the printer
3. Reconnect the printer to Wi-Fi
4. Confirm printing works
5. Re-enable 5 GHz

This ensures the printer locks onto 2.4 GHz properly.

4. Disable IPv6

Settings → Network settings → IPv6

• Turn 

  IPv6 OFF

• Restart the Eero network

Brother printers frequently fail to discover after sleep when IPv6 is enabled.

5. Reserve an IP Address

Settings → Network settings → Reservations & Port Forwarding

• Add the printer
• Reserve its IP address

Without this, Eero may silently drop the printer’s lease while it sleeps.

Printer Settings to Change (Once)

On the Brother printer’s control panel:

1. Menu → General Setup → Ecology

2. Set 

   Sleep Time

    to the 

   maximum

3. Disable 

   Deep Sleep

4. Power-cycle the printer

This reduces how often the router flags the printer as inactive.

Firmware Update (Strongly Recommended)

If you haven’t updated the printer firmware:

1. Connect the printer to a computer via 

   USB

2. Download and install the latest Brother firmware

3. Power-cycle the printer

4. Reconfigure Wi-Fi 

   after

    changing the Eero settings

Earlier firmware versions have known Wi-Fi sleep bugs.

What Results to Expect

After applying these changes:

• The printer stays online for days
• Printing works after long idle periods
• No more constant power-cycling

If problems persist even after all steps:

• The printer’s Wi-Fi hardware is simply at its limit
• USB printing or a wired printer model is the only 100% reliable solution

That’s a hardware-era limitation — not a configuration mistake.

Final Recommended Configuration (Quick Checklist)

• WPA2 only (no WPA3)
• Client Steering OFF
• IPv6 OFF
• IP reservation ON
• Deep Sleep OFF on the printer

This setup resolves the issue for the vast majority of Eero + Brother HL-L2340DW users.