I've got a printer that only does WPA2 and won't work using OpenWRT mixed mode.
If I want to still keep my main LAN using WPA3, but have access to the printer what options might there be?
I tried WiFi Direct and it didnt work.
The only option I could think of was to setup another network that uses WPA2. But only have the printer on it. Create firewall rule to allow traffic between the printer network and lan, then put a static route in between the lan and the printer IP only.
Yes, you could have a SSID that is exclusively WPA2, and that can be tied to a different network, if desired.
Another possible optoin:
Is the printer within physical wire-range of your router? You could use ethernet if your printer has it, or you could setup a print server on the router (if your router has a USB port). Or you could use another OpenWrt router with USB as a print server and that could join via wifi (WPA3).
haha, sounds like several ways to skin the cat. OK, I'll go down the WPA2 only SSID in the first instance, but quite like the idea of a print server on the router because not tried that before.
Ideally, you'd connect the printer by wired ethernet (personally I'd never buy a wifi-only printer, the embedded wifi stacks of those are typically $not_good…).
p910nd only proxies through the USB connection of the printer, it's technically not a print server - it works quite fine (depending on the printer drivers and their USB communication protocols), but if you have better means, I'd always prefer those (including wifi).
Sadly a lot of IoT- and 'smart' devices have problems with WPA3 or mixed mode (or just about anything less commonly used), giving them an isolated IoT network/ ESSID with matching encryption is typically the only way out (not a great one, but the only pragmatic one, apart from retiring the devices, including brandnew ones).