[Discuss] printer issue

Benjamin Kallus benjamin.p.kallus.gr at dartmouth.edu
Fri Jun 24 22:13:27 EDT 2022


However, to connect a printer to the LAN is to trust the printer's IP stack (you probably shouldnt unless your printer is brand new)

Ultimately, a network printer is usually just an ARM or MIPS computer running ancient busybox/linux. Do you really want that on your network?

> On Jun 24, 2022, at 8:47 PM, Jerry Feldman <gaf.linux at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> IMHO the printer should be on the LAN. Connecting it to the computer means
> that the computer needs to be running for the printer to be accessible to
> other systems.
> 
> --
> Jerry Feldman <gaf.linux at gmail.com>
> Boston Linux and Unix http://www.blu.org
> PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7
> PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1  3050 5715 B88D 6F6
> B B6E7
> 
>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2022, 8:38 PM <epp at null.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Another issue with the Asus - when it was functioning as a standard
>> router, was that it would not enable IPv6. The only way it could be used
>> for both IPv4 and 6, was to configure it as an AP. There are settings in
>> its firmware to enable IPv6 when used as a standard router, but none of
>> the settings worked.
>> 
>> Is it the general opinion that a printer should be directly connected to
>> the computer, rather than via Ethernet/WiFi?
>> 
>> 
>>> On 6/24/22 20:16, Jerry Feldman wrote:
>>> The issue you raise is privacy. If you use the isp provided gateway or
>> your
>>> own replacement, devices will get up addresses from that gateway's nat.
>> If
>>> you get a router, and set it up to manage your lan, you are insulating
>> your
>>> devices from the network. Of course, if you want a device accessible from
>>> the outside, that is a different story.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Jerry Feldman <gaf.linux at gmail.com>
>>> Boston Linux and Unix http://www.blu.org
>>> PGP key id: 6F6BB6E7
>>> PGP Key fingerprint: 0EDC 2FF5 53A6 8EED 84D1  3050 5715 B88D 6F6
>>> B B6E7
>>> 
>>>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2022, 7:51 PM <epp at null.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Comcast will allow a customer to use a personally-owned modem, if this
>>>> is what you're referring to. They have a list online of the approved
>>>> modems, that I presume were tested to ensure they work.
>>>> 
>>>> I have an Asus router that is configured as an access point, which I
>>>> have used in the past. As an AP, the devices on the internal network
>>>> would pull IP's from the Comcast gateway, but are physically/WiFi
>>>> connected to the AP. A negative to this, is that (unlike the Comcast
>>>> gateway) the router/AP will not allow the same SSID to be used for both
>>>> 2.4 and 5.0 GHz WiFI.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On 6/24/22 19:04, John Abreau wrote:
>>>>> I generally recommend minimizing the amount of trust you give to your
>>>>> ISP. I've switched between different ISPs over the years, and if the
>>>>> ISP insists on providing its own wifi router, I would connect only one
>>>>> device to that router: my own personal wifi router.
>>>>> 
>>>>> My internal home network is always under my personal administrative
>>>>> control, and I only use the ISP to transport bits back and forth
>>>>> between my private network and the public Internet.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Fri, Jun 24, 2022 at 4:50 PM <epp at null.net> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>     My printer is an OfficeJet Pro 8210 and it will prompt to download
>>>> and
>>>>>     install a software upgrade, if available, when it's connected to
>> the
>>>>>     network. It has upgraded the software once, since I've had it. I
>>>>>     do not
>>>>>     know how often it checks HP for updates.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>     On 6/24/22 15:54, Ben Kallus wrote:
>>>>>> It's worth noting the security risks that come with network
>>>>>     printers.
>>>>>> Their firmwares is not often updated, and has been shown to be
>>>>>> insecure time and time again.^1 You may be better off connecting
>>>>>     it to
>>>>>> a computer you trust, then exposing it as a network printer
>> through
>>>>>> that computer. The photosmart D110 is the printer I had as a
>>>>>     kid, and
>>>>>> I don't think it's gotten an update in a very long time.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> [1]:
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>> https://techventures.columbia.edu/news-and-events/latest-news/symbiote-technology-created-ang-cui-and-salvatore-stolfo-named-one
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On Jun 24, 2022, at 1:58 PM, epp at null.net wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> On 6/24/22 11:21, dan moylan wrote:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> running fc36 on lenevo thinkpad T460 (alphacent), printer hp
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> photosmart d110.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> because of other problems, xfinity just came and provided a
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> new modem/router/wifi.  i logged into xfinity's device and
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> set up reserved ip addresses for my stuff in accordance with
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> /etc/hosts:
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain localhost
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 127.0.0.1       alphacent.localdomain  alphacent
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 10.0.0.1         xfinity.localdomain xfinity
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 10.0.0.63        aldeberon.localdomain aldeberon
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 10.0.0.62        d110.localdomain d110
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 10.0.0.61        unknown
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 10.0.0.60        alphacent.localdomain alphacent
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 50.87.218.82     bluedan
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> all is well, except for the printer.  i went through the
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> wireless setup on the printer which declared success, but
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> the xfinitiy modem shows it as an offline device --
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> un-pingable.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   moylan nmp[1111] nmap -Pn 10.0.0.62 > 3log
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   Starting Nmap 7.92 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2022-06-24
>> 11:14
>>>> EDT
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   Nmap scan report for d110.localdomain (10.0.0.62)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   Host is up (0.10s latency).
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   All 1000 scanned ports on d110.localdomain (10.0.0.62) are
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   in ignored states.  Not shown: 990 filtered tcp ports
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   (no-response), 10 filtered tcp ports (host-unreach)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>   Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 7.04 seconds
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> what's going on?
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> ole dan
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I swapped out my gateway with Comcast last month because of the
>>>>>     speed
>>>>>>> increases back in March. My HP printer was connected to the
>>>>>     previous and
>>>>>>> is connected to the new, via Ethernet. The printer apparently
>>>>>     retained
>>>>>>> its IP address in its settings, so once it was connected to the
>>>> new
>>>>>>> gateway, it just worked.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> If the above is the IP address of the printer and HPLIP is
>> already
>>>>>>> installed, as superuser/root, running:
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> hp-setup -a 10.0.0.62
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> in a terminal window, should otherwise configure it.
>>>>> 
>>>>>     _______________________________________________
>>>>>     Discuss mailing list
>>>>>     Discuss at lists.blu.org
>>>>>     http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> --
>>>>> John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
>>>>> Email: abreauj at gmail.com / WWW http://www.abreau.net / PGP-Key-ID
>>>>> 0x920063C6
>>>>> PGP-Key-Fingerprint A5AD 6BE1 FEFE 8E4F 5C23  C2D0 E885 E17C 9200 63C6
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