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Why would you ever connect a printer to the internet? Best case it should be available on LAN, and you can use a VPN if you need a wider network (ie. an office
by tpxl 3y ago
Why would you ever connect a printer to the internet? Best case it should be available on LAN, and you can use a VPN if you need a wider network (ie. an office building).
You should more or less _never_ update your 'dumb' devices unless there is a specific feature/bugfix you need.
- throwaway25232 3y agoA printer on a LAN will often find a way out to the internet. Sure, you can firewall it if you think to do that. Another way to auto-update firmware is that the printer driver on your computer fetches the upgrade (your PC can certainly get to the internet) and then installs it on the printer.
- hyperman1 3y agoIt's hard to stop sometimes. The printer driver might auto-update via windows, so a next print job auto-uploads new firmware.
- macNchz 3y agoThe latest HP models require always-on internet or they will refuse to print.
- tenebrisalietum 3y agoFor all in ones that have a scanner, it's used to support scan to email without involving a PC.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y agoI gotta tell you, I would be more worried about giving these things live email credentials than I would be about them spontaneously bricking.
- tenebrisalietum 3y agoWell you would be dumb to give it anything but unique per-device credentials to a working SSL-enabled SMTP server. For non-techy home or SOHO users, they're likely using smtp.gmail.com with their gmail creds though. Would not be unresonable to dedicate a gmail account just for scan to email IMHO.
- yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago> For non-techy home or SOHO users, they're likely using smtp.gmail.com with their gmail creds though. That's exactly what I'm worried about. Obviously there are ways to do it safely (and gmail actually I think might even force them), but I have very low expectations of a lot of the userbase (not a dig at them: the tech isn't exactly set up to make the easy thing safe).
- olliej 3y agoI’m trying to work out what you mean. Is your lan not connected to the internet?
- kadoban 3y agoWith proper equipment and setup, you can control what on your LAN can talk to the outside world (you can get way more granular than that as well).