3 ms·

My brother Laser printer still works great after 5 years or more, I think MacOS got a lot worse at printing to it though in the last major version... I have to

My brother Laser printer still works great after 5 years or more, I think MacOS got a lot worse at printing to it though in the last major version... I have to remove the printer, reboot and re-add it most times. Or I just print from my phone which always works.

RobotToaster 3y ago
Brother started locking out third party cartridges by firmware updates apparently.
- dryanau 3y ago
  I've experienced this. My $500 MFC is a brick unless I go out and purchase a genuine Brother toner, despite having spent several hundred dollars on a stash of generics. At some point they just stopped working. And just to be clear: they didn't just disable the printer; I can't even use the scanner on top unless I go and buy the Brother toners. Screw Brother. I'm tired of reading that they're "the one good brand" out there. They are very not.
  - JKCalhoun 3y ago
    They were.
    - lostlogin 3y ago
      I buy Brother Laser as they used to be good.
      - hilbert42 3y ago
        That was once upon a time long, long ago!
  - TacticalCoder 3y ago
    > Screw Brother. I'm tired of reading that they're "the one good brand" out there. They are very not. OK but is there any other alternative? Wife's SME: two Brother printers (these are with official support for everything although I did have to modify a few settings here or there when they moved office and their router IP changed for example). Home number one: Brother printer. Home number two: Brother printer. It's really pathetic if they started preventing other toners from working but they're still fine machines. What would I replace our four Brother laser printers with? Basically I read your post and Brother "won": I'll just make sure to buy official Brother toners. Which sucks.
    - msravi 3y ago
      Canon, I guess? The Canon MF4150 that I bought some 15 years ago is still humming along well, and doesn't mind using third-party toners. No idea how they are now though.
  - singleshot_ 3y ago
    Strongly agree. I upgraded my Mac and it resulted in my brother mfc losing the ability to scan from the mac. It seems brother did not port the driver to the new OS. Accordingly, they are dirt and I will not buy from them again.
- branon 3y ago
  Also a satisfied Brother laser printer user. I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this. I always buy the Brother toner cartridges because they're the best quality, reasonably priced, and I want to support the business model of the only(?) decent printer manufacturer left. All of this said, if I found out the printer was locking out third-party toner cartridges, I'd stop at nothing to defeat the lock, and would only use knockoff toner from then on. It's an honor system through and through, I hope somebody in charge takes note.
  - PNewling 3y ago
    >I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this. Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you do this without blocking wifi printing? Are you just stopping network egress from the printers IP address? Edit - by wifi printing I mean on the same network, in house.
    - lr1970 3y ago
      > >I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this. > Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you do this without blocking wifi printing? Are you just stopping network egress from the printers IP address? > Edit - by wifi printing I mean on the same network, in house. I can guess that their routing table only allows routing from/to the printer's IP in the local network (wired or wireless). Any packet to/from outside world for the printer is dropped.
    - branon 3y ago
      Only traffic headed towards the router's WAN interface is dropped, LAN communication is allowed unfettered. In my opinion there's never any reason a home office printer with one or two users should need to talk to the Internet.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  Yes, and as with HP, the secret appears to be, buy used. I too have an old Brother that I keep around. Some years back I bought an HP on eBay that was at least 5 years old at the time — it was a model that the 3rd party toner companies had figured out how to hack. In fact, that is generally my suggestion: to determine which used printer to shop for, find the ink/toner cartridges that are in abundance and see which models they work with. I suppose software support is the only danger of this (although it has not bitten me yet). But I believe there are perhaps open-source or 3rd party solutions here?
hayley-patton 3y ago
Mine has a dodgy power connection somehow, and will refuse to turn on most of the time (depending on star alignment and where it was plugged in). Maybe if I could remove the power cable, I could check if that's the issue. Okay, I guess anything's removable if you try hard enough.
xtracto 3y ago
I have a very small and simple Samsung laser printer I think I bought it 9 years ago. It's been amazing for the odd printout I do every year. No dry ink, fast and no frills connecting it to any OS through USB. I should use my arduino one to make some sort of printer server.
- skeeter2020 3y ago
  I have an HP 1200 laserjet (b&w) that's 24 years old. The biggest problem is the parallel port interface but it's still the family printer. Not sure what we'll do when it dies...
- wesapien 3y ago
  I have the same experience with Samsung printers. It's the most reliable and it's multi-funtion M2875FW. Works with generic toners.
- Wistar 3y ago
  I also have a straightforward Samsung laser from about 2016 or so. It is the only laser printer I know about that has the capability, and specific settings, to print on a range of paper weights, including heavier stock. It has been dead reliable but, a few years ago, the toner cartridges became hard to get and tripled in price from about $36 to over $100. Third party cartridges that I tried don’t work nearly as well or last nearly as long as the Samsung toner. I stopped using it and it now sits in a closet.

RobotToaster 3y ago

Brother started locking out third party cartridges by firmware updates apparently.

dryanau 3y ago
I've experienced this. My $500 MFC is a brick unless I go out and purchase a genuine Brother toner, despite having spent several hundred dollars on a stash of generics. At some point they just stopped working. And just to be clear: they didn't just disable the printer; I can't even use the scanner on top unless I go and buy the Brother toners. Screw Brother. I'm tired of reading that they're "the one good brand" out there. They are very not.
- JKCalhoun 3y ago
  They were.
  - lostlogin 3y ago
    I buy Brother Laser as they used to be good.
    - hilbert42 3y ago
      That was once upon a time long, long ago!
- TacticalCoder 3y ago
  > Screw Brother. I'm tired of reading that they're "the one good brand" out there. They are very not. OK but is there any other alternative? Wife's SME: two Brother printers (these are with official support for everything although I did have to modify a few settings here or there when they moved office and their router IP changed for example). Home number one: Brother printer. Home number two: Brother printer. It's really pathetic if they started preventing other toners from working but they're still fine machines. What would I replace our four Brother laser printers with? Basically I read your post and Brother "won": I'll just make sure to buy official Brother toners. Which sucks.
  - msravi 3y ago
    Canon, I guess? The Canon MF4150 that I bought some 15 years ago is still humming along well, and doesn't mind using third-party toners. No idea how they are now though.
- singleshot_ 3y ago
  Strongly agree. I upgraded my Mac and it resulted in my brother mfc losing the ability to scan from the mac. It seems brother did not port the driver to the new OS. Accordingly, they are dirt and I will not buy from them again.
branon 3y ago
Also a satisfied Brother laser printer user. I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this. I always buy the Brother toner cartridges because they're the best quality, reasonably priced, and I want to support the business model of the only(?) decent printer manufacturer left. All of this said, if I found out the printer was locking out third-party toner cartridges, I'd stop at nothing to defeat the lock, and would only use knockoff toner from then on. It's an honor system through and through, I hope somebody in charge takes note.
- PNewling 3y ago
  >I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this. Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you do this without blocking wifi printing? Are you just stopping network egress from the printers IP address? Edit - by wifi printing I mean on the same network, in house.
  - lr1970 3y ago
    > >I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this. > Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you do this without blocking wifi printing? Are you just stopping network egress from the printers IP address? > Edit - by wifi printing I mean on the same network, in house. I can guess that their routing table only allows routing from/to the printer's IP in the local network (wired or wireless). Any packet to/from outside world for the printer is dropped.
  - branon 3y ago
    Only traffic headed towards the router's WAN interface is dropped, LAN communication is allowed unfettered. In my opinion there's never any reason a home office printer with one or two users should need to talk to the Internet.
JKCalhoun 3y ago
Yes, and as with HP, the secret appears to be, buy used. I too have an old Brother that I keep around. Some years back I bought an HP on eBay that was at least 5 years old at the time — it was a model that the 3rd party toner companies had figured out how to hack. In fact, that is generally my suggestion: to determine which used printer to shop for, find the ink/toner cartridges that are in abundance and see which models they work with. I suppose software support is the only danger of this (although it has not bitten me yet). But I believe there are perhaps open-source or 3rd party solutions here?

hayley-patton 3y ago

Mine has a dodgy power connection somehow, and will refuse to turn on most of the time (depending on star alignment and where it was plugged in). Maybe if I could remove the power cable, I could check if that's the issue. Okay, I guess anything's removable if you try hard enough.

xtracto 3y ago

I have a very small and simple Samsung laser printer I think I bought it 9 years ago. It's been amazing for the odd printout I do every year. No dry ink, fast and no frills connecting it to any OS through USB. I should use my arduino one to make some sort of printer server.

skeeter2020 3y ago
I have an HP 1200 laserjet (b&w) that's 24 years old. The biggest problem is the parallel port interface but it's still the family printer. Not sure what we'll do when it dies...
wesapien 3y ago
I have the same experience with Samsung printers. It's the most reliable and it's multi-funtion M2875FW. Works with generic toners.
Wistar 3y ago
I also have a straightforward Samsung laser from about 2016 or so. It is the only laser printer I know about that has the capability, and specific settings, to print on a range of paper weights, including heavier stock. It has been dead reliable but, a few years ago, the toner cartridges became hard to get and tripled in price from about $36 to over $100. Third party cartridges that I tried don’t work nearly as well or last nearly as long as the Samsung toner. I stopped using it and it now sits in a closet.