Recommendations for a color, full duplex, laser printer?
Another printer company (Brother) has fallen to the allure of “remote disable” if they object to you using your own device in a way they don’t like: trying to self-service, use third party inks, whatever. It’s at their discretion. Given printers are the sorts of devices to which you tend to want to have network access, preventing this is a lot of work.
I’ve been looking at color duplex laser printers, and Brother has been at the top of the list, until they recently announcement that they’d disable printers using third party inks.
BIFL to me implies that the company isn’t going to actively sabotage self-service, or restrict your usage of the thing, so I think this is an appropriate question for this c/.
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I admittedly have no idea; however, I also have never put my Brother printer on the network directly, I would use a serial USB B cable to connect it to a computer and share it through the computer.
Yeah, that’s one of the firewall options: dedicate a computer as a print server. Or, actually firewall off the device in the router. Both are often more work than just putting the device on the LAN. And then there are the firmware upgrades, which sometimes have actual benefit.
For years I used Jabra conference speakers. It was shocking just how often they needed firmware updates, and sometimes I’d discover I needed a firmware update because the speaker started acting funny. It’s a darned speaker; much less complex than a printer. I have trouble imagining what possible monetization Jabra could have been getting out of the upgrades.
I’d keep an eye out for second hand Brother printers. I’ve got three and they’re all going great.
AFAIK the judgment is still out. Brother denies the claims and is working with Rossman to remedy that. Wait a few days with your judgment and purchase would be my recommendation.
Brother is saying they won’t “brick” your printer. Sounds like they’re only denying the most extreme description and not what they’re actually doing.
Why the hell does a printer need to “call home” for anything anyway?
Man that really grinds my gears. So now I need to isolate my printer in a VLAN and only open a port for my server to access it so it can be shared there, to keep it from accessing the internet.
I’ve found refurbed HP lasers (older ones, that have NICs but before this web crap) - they’re looking pretty attractive…
Yeah, the people having problems with Brother printers aren’t saying that they aren’t working, but rather that print quality is bad. With it appearing to happen to just a few people my guess is that a few poor quality cartridges went out from a third party factory. Give it a week or two if you can and we’ll find out for sure.
Ok, thank you. I’ve had a monochrome Brother laser before, years and years ago, which I destroyed by moving it poorly - toner everywhere. But I loved that printer, and would happily get another if they stay ethical.
My last couple have been used, off Craigslist. So slightly older models. That also means they are less likely to have the phone-home nonsense. And I refuse to ever own an inkjet again.
Currently running a 2013 HP consumer B/W, and a 2018 Canon Color laser. Neither care about internet.
I’ve had good results with Canon printers. They accept 3rd party ink/toner just fine, will still print even if low, and the software interface looks like it hasn’t changed since the Windows 95 days. Which means no extra BS included cause it’s too outdated for that. Just everything you need to print and scan, and nothing more.
My only complaint is that the initial setup is a major pain in the ass, but once you get the printer to stop whining and finally connect to the network, it just works, and works flawlessly with any device. I can effortlessly print from any PC or phone in the house.
I second the Canon printer. Although I have no idea what people were talking about with the difficulty of the setup. I saw it repeated in reviews. I was expecting a huge time commitment. I think it took me longer to unpack. The setup was a breeze. Didn’t even need a computer. Still very new, but the printer is functioning well.
As far as I know there’s none.
I’m pretty sure Brother is the last hold out against the dark side.I checked the version on my Brother printer, and it’s something like 1.4; the reported issues start around 1.6 or something. I’ve made sure it doesn’t have access to the internet and that auto-updates are also disabled; hopefully the printer will continue working on it’s own. I’ve also downloaded the drivers and software for every o/s the printer works with, so that I’ll hopefully have a non-nerfed version of the computer software for whenever I end up having to upgrade my computer.
I have had my brother printers since ‘18 and have never updated them. They both have a notice about firmware updates. They connect to Dropbox to upload scans, and print via WiFi.
This doesn’t help you as it’s not colour, but a few days ago I found out that HP, of all people, make a toner tank printer that takes powdered toner https://www.hp.com/za-en/printers/laserjet-tank.html
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Monochrome laser printers are a fairly well solved problem. Plenty of older ones are built like tanks and will work forever with 3rd party toner. Color might be harder.
I recently got a Xerox and don’t hate it yet (high praise for the printer industry).
