Submitted 1 year ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to technology@lemmy.world
This shit happened to me recently. Installed firmware update and immediately my 3rd party toner stops working. Try to find old firmware to roll back to and couldn’t locate it anywhere. Found some for other models via Google drive links in Reddit posts, but nothing for my printer.
I replaced the toner with new 3rd party toner which worked. And now I’ll never install another firmware update on the printer and should probably block it from the internet.
Even with a backup, there are chance they put a “security feature” to prevent downgrade.
I fear the day my 2014 hp LaserJet dies. There won’t be a decent printer on the market…
Haha, my crappy ass old HP printer still takes refills. No printer company shall ever see another cent of mine 😈
anyone know about jailbreaking printers
It absolutely baffles me that there isn’t a huge custom printer firmware movement.
I’ve have had this thought too and the only reason I can think of is that the inkjet printers are sold at such a rediculous loss, that anything that could be sold next to them without the offset price from ink would seem like a bad joke.
Et tu Brute! :(
Someone needs to Luigi Brother’s CEO
nononononononpnNONONONONONO WHYYYYY I JUST GOT A BROTHER BECAUSE OF HP DOING THE SAME THING WTF
Keep it off the Internet and don’t update the firmware
It’s going to get to the point where you might be better off going back to dot matrix if tank-based inkjet printers are somehow locked down via chemical DRM too.
I’m actually looking for a good multifunctional printer. Our Samsung is dying. It was an LED printer and we only changed toner 1 time in 15 years.
OTOH, I’ve been using a HP laser printer for years and the last time I spent 40€ for toner was almost two years ago. Just stay away from shitty inksquirters or even shittier “multi-function-devices”. They are customer-rippoff devices without real use, nothing else. Honestly, if you think you need to print colorful, fuzzy pictures that will fade at the first streak of sunlight you probably had it coming.
This firmware update applies to laserjets. Not inkjets.
You were the chosen one! 😭
I have a Ricoh that doesn’t give me any problems, works out of the box with Linux pcl6 drivers. Bought a third party toner cartridge like 8 years ago, still using it today. It’s an old model, but worth checking newer ones.
I Remeber something about that being buyitforlife on reddit, would you consider posting it to !buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
They had two things going for them… Decent linux support and non-shitty DRM ink/toner
This is a total shit move but I have tried many printers and I’m still choosing Brother everytime. Especially on some older generations with copy scan and print.
Give them time and they’ll suck too. Nothing is safe from enshitification, as they’ve just shown us.
Oh I believe it but no doubt. But right now even with this totally shitty move and I mean totally shitty move. Brother atleast their older models still accept 3rd party cartridges. Everyone buy those! Fuck the new stuff.
Et tu Brother?
Anyone know which ip addresses to block to stop the updates?
If you set the wrong gateway in the static IP settings or a reserved DHCP lease, it won’t be able to get out.
But will it be able to be reachable by other printers on the network?
Why? Does the printer need to be connected to the internet at all, if not for firmware upgrades? (Note: LAN != internet)
Many people use WiFi to connect to their printers for the sake of convenience
Good that we did not buy a Brother printer.
Brother used to be the good guys… Damn.
If it’s not already under the umbrella of right to repair, do we now need right to refill?
Oh, Brother.
In case anyone was thinking this applies only to inkjet printers: no, it ONLY seems to apply to laser printers – the thing that Brother used to be known for. Where the article says “ink”, they mean “toner”. There is no ink in a laser printer.
Could this be anything related to government printer tracking requirements?
I believe that only applies to ink jet. You can hardly make secret dots in B&W.
It’s like every company that wasn’t complete shit just suddenly decided to…go to complete shit.
The government has mostly turned a blind eye to dark pattern business for years, and now the president is openly saying that he encourages it and wants companies to step up their game. Of course things are going to get worse, especially now where everyone will have forgotten this by the next election, so it’ll get to stay as “the norm”
With the current US government, there’s far more roadblocks to running a company ethically than turning it to absolute shit
Brother is a Japanese company.
It’s like every company that was
n’t completeplaying the social good will game and didn’t appear at a casual glance to be shit just suddenly decided to…goto complete shit.masks off, because they saw it might finally be acceptable to be ghouls again.
Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure I FTFY. Wish it weren’t so, but that’s definitely what it looks like…
The mask of humanity fall[s] from capital. It has to take it off to kill everyone – everything you love; all the hope and tenderness in the world. It has to take it off, just for one second. To do the deed.
- Disco Elysium
If regulators don’t stop them from doing it, the CEO’s of publicly traded companies will get the boot from the board for not doing it. They have a fiduciary duty to be as shitty as humanly possible.
We need laws to stop this, but the politicians are all bribed not to.
They have a fiduciary duty to be as shitty as humanly possible.
They don’t – that’s a cargo-cult misunderstanding of Dodge v. Ford Motor Co – but it’s so widely believed I guess it might as well be true.
Buy an Epson EcoTank printer. My family owns three. You pay more for the printer but just dump in bottles of ink when they need refilling.
I just got an old HP inkjet that doesn’t care about reported ink levels and cheap ink bottles from AliExpress.
I print white on black because I have so much damn ink and nobody expects dark mode documents. Kinda funny when I take out a sheet of paper and have to dry it out. 120g/m² is absolutely the minimum when doing such crap though. Regular 80g/m² just wrinkles up and leaks through, although that’s also a property of dye ink vs pigment ink.
But I also lucked out on sales combined with coupons
Image
Currently it’s €18.50, though for 0.5L (~1 pint) that’s still cheap. Honestly I am surprised I actually received that.
Nice. We had one printer or another that required expensive ink cartridges before we got the Epson. I used to refill some cartridges but it was a pain. Now I just open a set of bottles and top up the tanks whenever it’s thirsty.
Just make sure you schedule a test print every couple off weeks to prevent clogs, is a little wasteful but if you get aftermarket ink it’s cheap enough that is worth it, otherwise a new head will run you down around 50 bucks.
They do require maintenance to keep them running smoothly. I’m fairly mechanically and technically capable so I can disconnect the head and run DA-2A through the mechanism to clean it out.
I think its time we deprecate most forms of printing. Clearly corporations cannot be trusted to operate these kinds of companies.
I suggest whoever has old firmware files to upload them to the Internet Archive (if they allow those).
Got this link from reddacted
mega.nz/folder/gjgiXA4Z#VHJqPNUx8wgcPYyfq44zag
Internet Archive is extremely lax in what it allows
if the update doesn’t allow the printer to calibrate with this aftermarket ink the cheaper carts become basically unusable
This isn’t true. It just means you have to do the registration manually.
This is scummy behavior for sure, but it’s also being exaggerated for clicks.
Nice, Brother was the last one standing in my mind.
I’m glad I have an IoT vlan without internet access. Nothing is allowed to phone home here.
Oh FFS. Not Brother as well. I used to recommend them to everyone. Who is left with unshittified printers?
Kyocera. Also Japanese, and plenty of cheap generic toners available online.
ill have to recommend buying old refurbished printers
use a laser printer? preferabally the ones that doesnt use updates or any newer versions.
I don’t at all feel vindicated, but my Brother printer is the worst printer I ever owned (this was 20 years ago admittedly). Absolute hunk of junk with nothing but problems. I’ve always wondered why they were so well recommended online.
Could have been a Friday afternoon one. The one I have is a workhorse that could print on bark using toner made of charcoal and dust.
I’ve got a Lexmark laser printer, and while there are cheaper subscription toners, you can pay the higher price for normal toner, and buy compatibles, for now at least.
you seem to have gotten a smart printer, new ones have that one, we got a canon laser.
I don’t know if it matters, but I just bought a Canon laser printer. Didn’t see anywhere about forced subscription options for toner.
we bought laser canon printer to, toner cartridge doesnt use color, so if you want color you would need an ink printer, its better to print a library or a printer shop anyways.
Epson inkjets with refillable tanks probably.
That printer is a nightmare. But financially makes sense.
The printer has the same ink problems, clogged, runs out easy, can’t print b&w when missing a color. But I can buy random ink.
Did they ever make the excess ink parts user replaceable?
That they weren’t in some models kept me from getting one when I was in the market a few years ago.
Depending on the frequency of your printing, they can suck as well. Chronically clogged nozzles are maddening.
They were the last good guys :(
I guess it’s time to buy the printer I’ve been postponing
try looking for laser jet printers, only use toner cartridge. Ink-based printers are pretty much scams. we spent an untold amount on ink for epson, until the printer failed completely
Sadly i need an ink printer. I already hace a laser one but sometimes i need to printer on papers that don’t work on laser
And once again the only available good tech is old 2nd hand.
dragonfucker@lemmy.nz 1 year ago
Drag thought Brother were supposed to be the makers of user friendly printers. Are they enshittifying?
ayyy@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
At least they aren’t transphobic.