A Defensive Computing Checklist    by Michael Horowitz

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PRINTERS

TOPICS BELOW
Background, Connecting to a printer, Screw You, Ink Tank Printers , Printer Tips, Network issues with printers, Epson Printers, HP Printers, Printer Week, FYI

I hate printers. Most people do. One such person is Leo Laporte, who was known for years (decades?) as the Tech Guy on the radio. He would not take phone calls about printers on his show.

BACKGROUND

There are three popular types of printers - two that squirt liquid ink and laser printers that, like a xerox machine, burn a toner (think colored dust) onto the paper. Liquid ink squiring printers are called inkjets, those from HP are called deskjets. All inkjet printers print in color. Laser printers come in either black/white or color versions.

• Cartridge: Most inkjets use very small ink cartridges that can not be refilled. The only upside of a cartridge based inkjet printer is that it is cheap to buy. The big downside is that it is very expensive to print.
• Tank: A small number of inkjet printers use a large refillable ink tank. I believe that the generic term for printers with large refillable ink cartridges is a "tank" printer.
• Laser: A laser printer should, in the long run, be more reliable, easier to maintain and cheaper to own and use. The down side is that they are more expensive to buy. Also, they are generally larger than ink squirting models. Generally. When they start up, or awaken from sleep mode, they can draw a lot of electricity and thus should not be plugged into a battery-backed outlet in a UPS.

CONNECTING TO A PRINTER   top

There are multiple ways to talk to a printer. Cheap printers will support fewer methods, expensive printers more methods.

1. Ethernet (requires a router)
2. Regular Wi-Fi (requires a router)
3. USB wire into one computer
4. A USB port in the printer that you plug a flash/thumb drive into
5. Wi-Fi Direct (no router needed)
6. Apple Airprint

SCREW YOU   top

How do printer companies (mostly inkjets) screw you over? Let Cory Doctorow count the ways. From his Aug. 7, 2022 article: Epson boobytrapped its printers. This list is not at all complete.

1. They sell printers with half-empty ink-cartridges
2. They require useless, but mandatory "calibration tests" that use up all your ink
3. There are printers that reject partially full cartridges as if they were empty
4. They block ink refillers
5. Epson will brick your printer after you have printed a certain number of pages (more on this below)

INK TANK PRINTERS   top

Since these are not as popular as cartridge based inkjets, here are some articles to help you get up to speed on the subject.

• November 18, 2024: Epson EcoTank printers by Will Fastie for Ask Woody. About the Epson EcoTank ET-5150, the good, the bad and comparing it to a few other printers.
• November 18, 2024: A reader comment on the article above brought up an issue with ink tank printers: avoiding an ink spill when moving the printer. There may be a "Transport" mode that closes off the ink tanks. There may also be a way to manually close the "valve".
• August 2024: The Epson EcoTank ET-2800 Printer was recommended by Consumer Reports. At the time it sold for about $200. It can also scan and copy.
• November 2021: How to Save Money on Your Next Printer: Weighing the Cost of Tank vs. Cartridge Ink by M. David Stone for PC Magazine

PRINTER TIPS   top

• If you need a printer, you need two.
• A black/white laser printer is an excellent backup printer. Expect to pay about $100 US dollars.
• As a rule the more you pay for a printer the cheaper it will be to operate over the years.
• Shopping: One indication of how well made a printer is, is the duty cycle. Technically, I think it means how many pages per month the printer is designed to print. The more expensive the printer, the higher the number.
• Shopping: some printers can print on both sides of a page, others can not. If you print a lot, the paper saved may be significant.
• April 2023: Most and Least Reliable Printer Brands by Melanie Pinola for Consumer Reports.
  Quoting: "... inkjet printers are less reliable, which is why we now advise people to consider laser printers." No inkjet brands had a high reliability.
  • Regular Inkjets: Canon has acceptable reliability.
  • Tank Printers: Epson has acceptable reliability
  • Regular Color Lasers: HP has very favorable reliability. Brother was rated favorable. Canon was acceptable.
  • Regular Black-and-White Lasers: Brother and Canon were very favorable. HP and Lexmark were favorable.
  • All-in-One Inkjets: HP, Brother and Canon are acceptable.
  • All-in-One Color Lasers:: Brother and HP have favorable reliability
  • All-in-One Black-and-White Lasers:; Brother was very favorable. Canon and HP were favorable.
• January 26, 2023: Warning to owners of Lexmark printers: Lexmark warns of RCE bug affecting 100 printer models, PoC released by Bill Toulas for Bleeping Computer. Updated printer firmware is available. There is also a temporary work-around available.
• If you are considering buying an inket printer, this article October 2021 article, Canon sued for disabling scanner when printers run out of ink, from Bleeping Computer shows that without ink, a Canon printer can not even scan, which uses no ink at all. It also would not send a fax, which again, uses no ink. And, without color ink, it will not print in greyscale. These gripes go back to at least 2016.
• March 15, 2023: Best printer 2023: just buy this Brother laser printer everyone has, it's fine by Nilay Patel for The Verge. The article recommends the Brother HL-L2305W. I have to agree with the article, as I know someone with a black/white Brother laser printer and it has never caused a problem.
• February 2022: If you are considering buying a label printer, beware of Dymo printers which force you to use their branded paper which costs much more than competing paper. Label printers from Zebra and MFLabel let you print on any brand of labels. From The Worst Timeline: A Printer Company Is Putting DRM in Paper Now by Cory Doctorow for the EFF.
• January 2022: Forced by shortages to sell chipless ink cartridges, Canon tells customers how to bypass DRM warnings by Rob Beschizza for Boing Boing. Quoting: "The instructions appear to be straightforward - for the models I checked all you have to do is ignore onerous error messages..." The instructions from Canon are in German, but browsers can translate to English.
• Printing on Chrome OS has always been flaky. The page here on Chromebooks has a section on printers that work well on Chrome OS.
• Very old printers may have trouble feeding paper because the rubber rollers have dried out. Some suggestions:
  1. Use an emory board or sandpaper or a nail file to roughen the rollers. Stroke side to side to make grooves in the rollers.
  2. Use a product that claims to rejuvenate rubber. One such product is CaiKleen RBR rubber cleaner and rejuvenator. It claims to: "Re-condition rubber surfaces and bring back its original surface texture, flexibility and usability."
  3. Clean the rollers with Windex.

NETWORK ISSUES WITH PRINTERS   top

Printers are computers and, as such, they need bug fixes and they can get hacked. A bad firmware update can break the printer and those that check for new firmware automatically are at the greatest risk. As noted below, HP broke some of their printers in May 2023 with a bad firmware update. A firmware update may also introduce a feature you don't want, such as restricting the cartridges that can be used. Or, a hacked printer may appear to function correctly, but be spying on you, in that it may send copies of what it prints to bad guys. For these reasons, it may be prudent to prevent a printer from communicating with the Internet. I know of two approaches.

1. If you have a router that offers outbound firewall rules, then you can create a firewall rule that prevents the printer from making any outbound connections on its own. This requires that the printer have a static IP address. The down side to this, is that the firewall rule needs to be disabled every now and then so the printer can check if there is new firmware. Typically only a business class router offers outbound firewall rules.
2. A network capable printer needs some network configuration. This is usually done via DHCP and is mostly automatic. But, it can be done manually. If you manually configure it with an invalid gateway IP address, the printer should not be able to communicate with the Internet. For example, if your LAN is using 192.168.3.x and the router is 192.168.3.1, then lie to the printer and tell it the gateway/router IP address is 192.168.3.252. Or, you could lie about the available DNS servers and specify something like 10.11.12.13 as the DNS server.

A hacked printer may also try to attack other devices on the LAN. One protection from this is to put the printer in its own VLAN. This, however, requires a somewhat high level of technical skill. First, you need to block outbound communication from the printer-only VLAN. Then you need allow only the necessary traffic into the printer-only VLAN. This is complicated by the fact that printers support a wide range of protocols, so you first need to determine which protocols your devices are using to communicate with your printer. And this assumes you even have a router/switch that supports VLANs. Most do not.

Wi-Fi is yet another issue. Sure, Wi-Fi can be used to connect a printer to your LAN, fine. But there is another flavor of Wi-Fi called Wi-Fi Direct which does not involve your LAN or your router. Wi-Fi Direct lets two devices directly communicate with each other. While it may have its place, many people are not aware of Wi-Fi Direct and thus leave it on with all the default settings. This is bad for security, so if you do not use this feature, turn it off in the printer. At the very least, change the default Wi-Fi network password to something at least 15 characters long. This to prevent the Wi-Fi network created by the printer being used to hack into your LAN.

EPSON PRINTERS   top

If you are considering buying a cartridge-based inket printer, maybe don't buy one from Epson. The section above on Ink Tank printers has an article about an Epson model.

• August 2022: Epson boobytrapped its printers by Cory Doctorow. Quoting
  "Epson will brick your printer after you've run a certain number of pages ... Epson says that it designs its printers with little internal sponges that soak up excess ink and when they become saturated, that ink might run out of the bottom of your printer and stain your furniture. If this sounds like bullshit to you, that's because itis bullshit, as are the claims that excess ink could get into the printer's electronic circuits and start a fire. If your printer's sponges get too full of excess ink and you're worried about it, you can easily and cheaply install new sponges. But that would deny Epson a new printer sale ... So they've rigged their printers' software so that even if you replace the sponges, the printer can still refuse to print. Replacing or resetting this software requires that you bypass the DRM designed to prevent this, and providing a DRM-defeat tool is a felony [in the US] punishable by a 5-year sentence and a $500k fine under Section 1201 of the DMCA."
• July 2022: Citing Danger of 'Ink Spills' Epson Programs End of Life for Some Printers by Paul Roberts at Substack.

HP PRINTERS   top

• A personal story and a word to the wise: On June 15, 2023, I helped someone install a new HP 9015E, an all-in-one inkjet printer. All this person needed was printing and scanning from Windows 10. It took me over 3 hours and I never did get the main HP software installed. The printer was Ethernet connected to the router. I took three different approaches to installing the HP software on Windows 10 and they all failed. In my opinion, this instance makes a compelling case for Windows users to not buy an HP printer.
  1. My first attempt used the offline Easy Start file, a 310MB download, from here. It ran for a bit but ended up stalled as this at this blank screen. Note that to even get this far, requires creating an account with HP. Despite the install hanging, at this point, Windows 10 could print. But, we needed scanning too.
  2. The second attempt used the online Easy Start printer setup from the same web page, the 16 MB download. It failed too, something about not having pre-req software.
  3. The third attempt started at 123.hp.com and ended up trying to install software from the Windows Store. That failed too.
  So, I tried other stuff.
  1. I tried to use the web interface of the printer to setup scanning to a shared folder on the PC but could never get it working, it always failed with an error about using the wrong userid/password to access the shared folder. I even disabled the Windows firewall, to no avail.
  2. I tried to setup scanning to email. I did get it to accept the techie details of my email address, however it would not accept the Gmail account of the printer owner. You would think if there was a problem with Gmail addresses that HP would have some help, somewhere. Nope (I read the User Guide). And, even with my email address, you can only set this up using the web interface of the printer, you can not actually run it from there. I assume you can run it by touching the printer, but I was remote.
  3. You can run a scan from the web interface of the printer, but it only does one page, it can not access the sheet feeder, which we needed.
  4. Windows 10 includes Fax and Scanning software and Windows 10 recognized that the printer was also a scanner and was very happy to scan from it. But, again, this software only scans one page at a time.
  The story ended for the day when I did a Google search for HP scanning software. Turns out that HP has Universal Scan Software that you can download that is separate and distinct from the regular printer software. It worked fine. But, only for one day.
  
  The next day, the scanner software could not find the printer/scanner. See the error message. Perhaps it was the upgrade of Windows. With the scanner working, I upgraded Windows 10 a few service packs, a big upgrade. It was only the scanner software that broke. The router sees the printer as it should. Windows could print just fine. From Windows, I could get to the printer with a browser via its IP address and the web interface of the printer worked fine and showed no errors at all. Even the webscan function, which scans a single page, worked fine. Included with the scanner software is an HP Scan Assistant program. It too could not find the printer.
  
  The next day, the printer owner called HP and they got their Smart software installed. Probably they know more about this than I do. Or, it might be because Windows 10 is now up to date on patches, it had been a couple years behind. When asked to scan, the new software sometimes recognizes the scanner, and sometimes does not.
  
  I was hoping to avoid installing all the software HP wants to force on their customers. The printer owner only wants to print and scan. As this screen shot of the Windows Control Panel shows, HP installed lots of other software: an HP Dropbox plugin, an HP emailSMTP plugin, an HP FTP Plugin, an HP Google Drive Plugin, an HP SFTP Plugin, an HP SharePoint Plugin, basic HP device software and an HP Product Improvement Study for the HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 series. And this does not include any Windows Store apps it may have also installed. And, the Product Improvement Study (which I read as spying) had three different entries in the Windows Scheduler to make sure it really really ran. The program is hpcustpartic.exe and you can see the three entries in this screen shot of the Microsoft Autoruns program.
• November 18, 2024: In response to this article in the Ask Woody newsletter, a reader wrote:
  "HP thoroughly antagonized me with the program to send printer cartridges periodically. I did not realize that the printer is electronically controlled by HP. When I could not print at all, I contacted HP, and they told me that I had not paid a monthly bill. They had not billed me, and I didn't know they wanted more payment. After I got the new cartridges, I decided to end the automatic replenishment. Then, I discovered that although I had four new cartridges, I could not use them. They cut off the ability to use them for anybody not in 'the program.' Thus, I could not use cartridges I had already paid for."
• May 20, 2023: This incident makes a compelling case for not buying an HP printer.
  A bad firmware update crippled some HP printers. HP rushes to fix bricked printers after faulty firmware update by Sergiu Gatlan of Bleeping Computer. Ars Technica covered this too: HP breaks its own printers (again) with firmware update by Scharon Harding (May 22, 2023). The problem has been ongoing since May 8, 2023, so 2 weeks and no fix. This is a disgraceful response from HP that makes it impossible to recommend any HP printer from now on. Many comments to the Ars article suggest using Brother printers. Exactly why HP released the updated firmware is not yet known. No matter, their quality control is obviously miserable. In his Security Now podcast (episode 924 from May 23, 2023) Steve Gibson discussed this and said "The reason for my annoyance is not just HP's sloppy software, although their printer software, at least for Windows, is a true atrocity...".
  May 31, 2023: Still no fix. Still no official statement from HP. It has now been 22 days.
  June 6, 2023: Still no fix. HP is clearly not a company you want to be doing business with.
• HP Plus printers: The Defensive Computing thing to do is to avoid the HP Plus Models. See a screen shot of the requirements to use one. This is from the User Guide for the HP 9015E, an all-in-one model. It seems like the real requirement is letting HP spy on you. One requirement is that you must have an account with HP. The biggest issue for me is that the printer must be online to use it. Quoting: "HP+ printers ... must remain connected to the Internet in order to function ... During setup you must connect the printer to the Internet ... After setup, you can print using a USB cable connection, if desired, but the printer must also still be connected to the Internet.". HP does not even bother claiming that the data the printer collects about you will be anonymized. For more see: Frequently Asked Questions About HP Plus Printers from HP. It says that HP+ eligible printers are identified by the letter "e" at the end of the product code.
• HP has a long history of blocking the use of third party ink cartridges. They call this feature "Dynamic security". See HP Printers - Dynamic Security Enabled Printers for more. In late 2022 and early 2023, they expanded this to more printers via firmware updates. Yet another reason to block a printer from updating its firmware (see the section above).
  1. HP is blocking third-party printer ink again by Emma Roth for The Verge (March 11, 2023). Numerous reports suggest that a recent printer firmware update is blocking the use of non-HP ink. The article discusses some history of HP doing this previously. It seems that firmware updates released in December 2022 and January 2023 are to blame.
  2. HP outrages printer users with firmware update suddenly bricking third-party ink by Scharon Harding for Ars Technica (March 9, 2023). HP introduced dynamic security to some printers in 2016, and since 2018, it has paid millions in class-action lawsuits.
• If you own an HP inkjet printer, or are considering buying one, it is probably best to avoid the HP Instant Ink program as per this article: This Is Why So Many People Hate HP Printers by Julian van der Merwe for SlashGear (Oct. 2022). The ink subscription provides users with ink on an on-demand basis, based on the amount of printing done every month. The printer tracks how many pages are printed and HP automatically sends you ink when the levels are low. HP claims that ink purchased this way is cheaper. It also makes it easy to recycle old ink cartridges. Printers that support the Instant Ink program are often heavily discounted. But ... If you cancel the service HP disables the Instant Ink cartridges you received during the subscription. If you read the fine print, HP does warn about this. Another issue: if the printer can not connect to the Internet, it won't print. Same if there is a problem with the HP Instant Ink account. Some have reported that HP printers fail to recognize a non-Instant Ink cartridge after getting out of the Instant Ink program.

PRINTER WEEK   top

In July 2023, the Washington Post ran a series of printer articles that they referred to as Printer Week.

• Printer ink is a scam. Here’s how to spend less. by Geoffrey A. Fowler July 12, 2023. They tested three low-cost options. Note that the article is focused on ink jet printers and, in my opinion, most people are better off with a laser printer.
  1. Remanufactured cartridges were a good option, ink injections were a mixed bag and making your own ink was a failure.
  2. Quote: "I did learn one hard lesson that is important to highlight ... turn off your printer's automatic software updates ... For almost everything else, software patches are important - but printer makers are abusing them to make printers less compatible with cheaper ink."
  3. Quote: "Beware of ink subscriptions"
  4. Quote: "Some printers, including so-called HP+ models with an E at the end of their name, contain software locks that won't ever let them take anything other than ink from the original manufacturer."
• A review of three very different printers, all under $250: Two home printers to consider if you can't give them up by Chris Velazco (July 13, 2023). To me, the most important point about this article was that it serves as an additional confirmation of a widely held opinion - black/white laser printers from Brother are a great option. The author discusses the Brother HL-L2370DW which he has used for years. The other printers reviewed are a Canon MegaTank (the PIXMA G3270) and the HP ENVY Inspire 7955e, a standard ink jet model. The article has a number of warnings about the HP printer, all of which, I think, are already on this page.
• Avoiding printing: You don’t need to own a printer. Do this instead. by Heather Kelly July 13, 2023. Some suggestions: a public library, a professional print shop (i.e. FedEx, UPS, Office Depot or Staples) and some cafes have printers. Just be aware that when using a public printing facility, they may keep a copy of what you print. Also, instead of scanning with an all-in-one device consider taking a picture with a smartphone.

FYI   top

• Laser printers warn about the toner being almost empty well before it actually runs out. When a toner cartridge is low, you may be able to extend its life by shaking it. That said, there is this story from Mastodon user Dan Fixes Coin-Ops (November 20, 2024) who said
  "So you know the tricks huh, printer says OUTTA TONER LOL so you pull out the cartridge and give it a shake ... you put it back and get into the service menu and tell the printer another little lie and bam, just like that you keep on printing. You're gonna use ALL that toner, 'cause you're a clever boy! Not like those silly sausages who chuck the cartridge away when there's still a quarter left! See that rubber roller on the bottom of the cartridge? That's holding the toner in. It wears out. It gets thin. Your precious saved toner FALLS OUT inside the printer. You told the printer it was a brand new cartridge. The printer keeps printing. The toner gets EVERYWHERE. By the time you notice, you've gotta take the whole damn thing apart, and it's a horrible messy job that'll take all damn day. Now who's the silly sausage. Yours sincerely, a silly sausage."
• Maybe don't have the Geek Squad over to install a new printer. In June 2023, someone I know did have the Geek Squad to their home to install a new HP all-in-one printer. Then, they called me because nothing worked. The printer supported three types of connections: USB, Wi-Fi and Ethernet. The Geek Squad connected none of them. And, they lied, saying that the Windows 10 desktop computer was too old for the printer. And, they did not leave any of the cables, so we had to order an Ethernet cable for the printer. What the Geek Squad did do, was install HP software on an iPhone. This for someone who only wants to use the printer from their Windows 10 computer. This is malpractice.
• Most color laser printers and color copiers are designed to print invisible tracking codes on every page. These codes reveal which specific machine produced a document and, in some cases, when the document was printed or copied. From the EFF in 2017: it appears likely that all recent commercial color laser printers print some kind of forensic tracking codes, not necessarily using yellow dots. This is true whether or not those codes are visible to the eye. To be safe, use a black-and-white printer, black-and-white scanner, or convert a color image to black-and-white with an image editor. More from the BBC (June 2020), from Robert Graham (June 2017), from the EFF (undated) and from Snopes (June 2017).
• Ever wonder how expensive the ink for an inkjet printer is per gallon?
  1. According to Cory Doctorow, the ink costs $170/gallon to manufacture and it is sold for $12,000/gallon (as of Feb. 2022). Quoting: "No one would voluntarily pay $12,000/gal for ink that costs about $170/gal to manufacture, so the printer companies roll out an endlessly inventive bag of dirty tricks to force you to buy their $12,000/gal product, and keep you buying it, forever."
  2. According to Geoffrey A. Fowler, writing in the Washington Post (July 12, 2023): Ounce for ounce printer ink costs more than Dom Pérignon champagne.

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