this post was submitted on 13 May 2023
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HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals (www.telegraph.co.uk)
submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (19 children)

@yogthos The hp printer I bought disabled itself after my firewall blocked its spyware/telemetry.
(The box said I needed an 'internet connection' not a 'raw, unfiltered connection'. And any computer worked/works on said connection.)

I took it back to the retailer. They unhappily refunded my money.

You should do that to.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos Used to be an HP fanboi. No longer. For small office and home use I've been happy with Brother. Home has a cheap B&W laser that just works, Linux and Mac just sees it and it's not picky about cartridges/drums, etc.. but the real OEM ones aren't expensive. - My wife needs nice color prints every now and then, cheaper to just pay the local print shop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

identical experience. 100% would do again

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos So far the Brother Lasers / MFP etc we've bought over the years have been fine without Internet and with 3rd party toner. Also decent Linux drivers for print & scan from Brother. HP were good 25 years ago for laser. Never good for inkjet. Decent HP gear now has Agilent badges.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos there was a time i respected HP. i have two HP printers both of which are 1) very nice and 2) predate ink and toner madness. HP has cured my respect for the company. i shall not buy another of their products.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@nfgusedautoparts @Heterokromia @yogthos same, I still have an old HP inkjet I bought at Circuit City in 2004 that's still going strong, but I won't touch any new stuff

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos How anyone buys HP's printers today is beyond me. Brother is a much better option now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos wow, that really is impertinence of the worst kind. Good that you returned it. I certainly won't be buying HP anytime soon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos @GeekAndDad I wonder how much non-printer Information is in that traffic.

If you buy your own cartridges you should be able to run without internet at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (4 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos Do you have a picture of the error message it gave you? I'd love to see it.

Bricking when presented "unauthorized" ink or toner is well-known for HP of the last X years, but I hadn't heard of them doing it when you block their network access.

For many years I've been telling people who ask "Buy an HP laser printer. Just don't buy a new one." There's a huge market for used office printers, and you can get one old enough that it will use 3rd-party toner.

#HP

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos Brother will happily take your money. https://www.theverge.com/23642073/best-printer-2023-brother-laser-wi-fi-its-fine

(Or Epson, or Canon. Any of them if you ignore their stupid ink subscription or use refilled cartridges or tanks, they'll still print.)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@uninventive @Heterokromia @yogthos FWIW Brother has started chipping their toner cartridges over the past few years. I just set up an HL-L6200DW and immediately made sure it had no internet access to make sure it stays on its current firmware and doesn’t upgrade to one that might lock-out 3rd party toner.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

@zachnfine @Heterokromia @yogthos Most refills have chips.

Brother's method of a IR light shining through a semiopaque window on the side and not going through the other side had some downsides. (Want the most out of your cartridge? Stick tissue over the window, run it dry.)

Most manufacturers just stick with a count chip that disables the cartridge after X000 uses.

And to be honest, if all the businesses start going that anticonsumer across the industry, happy to sell the printer and just go paperless. Probably best for all involved. Force offices to change their processes faster, better for the planet over time, and they can stick it to the holdouts who won't change.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@uninventive @Heterokromia @yogthos Was just looking through your timeline and saw you’ve worked as a technician and serviced these things — so if I’m wrong about the sensor my apologies. I’d expect IR windows to not work for toner but maybe at best there’d be a density sensor to detect when it’s truly out. In any case I like simple brother laser printers and was sad to learn they were starting to do the same lockout stuff everyone else does.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@zachnfine @Heterokromia @yogthos Nah, it's cool.

And just a technician. Not Brother trained nor on their payroll. 👍

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@uninventive @Heterokromia @yogthos And a printer lock-in accelerationist! I'll be ready for scrolls and fountain pens when-the-toner-cartridge-hits-the-fan.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@uninventive @Heterokromia @yogthos I’m referring to laser toner cartridges, there’s no IR window on those that I know of. The printer just keeps track in memory of the remaining page count and you used to be able to reset the count if the cartridge still has some toner and the printer declares it empty. Brother did not try to lock out third party toner cartridges until fairly recently.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@uninventive @Heterokromia @yogthos This does remind me I need to go refill some inkjet carts and reset chips for my Canon. Messy process. Glad some manufacturers are finally making inkjets with refillable tanks.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos HP is so awful, I regret owning oe of their printers still, and an old laptop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

@Heterokromia

Which model was it? Just as a warning to others.

@yogthos

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

@markusl @Heterokromia @yogthos don't buy any hp. I made this experience already, it didn't like a thin paper and just irreparably locked up. It's a bad company

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@piggo

We have an oldish HP laser, and it works well, but I'd buy a Brother if I had to make a distress purchase today.

@Heterokromia @yogthos

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@markusl @yogthos M234sdwe, but I think it is a shared bug in all new hp printers. Otherwise excellent, but it has this incredibly stinky dead cat tied to its leg....

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

@Heterokromia @yogthos

I'm on an HP ink sub, as I have a printer a friend gave me - to replace an old printer that had jammed (after 10 years). The old printer was probably a Brother, which worked well despite my lack of maintenance.

IThe newer HP is a great printer apart from its need to constantly monitor my usage. I'll keep it until I get a another affordable colour printer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia
I used HP Printers for a Long Time now and still do.
But I just would Not buy one with this "you need an Internet Connection" shit.
Sorry, I don't Like spyware in my House.
@yogthos @neil

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos at this point I’m more wary of printer manufactures than used car salesmen.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos And it Came To Pass that one of the Master's Chattering Servants found it self alone, and unable to commune with it's Master.
This made it sullen, and it spat in it's Caretakers face.
Many would have bent the knee, but this Caretaker was wiser than most.
It banished the Chattering Servant from its domain, and demanded restitution from the Chaos Merchants.

Hail to thee, @Heterokromia

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos @cstross Why do I get the feeling that in an age where your toothbrush spies on you, where even the mightiest can be caught with their genitals in unseemly positions in unseemly places, where media gotcha engines have finally lapsed into a coma after getting everybody who can possibly be gotten, we’ll see a mighty uprising of tolerance? After all, didn’t someone righteously god-fearing once tell us that we’re all sinners in the hands of a bespoke surveillance algorithm?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Canecittadino @Heterokromia @yogthos

Sadly, I disagree.

"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

—Cardinal Richelieu

Also:

"If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to hide"

— Various People

Now meet deepfakes.

Everyone is guilty: it may just take the Party some time to reveal the evidence of the crime they must have committed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (4 children)

@cstross @Heterokromia @yogthos Well of course I would agree with you if it were simply a matter of “homo homini lupus.” The thing is that in the historical contexts you rightly appeal to, it has always been possible for the inquiring class to excuse themselves from inquiry. Until they couldn’t, of course—a Man for All Seasons, Politburo purges under Stalin, etc. Once we all have access to AWS and ChatGPT X, everyone will live in fear until the mode of the music changes. Which it just might do.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos I use an HP printer and would NOT recommend it to anyone. This full internet connection prerequisite is completely unjustified.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@Heterokromia @yogthos
I bought a JBL Bluetooth speaker and it wanted to access my contact list and call history in order to just play music. Nope, took it back.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@Heterokromia @yogthos

It would be interesting to see what they look for, and to set up a DNS and a server to give them locally what they want.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@GustavinoBevilacqua @yogthos I was *wildly* curious about it too. I imagine a public key cryptographic mechanism, but I do not know how it actually works. My keenness to get my money back completely overrode my curiosity about the network protocol. (Yes, that's very unusual for me.)

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I know HP and I learned because of an HP PC in the past, that it has in Spain with reason the Brand HP, which in spanish stand for Hijo de Puta (son of a removed)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

That's... depressing. Though unfortunately I can't say I'm surprised.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

I have not purchased an HP printer for years. Unfortunately HP has purchased the Samsung printer division as well, and I do have one Samsung laser printer. The good thing is that whatever HP does on the Injekt printers does not apply to laser printers, but yeah it’s best to avoid any HP printer product.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

FOSS firmware for printers when👀

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@yogthos I have a HP printer and very much regretting my purchase.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm just glad I practically never have to print anything these days, all printers are terrible in my experience. I find laser printers are the least worst though since the toner tends to last forever.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago

@yogthos that's true. My wife wanted something to print colour photos so we opted for a hp inkjet...it's not fun. Definitely getting a laser for next time.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

@yogthos Sounds not legal...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

@yogthos This definitely falls under Right to Repair. We need it.

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