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. None of the other big brands are worth a shit. They all fail or jam in some form or fashion.
this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
1186 points (99.6% liked)
Technology
70998 readers
3358 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
load more comments
(3 replies)
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
You can have devices on your wifi network without giving them access to the internet. You set your firewall (which, for most people, is the router that comes with the internet subscription) to block all internet traffic to and from those devices while still allowing them to communicate with the other devices on the same local network. Fairly straightforward on most routers with a little bit of time spent looking up the basics.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Good that we did not buy a Brother printer.
they were the only option tho.
Brother used to be the good guys... Damn.
Right? I used to recommend friends and family invest in a brother laser printer instead of inkjet, especially if they didn’t need color
If it's not already under the umbrella of right to repair, do we now need right to refill?
Nooo, you were the only remaining printer company that wasn't a customer-hating dumpster fire of a company!
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.
It's like every company that wasn't complete shit just suddenly decided to...go to complete shit.
It's like every company that was~~n't complete~~ playing the social good will game and didn't appear at a casual glance to be shit just suddenly decided to...go ~~to 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....
load more comments
(2 replies)
Unrestrained Capitalism. Without those pesky regulations, companies can charge us all unlimited amounts and not have to consider our rights or health/safety.
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.
load more comments
(4 replies)
load more comments
(4 replies)
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
Currently it's €18.50, though for 0.5L (~1 pint) that's still cheap. Honestly I am surprised I actually received that.
load more comments
(1 replies)
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.
TIL EDIT: you can get continuous tank mods for most printers on AliExpress! I might give it a try with mine!
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.
DA-2A works to a point, but if you let the printer sit for a year it might not unfortunately. Like I said print heads aren't crazy expensive, but still kind of sucks. But hey inkjets still do have their place sometimes.
load more comments
(2 replies)
I just bought a printer. Everything I saw said that if you print infrequently then you don't want an inkjet. They're very prone to clogging if left alone for a while. Went with a laser printer instead.
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).
load more comments
(2 replies)
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. You can read the sources linked in the wiki to see exactly what users are reporting.