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Re: [LUG] New Printer part three

 
On 27/10/2020 14:14, Neil wrote:
That is why I am planning to get the relevant cable so that the new printer can be linked by the cable to the desktop computer. On the laptop I will use wifi. 

Does that make sense?
It does make sense and the USB A to B cable you need for the printer will only cost a few quid but you really just shouldn't bother. The printer is already on the network, just print/scan and admin it from there. Plugging it in to the desktop via a cable achieves literally nothing except restoring clutter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Speaking of admin, it's a new HP and you've got some work to do. Use the HP Smart app you've now got on your phone and have a good long look at it's control page and all the options - there's a whole load of stuff in there you're going to want to turn off. Alternatively the printer will be running it's own internal webserver so you can point a browser at it's IP address on your LAN and configure it that way.
You probably want to look for and disable any "cloud print" services, any "HP Web App" it's offering, disable telemetry, broadcasting wifi direct setup network and anything else in there that obviously stands out. Left to their own devices modern all-in-ones will default to routing certain job types through the manufacturers cloud service _before_ printing locally believe it or not (yes, obviously so they can access and monetize your print queue). This won't happen to normal LAN prints from other computers but if you use the built in functionality to directly print from phones/tablets/etc to the printer by default your documents _will_ end up going through HP servers. Just so you know.
Cheap network printers are great but they come with a lot of anti-consumer features, including unwanted network functionality. All HP printers come with this crap pre-activated and have done for years.
I remember the good old days when you had to wrestle with JetDirect boxes and token ring to get the office HP on the network... but at least the damn thing wouldn't spy on you. Hooray progress? 

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