Mild Lexmark WTF



  • I've sat on this for a while as I wasn't sure it was truly WTF worthy.  It did make me start to say wha..? when I started to enter the IP address though. 

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  • So the WTF is that presumably you wouldn't have access to the web interface if the printer reset its IP to 0.0.0.0?



  • Yep, bang on.  I actually got as far as opening the browser and starting to type "http://..." before it hit home. 



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    Yep, bang on.  I actually got as far as opening the browser and starting to type "http://..." before it hit home.

    What other IP address can be used as a default value, that won't conflict with another device on the network?  I don't think you can appreciate the logic here...



  • @AccessGuru said:

    What other IP address can be used as a default value, that won't conflict with another device on the network?  I don't think you can appreciate the logic here...

    Um... 0.0.0.0 is not an IP address.  That's why it is stupid.  And the instructions even tell you to open that up in a browser which is impossible.  Besides, a device like this should just have a default IP like 10.0.0.1.  It shouldn't be plugged into an existing network before it is configured, anyway. 



  • @AccessGuru said:

    What other IP address can be used as a default value, that won't conflict with another device on the network? 
     

    127.0.0.1 would work just fine. 



  • @MarcB said:

    127.0.0.1 would work just fine. 

    Heh, or 255.255.255.255.  That's about all, though.  Once we move to IPv6, the possibilities are truly endless! 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Once we move to IPv6, the possibilities are truly endless!

    You'd have the device autoconfigure itself with its link-scope fe80::<EUI-64>/64 plus any additional (auto)configurations. It would all be determined by its MAC adddress, which would then usually be found somewhere on the device itself.

    ---

    On a related note, do any networked printers actually support IPv6?



  • @SpComb said:

    On a related note, do any networked printers actually support IPv6?
     

    On a re-related note, did the proposal to embed every IP-capable device's MAC address into its IPv6 address ever get past the proposal stage? 



  • @AccessGuru said:

    What other IP address can be used as a default value, that won't conflict with another device on the network?  I don't think you can appreciate the logic here...

    With IPv4?

    1. Randomly select an address in the range 169.254.1.0 - 169.254.254.255
    2. Send out an "ARP probe" to see if anyone else on the local link is using that address
    3. If someone else is using that address, try again. If not, send out an "ARP announcement" and claim the address for your own. 

    See RFC 3927.

    The real WTF is that the printer does not implement Zeroconf (aka, Bonjour).



  • That works for things like printers, that have a display. But if you have a displayless device, like, say, a cheap voIP phone, how are you going to tell the IP adress to the user?



  •  @PSWorx said:

    That works for things like printers, that have a display. But if you have a displayless device, like, say, a cheap voIP phone, how are you going to tell the IP adress to the user?

    Write a windows tool that can find the device on the network (broadcast ethernet packet), retreive display and edit the configuration data and send it back to the device. What next, "what about IP phones without network support?" :P



  • Good question. The answer is that you publish the address via the DNS-SD protocol. (Again, see Zeroconf/Bonjour.) A Zeroconf client can display a list of devices to the user, then for any given device, can get the IP address as well as the port on which the device is willing to communicate.


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