Also a satisfied Brother laser printer user. I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this.
I always buy the Brother toner cartridges because they're the best quality, reasonably priced, and I want to support the business model of the only(?) decent printer manufacturer left.
All of this said, if I found out the printer was locking out third-party toner cartridges, I'd stop at nothing to defeat the lock, and would only use knockoff toner from then on.
It's an honor system through and through, I hope somebody in charge takes note.
>I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this.
Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you do this without blocking wifi printing? Are you just stopping network egress from the printers IP address?
Edit - by wifi printing I mean on the same network, in house.
> >I have the unit blocked in my router so it can't surreptitiously update its firmware and start doing this.
> Maybe this is a silly question, but how do you do this without blocking wifi printing? Are you just stopping network egress from the printers IP address?
> Edit - by wifi printing I mean on the same network, in house.
I can guess that their routing table only allows routing from/to the printer's IP in the local network (wired or wireless). Any packet to/from outside world for the printer is dropped.
I've experienced this. My $500 MFC is a brick unless I go out and purchase a genuine Brother toner, despite having spent several hundred dollars on a stash of generics. At some point they just stopped working.
And just to be clear: they didn't just disable the printer; I can't even use the scanner on top unless I go and buy the Brother toners.
Screw Brother. I'm tired of reading that they're "the one good brand" out there. They are very not.
> Screw Brother. I'm tired of reading that they're "the one good brand" out there. They are very not.
OK but is there any other alternative? Wife's SME: two Brother printers (these are with official support for everything although I did have to modify a few settings here or there when they moved office and their router IP changed for example). Home number one: Brother printer. Home number two: Brother printer.
It's really pathetic if they started preventing other toners from working but they're still fine machines.
What would I replace our four Brother laser printers with?
Basically I read your post and Brother "won": I'll just make sure to buy official Brother toners. Which sucks.
Canon, I guess? The Canon MF4150 that I bought some 15 years ago is still humming along well, and doesn't mind using third-party toners. No idea how they are now though.
I upgraded my Mac and it resulted in my brother mfc losing the ability to scan from the mac. It seems brother did not port the driver to the new OS. Accordingly, they are dirt and I will not buy from them again.
Yes, and as with HP, the secret appears to be, buy used.
I too have an old Brother that I keep around. Some years back I bought an HP on eBay that was at least 5 years old at the time — it was a model that the 3rd party toner companies had figured out how to hack.
In fact, that is generally my suggestion: to determine which used printer to shop for, find the ink/toner cartridges that are in abundance and see which models they work with.
I suppose software support is the only danger of this (although it has not bitten me yet). But I believe there are perhaps open-source or 3rd party solutions here?
