Blocking a site ?

Several. Cut off your Internet access, throw away the printer...

You can't reliably block any software you install from communicating to specific addresses - it's pretty much impossible to stop them from accessing the network at all, as a matter of fact. Telling the software "You can talk to anybody BUT..." is impossible, as there's too much methods to get around such a block, from using various server names up to using DNS tunneling.

Juergen Nieveler

Instead of blocking the printer site at the firewall block the printer. If the printer cannot send packets past the firewall it really doesn't matter who it tries to communicate with.

Hi,

The printer has a number of programmes listed in the firewall:

Prrinter communication system Printer device monitor Printer status window interface Lexmark connect time exesutable

If these were blocked, would I be able to print from the Web?

Thanks

I must admit I am not sure what these programs are. But when you say "print from the Web" do you mean that some host out on the Internet sends your printer something to print or that some browser on your local network wants to print a web page that it has displayed? I would hope you are refering to the later. Assuming that packets from the browser host do not go through the firewall I don't see how blocking the printer at the firewall would matter,

Thanks for responding.

quote

'or that some browser on your local network wants to print a web page that it has displayed? I would hope you are refering to the later'

unquote

Yes, I was referring to the latter.

How would you block the printer?

Best wishes

S

So you think it is the printer itself that talks to the site in question? Why do people rush to render advice on subjects they are clueless about?

Noah Davids wrote:

I expect that it is software - merely an abbreviation.

Unless your LAN is surprisingly big: Remove the entry for the default gateway.

Anything within the same subnet can talk to the printer, but the printer can't talk to anything outside.

Juergen Nieveler

Good idea, but it assumes that the printer interface allows that level of configuration. If the printer is getting its IP address from DHCP it may not be possible.

As far as how you would go about blocking the printer at the firewall - that depends on the firewall.

I realize that I have made the assumption that the printer has its own network interface and IP address. If it is really the print driver on a host that is going back to the printer company life gets a lot harder. NOw you have to block the host. I expect that blocking the host from reaching the internet is probably not acceptable.

You can add an entry in the computer's hosts file that sets the remote host name

to 127.0.0.1. That will prevent the computer from communicating with the printer company. However, you have to know what the remote host name is, it may not be and the software may try several different names. If it uses an IP address editing the hosts file will not work. If you then want to surf to you can delete the entries from the hosts file or use a different computer.

A printer that doesn't allow manual IP configuration? That would be a unique idea... uniquely useless, too.

I never use DHCP for devices that are supposed to keep their address for months or years, anyway - what would be the point, after all? ;-)

And blocking one part of the host from accessing the Internet while the rest still can is impossible.

Problem is... what hostname do they use? And are there backup names in the driver? What about driver updates? If the driver manufacturer really wants, he could use some naming scheme that automatically generates hostnames, too...

If you really don't trust the manufacturer of that printer, there's only one way to deal with it: Don't buy the printer.

Mind you, today it's almost impossible to get a non-spying colour laser printer - at the very least, they tag your printouts with microdots of the serial number.

Juergen Nieveler