I know this is a ludicrous question, but I purchased an H2D for my company a month ago. It’s taken me this long to realize I have no way to connect the printer to the network due to it not supporting WPA2-enterprise authentication. I thought this may be a problem, but was assured by my coworkers that it would be IT’s problem to figure out how to get it connected, it’ll be fine…famous last words. Didn’t realize the H2D was so incredibly barebones in it’s connection capabilities. So I’m currently stuck with using a flash drive (which my company is phasing out flash drive usage for security purposes soon).
A month later, low and behold, Bambu Lab was holding out on us and subtly dropped the H2D Pro yesterday. Had I known it was coming out, I would have waited and purchased the Pro. I contacted BBL because I can’t justify buying a second printer to my boss (especially if one can’t be networked) and I really would like to fix this giant headache of zero connectivity.
Sad to say your only option is to sell the current printer and ask your work for another $2.2K on top of that money to get the pro. Bambu has shown how they plan on working with professional editions with the X1E; release the consumer grade flagship printer so that reviews and word can spread, then release a slightly upgraded model with Ethernet and network security for a much higher price. They’ve never offered any sort of trade in program and I would be willing to bet a good chunk of change that they never will. It was safe to assume this would happen back in April when the original H2D was announced, but I did think it would be another few months before the release
I know it seems ludicrous that it doesn’t have a usb or ethernet port but that is how Bambu does it. First time I bought a Bambu I wasted 20 minutes looking for them. I even felt foolish for not being able to find it having to ask someone. That was when I found out there is no usb or ethernet port. I mean everything that connects to the computer has a usb or ethernet port but not a Bambu. You have to pay a high premium for that little addition. By now everyone is so accustom to it but I still think it’s ridiculous for an electronic device of decent size that needs the computer to be limited to wifi or the memory stick.
very very few 3d printers have a USB port. No Prusa did until the last couple of variants. It was ALL SD cards. Yeah, usb to flash the memory, but you couldn’t use it to send files. And Ethernet port? None of that either. All except the $10k industrial machines were hobby printers.
No Infosec (or any Neteng department worth their salt) is going to approve having a normal WPA hotspot as a backdoor to their network for a 3D printer. Sure you can block traffic from it in the firewall, but you’re literally putting a known-compromised hole into your network. The idea itself is foolish.
If it does not support secure network traffic it does not belong on an enterprise network, it doesn’t matter how fancy or expensive it is.
Edit: And no, putting it on a separate VLAN is not sufficient.
You would need a workstation on that local network. Is the company willing to sacrifice an old laptop for it? If so then that might be the answer
Edit: Have a small basic router running a local network with no WAN. Have it running in the lowest transmission power mode available nearby the printer. Have IT run an Ethernet connection from the router to the network closet and pipe it over to OP’s office. Connect Ethernet to laptop, proceed with LAN mode shenanigans.
Edit 2: would my company do that? Well it probably depends on how invested the director of that department is in the 3D printer project, but if they weren’t adamant about it I’m confident it wouldn’t happen. This is going to be seen as a “if you give them an inch they’ll take a mile” from the perspective of IT. It’s not a “can we do it?” situation, it’s a “why in the world would we??” one. A device was purchased without consulting the department on the network requirements, that’s not on IT to fix.
Edit 3: this sort of situation is precisely why IT admins get frustrated with users. Oftentimes the problems are brought upon themselves and they are expected to fix them. No. Requirements are requirements and if the department blew it’s budget on fancy tech without consulting IT then it sucks to be them. They only have themselves to blame. Good luck with the upcoming 2026 budget discussions in the next few months
There is way to convert to WPA2 wifi type for the printer only I would talk IT tho cus you would need to run duel ssid,s or bridge it down side there couldstrong text be security issues not major. You just be adown secure to type from enterprise to WPA2 mean your network acceptable to the same stuff as WPA2 threats.
you’re literally putting a known-compromised hole into your network.
We may have different interpretations of the meaning of “compromised”
(Edit , reply to your next post here, and off topic)
this sort of situation is precisely why IT admins get frustrated with users.
I’m a CTO and this sort of situation is precisely why users get frustrated with IT. This is a reasonable request with several possible solutions. Nobody needs to get excited or upset about anything, or complain about “not getting involved”. We exist to serve the business and its users, so lets do that with professionalism and a smile in our faces
Why is that? It seems so out of the ordinary to me for a 3d printer not to have a USB or ethernet port like a normal paper printer or practically any decent sized device that requires a computer. Seriously there has got to be a reason.
Yeah. Easiest solution I think is just to connect to WPA2-EAP then enable a hotspot with mac address restrictions.
update: nvm, on a second thought, mac can be spoofed as well. guess the simple solution still is just to tune the TX power to absolute minimum so that the good ol physical wall can defend the network lol.
The added hardware only costs a fraction of the difference in pricing but it’s the same with everything. When you sell to professionals like this printer is intended to, you sell at a pro price, that’s all. If I want to buy an individual license for say Solidworks, it cost about $50/year for individuals, $3000/year for pros.
Yeah, all the Elegoo printers have had USB connections since they came out in 2019 and eithernet since the Neptune 4 series, and they are some of the cheapest printers.
Exactly… Sometimes IT needs to realize their “gatekeeper” mentality leads to reduced productivity. Sure security is important… But so is actually being able to do your job. I have a love/hate relationship with our IT dept at my job and its mostly hate…
