This has been discussed in may posts here, and may pleas have been made to Bambu Lab staff to provided a fully secure LAN ONLY implementation that does not rely or send any data to the coloud.
There are frequent outages of the bambu cloud services, automatic logouts, disappearing prints, and it is very environmentally unfriendly to send a print file 2 or 3 meters away from you halfway around the world to Bambu’s servers and back again.
There are lots more reasons for this already addressed by many people in the community.
The Cloud / Wan mode can still be there, but the choice HAS to be by the user whether or not they want to control their devices via the cloud or securely in their LAN.
As there is no built in survey / vote system on this forum, what I am hoping is that everyone who wants to have fully functional LAN mode and to not have to rely on the cloud, to add a LIKE to this post.
Hopefully this will push the message across to BBL a little harder and get something actioned fast.
All O365 apps work fine in offline mode and with data stored locally on LAN, you can stay offline up to six month before you need to sync the licence
I don’t mind using the cloud but as mentioned sometime there is maintenance on BL servers and other network based issue can append, you usually only notice when you are actually trying to print, a “plan b” using the local network will be a big plus.
Fully agree on this. In order to respect users security concerns the LAN only mode should support all features like with cloud. There is no technical reason for not allowing this.
The request to start video stream is sent from PC to Cloud, from Cloud to X1C Printer … then X1C Printer starts to stream the video signal to the PC. Does this make sense??? It should be absolutely no problem to have direct communication without Cloud. So far all the requests via tickets have been rejected.
@mr_cg
That isn’t always true. I run my P1P on an isolated network with no internet access. My printer is configured for LAN only. I use Bambu Studio to send prints, monitor progress and watch the video. In my case there is no access to the cloud.
It is possible that the X1, which has different firmware and a different camera works differently.
One thing to note, is that Bambu Studio doesn’t have a LAN mode. It will always try to access api.bambulab.com for every print request. I see all those failures in the bambu network log file.
I really don’t understand why is doesn’t just talk directly to the printer without first trying to access the cloud. It knows about the printer and knows the printer is LAN only. It is even storing the printer IP address and access code (which it periodically asks for again.)
Bambu Handy doesn’t have LAN only mode, Bambu Studio does have.
Some time ago i tests LAN only mode with Bambu Studio but it was not possible to have live webcam stream. Recorded video and timelapse was possible. Not sure if this has been added in later FW versions.
Request is to have FULL functionality also with LAN only mode. Meaning all functions from Bambu Studio and Bambu Handy.
Bambu Studio does not have a LAN mode. It works with printers set to LAN only mode, but it continues to constantly contact bambu servers. You can look at the network log file that it creates and see all these connections.
P1P camera works in LAN only mode. I don’t think the X1 does.
The proposal and the poll is to make everything work in LAN only mode.
To accommodate security concerns we had to setup our 3 X1’s on an isolated VLAN not touching our primary network, specifically for the reasons listed in the OP. This ensures that the printer cannot access anything on our main network, while still being able to communcate with the cloud server for whatever reason it requires any external connections.
I am generally a paranoid person when it comes to all the cloud base systems. Many times it is totally unnecessary and the company is collecting this data for other purposes. I am particularly paranoid when a company is goading you by features to send your intellectual product to their servers. There is no technological reason the handy features need to be disable for LAN-ONLY mode, this is particularly evident when Bambu Labs sells a printer which offers all the features turned on. Though technically doable by someone with network technology experience, the only legitimate reason for the cloud is providing access when not connected to your LAN, basically via the internet. I have to think, being a paranoid person as I am, what does Bambu Labs want with our models? Remember, there is a cost for Bambu Labs to provide the storage for all this data, so what it the motivation to absorb all the cost associated with the storage and maintenance of this data? Anyways, at least the camera should be turned on at the desktop at least.
I agree, and I disregard the reasons given by Bambu Labs CEO on the couple interviews I’ve seen and was asked about this reason. He states that the cloud is necessary to be able for the mobile app to get access to the printer from anywhere, even not being home. That’s not true at all. Let me explain how I can see it working without sending the files to the internet:
HOW IT WORKS NOW (oversimplified for clarity):
When you open Bambu Studio, a connection to BL servers is established, a registered user is registered as active and located at certain IP address to be able to communicate with it (handshake).
When you turn on the printer, a connection again is established with BL servers the printer identified and located by IP, and the server sends a message to Bambu Studio (or the Handy app on the phone) of the user who registered it, so it can be controlled and monitored from the app’s “Device” tab.
When a file is sent to the printer, the server is contacted, the file is sent there, and the server looks for the printer, and sends the file to it.
All the communications during the print between Studio, Handy and the printer, go through the server (% of completion, status, push notifications with potential warnings, camera connection, etc.)
HOW IT COULD WORK (again, simplified, but it’s how plenty of other programs work):
Bambu Studio or Handy app is opened and it’ll automatically look or listen inside the LAN network for a printer. Secondarily, it’ll announce itself to the server, to check for updates or whatever other service like MakerWorld want to be available. The server will then log the IP address of the client and wait. But if the server is not responding, the LAN functionality is still on and operative.
When the printer is on, it will look for LAN devices or announce itself on the LAN, so a direct connection to the Studio or the Handy app can be established locally. Secondarily, it’ll contact the Bambu server and announce itself too. The server will again log the IP address.
The server, seeing both on and both on the same IP, can tell each of them that they’re on, see that the external IP (the one from the router) is the same for both, and if so, stay passive not doing anything. If any of them is on a different IP, then a internet connection (the one we have today), is used, where the file is sent through the internet (this could be and optional feature that some users like companies could disable). The handy app would only use the internet if connected to a different LAN or cellular network, but would we local if being in the same LAN as the printer.
The server is only used for notification and download of firmware and software updates, for handshakes, and for push notifications (issues or when the printer is finished).
There’s absolutely no technical reason for not using this approach. It can be done, as it’s done by plenty of other devices like IoT devices, programs like Dropbox, etc.
It’s also a huge cost saving for Bambu Labs, as the server would be much less overloaded. It would also be a huge sales point, a huge praise from their users and from reviewers online. It’s a win-win situation. Yes, it’ll need some initial software development, but it will pay by itself quite rapidly.
Another solution is to open a VPN between your mobile device and your local network. I would suggest it would be better to keep 3rd party data collectors out of the mix entirely. But right now setting up this kind of VPN is not something an average user can do. The trouble is the collection our data is far more valuable to them then any cost saving they might realize.
The only way is for the user community to give up in mass the convenience of the “features” so it’s no longer cost effective. But that will never happen since technological conveniences are like a drug, once hooked, it’s difficult to give up, and they know it! Basically, these tech companies dangle a technological bobble in front of the users in exchange the company collects far more valuable personal data…
As we see in the X1 Plus firmware videos, we just have a Linux machine. We don’t have any technical issues that prevent us from using the camera, SD card, and firmware update process without connecting to the cloud.