I work in a large enterprise as an IT Infrastructure and Security Architect, and frankly I could care less about LAN only functionality for this product.
…until internet goes offline, or Bambulabs turns off their servers, or starts charging for their service, or pushes ads on you.
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You can slice files from slicers OTHER than Bambu Studio that works fine on this printer. And you can save the gcode file to this thing called an SD card, then plug the SD card into the printer, and guess what, it prints. No Internet or even LAN required. Works great. MANY items today are cloud-based and only work that way, and if you don’t like that, there are many alternatives. No video feed, then a $20 camera of your choice fixes that.
Why would I want to carry an SD card around when I can use my local network to control and monitor my printer?
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I know, they can be heavy. But if one method doesn’t work to your expectations, you can use another. I’d like my printer to work via mental telepathy, but until that is working, I have other options.
Dear BambuLab
If you continue with your success and the printer will able to get track into the tinker/hacker scene, I think you will face soon some “Jailbreaks” regarding your firmware and so on. At this mentioned point you’ll face a situation where you sell printer but the first thing what a user will do is upgrade the firmware (see the marlin/klipper stuff. The other way, maybe a higher chance that it will happen is that other companies will outperform you regarding free choice of software and upgrades. Maybe not in 1 year, but maybe in 18 month or 24months
We demand
- No cloud mandatory
- Give back something to the open source world
You are warned, don’t underestimate the community. You have kicked many printer companies in the a**, don’t think this can’t happen to you.
At this moment, we have sure a good and innovative printer from you, but with customer (which pays you) they will kick you out of windows at the moment there are slightly better printer.
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I want to add this to my post above.
I’ll happy support you for more questions and I think a lot of other people are willing to invest their time to help you.
Today I got downloading issue this printer is usles… In place of print I need to try to figure out how to print …
In the computer world, we refer to this method of moving data between computers as “SneakerNet”. 
But really, there’s no reason I can see why Bambu needs “cloud”. Unlike companies like GlowForge that actually does the processing in the cloud, we’re slicing locally. The Bambu servers are nothing more than a glorified transport mechanism. A “man in the middle” where none is required. (though I’m guessing the “AI” features need to talk to their servers to do their thing).
I can see the printer on my network, I should be able to make a direct connection to it from my desktop, same as every other “printer” I own (except the GlowForge).
GlowForge derives revenue from their cloud model. The “slicer” equivalent runs in a web interface on their end. You can use the basics for free (which is how I do it since all my prep is done in CAD and not their interface). But they sell subscription services to expanded features. Less sophisticated users who don’t have the tools or skills for CAD (or Illustrator) can make use of the GUI’s tools if they pay. Their servers or your network go down, the laser cutter is a brick until it comes back. Hasn’t happened to me but once, but there are plenty of users who’ve complained (not that it can be changed without revamping their entire service model).
My FormLabs 3D printer sends a bunch of telemetry back to FormLabs. But when I slice in their slicer it talks directly to my printer on my network. Disconnect the WAN, printer still works.
Bambu, only with SneakerNet. 
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I agree with you, it should work locally, but until then, there are alternatives.
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Ideally, IMHO, it would use LAN only mode by default but still allow using the cloud connection to check on the print for when on the go. And exactly that is probably the reason why currently we only have cloud mode: With cloud mode both is possible, while with LAN mode, well, only LAN is an option. From a business point of view I can somewhat understand that Bambu did not implement both (yet - hopefully). From a user point of view I’m somewhat disappointed that I seem to be having to resort back to an SD card when my internet connection drops out for whatever reason…
I did not have any issues with Bambus cloud at all yet (EU servers). I did have a local internet connection outage which prevented me to use the printer properly… So, I can understand all the frustration of the users here about this topic, even though I would not agree with the wording chosen by some…
Also, the live view video stream seems very very laggy, that seems like it should work better by using a local LAN connection and I guess that is causing quite a bit traffic on Bambus servers they need to pay for?
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The difference between LAN only mode and cloud is that the cloud actually stores a copy of your files that have been printed so you can print them again from another device (I think).
I agree that LAN could be used even when connected to the cloud to make transfers faster and limit the bandwidth used for status and live video. Handy and Bambu Studio could just do this automatically if they are on the same LAN as the printer. That would be the most sensible option. All it would take is another checkbox on the print dialog to indicate if you wanted to also send your print file to the cloud.
Having talked to BBL developers on GitHub, most of our issues were brought about by their initial release of the product only using the cloud all the time. This led to not maintaining connections between the printer and device because it cost them more, when everything goes through the cloud.
It seems like they are slowly making LAN only mode more useful, which is a big must because their cloud is so unreliable.
One of the problems with LAN only mode is the only way to update the firmware is connect the printer to the cloud, which requires turning off LAN only mode. I wish they would allow Studio to download firmware when it is available and then Studio could send it to the printer. I can easily manage Studio having internet access part of the time, but I want my printer isolated.
They also made the procedure to switch the printer in and out of LAN only mode painful. It is just crazy.
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I don’t want “LAN only” mode!
I want “LAN” and “cloud” to be two options, co-existing, with the same feature set!
So I can turn “cloud on” and “lan on” and be able to send prints, watch live camera over lan when I’m in LAN and use cloud when I’m outside LAN. Not one or another. Both
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Oh I can reply but not open a new topic WTF
Function without internet connection
I am considering buying an X1C
The function without an internet connection is important to me
Neither the printer nor the laptop will have internet (wifi possible printer/laptop)
-Silicer (Cura?)?
- Lidar?
- Updates via USB stick?
Transfer(gCode/Firmware) via SD/USB card and no camera would be ok, are there any further restrictions?
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@gondor
I have proven that I can run my P1P and use all the function of the printer and Bambu Studio without an internet connection from my local network. I do not use Handy, so I ignore it. The only caveat is that the only way to update the firmware is to temporarily connect the printer to the internet. I skipped the last 2 firmware updates
I actually waited until I was sure I could use the printer without internet access. That was a hard limit for me.
I believe that the X1 has one additional limitation. I do not think the X1 camera works without the internet. I have no idea why Studio cannot access it directly. Maybe someone can provide the answer.
I do not think the lidar or the AI first layer are worth paying for. They do not even work in many cases. I think that buying the X1 is spending money for an enclosure so you can print additional filaments.
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I can confirm on my P1P in LAN only mode the camera works.
The only thing that does not work is the Handy App but I never really used that before changing to LAN only so it is not missed.
As to how to make it work - not sure, it just did once I had set it up.
“We demand”, “You are warned”? You have some egotistical gaul there. I suggest you develop your own 3D printer and sell it. If you don’t like the product, don’t buy it. You have no clue what Bambu Labs has plans for, or what firmware development timeline is on the table. You have no place issuing demands to a company who no doubt has invested more time and resources into something than the measly amount of money you paid for one of their printers. Grow up and have some respect.
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Yes, I’m considering purchasing a 2nd X1 Carbon with AMS (already got one X1 Carbon and 2 AMS units), I may purchase as many as 10 of these depending on how things go… However, I’d have to have them isolated on a self contained printing farm… And I’d be running 24/7 video to all of them from another room that monitors them… However… Do I want to have 10 video feeds going up my Internet feed, just to go Back down my video feed?? Not just no, but… "heck no!’ Do I want to be able to send jobs from the monitoring room when I see that one of the printers has been cleared of the previous job and I can send it another one? Yep, do I want that to leave my network? Nope…
I can run a giga bit connection between the monitoring room and the printer room(s), but Can’t do that to the internet, and the cost that Bambu would incur for streaming that much data in and out of their servers… Ouch… and the advantages of doing that? None.
I agree that people WILL hack this to be able to do this themselves, as a Software Architect, I’m already considering it… Would have to break back the protocols, fake it out so that it would attempt to connect to the cloud, but would instead connect to a local server that would respond like it was the Bambu server… Saving the video off on a local machine, and then streaming that to the studio… but that is at least a couple weekends worth of work, or perhaps more…
Would prefer that this was included in the base product, you have a great product, quality of EVERYTHING (except this) is outstanding!! 5 stars across the board… A few quirks and a few things that would raise the price of the printer needlessly (like the ongoing cost if I run this printer for 10 years streaming a feed up and back 24/7 (or multiple streams if I have multiple people viewing), add up all that data cost and does the cost of the printer even cover what you are paying AWS? Doubtful… And if you made me pay a monthly fee for something as stupid as this, I’d hack the printer instead… Or buy someone else’s…
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Today is a PERFECT example of why I want the printer to work perfectly well with it ONLY connecting to the cloud to get updates, or to setup a connection if I request a remote connection to the printer to view video (if I decide to enable remote viewing from the printer)…
Yeah, the cloud has been down for about 24 hours now… I HAD the video working (but the rest of the status wasn’t) as I have had a connection up and running 24/7 since I bought the printer… But it was popping up “Unable to connect to the internet” (obviously an incorrect statement as it WAS actively streaming video at the time to the other machine!) - what it SHOULD have said is “Our Cloud services are down right now”…
In any event, I powered off the printer, hoping it would be able to get the thing back up and working, but all that did was to kill the video feed and now nothing is working except sneaker-netting to the printer to print something that way… (I.E. printing from disk)
Please give LAN based workflow a priority.
Oh, and considering it has been about 24 hours your services are down, in the mean time, you might consider getting that back up…
---- Update
Actually, the isolated network that I put the printer on failed on a router and had to be rebooted, so perhaps your service isn’t down… the printer is now showing a successful test connection… Although… It appears that it isn’t auto-reconnecting to the network in spite of that… perhaps it needs to finish the current job? (That would be bad), the interesting thing is that apparently, the video IS being streamed across the local lan without being uploaded to the cloud… That design would save you a bundle…
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You can try this link before seeking help on the forum.
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