Okay, did not know that. I bought the printer also for this to send print jobs from my PC to the printer. All in all, i made a VLAN at home to put my printer and PC into different networks… And this means there should be a change in Bambu Handy as well? Because this means sending print jobs when I am at work for example to my printer over my smartphone will be difficult to?
It’s not that much about messing up but rather about the screwing up with its customer base, on the assumption (proven false already by the community and users’ outcry and backlash) that the largest majority, the beginners in the 3D printing, which forms their intended target audience, won’t be bothered by the so called “security change” , or aren’t knowledgeable enough on such matters, to care or bother to check, and challenge the “official narrative”.
Bambu was proven wrong (once again), but somehow, based on the answers they provide in various media/blogposts/articles (in an obvious and very painful attempt for damage control), I very much doubt they’re really honest or transparent, and that after some time they won’t try to pull this stunt on us again. Only next time Bambu might be better prepared to “sugarcoat” and sell to us the idea of handing them over the full control over our machines (or most of it anyway).
Based on the quality and ease of use of their printers Bambu has acquired a well deserved reputation, and they did managed to make 3D printing interesting and appealing (and affordable -to some degree-) to the average individual (“chapeau” as the French say, for this achievement), which is not a small feat by itself. They’ve also managed to become in short time market leaders, not necessarily for being innovative, but rather for knowing how to combine many existing features and come out with a product that completely smashed its competitors (“chapeau” again). However, in its “quest” to “milk out” as much as possible its existing customer base, and to get the maximum of profits possible, they’ve overstepped their boundaries and blatantly overlooked that even the noobs in this field are informed and knowledgeable (not necessarily in 3D printing), many working in various IT related fields or simply being privacy or cybersec aware, and, ultimately, no one likes being treated as “milking cows”. And those consumers, as well as some of the social media, have publicly challenged Bambu’s false narrative, forcing Bambu to take a (half)step back and reconsider. Has Bambu learned a valuable lesson from all this story? Somehow I doubt it and I’m convinced now (more than before) that Bambu will try pulling this stunt again sometime in not so far future. Nevertheless, with this unnecessary stunt Bambu took a huge gamble and lost not just in terms of credibility and trust, but also a hard earned reputation.
Will I sell my printers, like so many have announced here and elsewhere? Hell no! I love my printers, they “just work” (as advertised) and I’m going to keep and use them until my existing stockpile of spares will run out, or the printers reach their natural technical end of their life cycle. Will I recommend Bambu printers to others? Possibly, but only after clearly pointing out the downsides of having to accept the consequences what may result from a beta-like style firmware update.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1i4vp5i/lan_mode_with_live_view_remote_monitoringcontrol/
Not much only use mentions making a connection using cfg file on sd card - ender9492
update here is more info on the topic :
Just logged out and of course will not be creating MW account any time soon … so need this “hack” as well …
I did it “standard” way. Also installed bambu companion app - so now i have “air gaped” printer from bambu cloud - LAN mode with blocked mac address on router and when in same network i can use companion app to access printer on my phone ……
It is still in dev mode. In light of these changes i believe it will be soon out on app store… and many other options to get rid of Bambu grip on the hardware.
App offers same functionality if not even better compared to bambu handy app ….
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Go by a Prusa if your not happy
I feel sorry for Bambu. We all jumped on the bandwagon don’t like it get off
Good Morning everyone.
TLDR: BL should release their cloud server code to the open source community so that it can ultimately be spun up locally for true developer mode.
This topic is pretty volatile and all comes down to trust. Bambu Labs seem to have lost the trust of a reasonable proportion of their community.
I think what the changes have highlighted to the community, in one respect, is exactly how much reliance there is on “cloud” for Bambu’s nice features. With the original security concerns being raised around how their servers are getting hammered, and subsequently the details of exactly what will and won’t work when disconnected from their servers, people are getting nervous.
Adding on to that, when these same people see the way BL are talking around themselves and not everything is lining up, I see people worrying over what other things BL can do to the printers that were purchased and are in use.
BL’s later announcements of “Developer” (or - enhanced LAN) mode seems like an interesting step forward to try and appease their community - however I don’t actually think it goes far enough.
I personally would feel a lot more comfortable if I had the features that the printer(s) are known for as well as the security I am in control of. By that, I mean I don’t like having a gateway in front of my devices that I cannot at least bypass, let alone control. The manufacturer of a device should not dictate to me how and when I can use that device. It’s mine, I bought it.
To get around this, I would really like to see “Developer” mode talk to a server that I control. By releasing (at least a community edition) of the backend server code that I can read, approve and spin up in my own infrastructure, I would then be in complete control of what happens with my printer. I can enable the features I want on the server. By being completely open and community led, this resolves both the trust issues surrounding cloud control as well as the security issues highlighted by BL as their servers are no longer in the picture for those who want to run everything locally in true developer mode.
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Thats what I wanted to buy but decided I would wait and give Bambu Labs a try. Really kicking myself. I have a K1 Max and absolutely love that machine. Only failed print was an ID10T error on my part not the printers. I am getting the K2 Plus (and a few CFS’s) in a few months as a birthday gift to myself.
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The question is how long until ‘for your safety and convenience, to ensure your printer continues to operate optimally’ they lock you down to only being able to use Bambu supplied filament - and no you can’t reuse the RFID tag because consumption tracking will be forced on?
It’s quite possible ‘following user group research and community feedback’ whatever that really involved they could justify this - because you know, print farm owners are worried by the prospect of their operations being interrupted by a staff member accidentally loading a third party roll of filament leading to a failure. They can make up whatever they want to justify it.
Now I’m not saying they will do this, but they easily could. It’s not much different to what they are doing now. They are retrospectively and without consent introducing new restrictions that limit how you can use your device - after you’ve purchased it with no such restrictions in place.
From what I’ve read there is no option to simply not update your firmware and avoid this - it will eventually be forced. This means it’s not really your device to use as you wish, Bambu are the gatekeeper and you can’t use it unless they allow you. That’s not acceptable.
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Actually, that is not “entirely” true. One is “technically” not required to update their firmware and I for one have refused to since the 1.04 version of the P1 where they botched the TCP/IP stack and tried to gaslight me into believing it wasn’t an issue.
Now having said that. Bambu “speaks with forked tongue” to use an 19th century native-american idiom. Why do I say that. Because although they state that one can simply avoid updating firmware, they are dishonest in that representation. I can cite the specific example where I was bullied by tech support into upgrading to 1.05 against my will because they refused to provide support unless I caved into their demands. Once I did, it not only didn’t address the defect, I was blocked from retreating back to the more stable 1.04, it simply was not offered in the Handy App.
So at the end of the day, Bambu says one thing in their posts trying to convince us that we are the ones that are wrong but their actions contradict their own words. In other words “They speak with forked tongue”. 
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It’s been suggested that the TOS say this:
7.4 Your Bambu Lab product will automatically search for and download new update packages to provide you with timely update services. These updates are designed to resolve cyber security loopholes and prevent new threats, and it is important to accept and install security related system updates in a timely manner. Due to the importance of these updates, your product may block new print job before the updates is installed, and will immediately provide update notifications to help you understand the related information.
Essentially if you choose not to install these updates, we might stop you using your printer.
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Yes, the TOS claims that which is what started the whole uproar to begin with - however, unless their PR representative is not lying while answering Verge’s questions - the (current) firmaware does not have a killswitch so there is no way to force a FW update despite the TOS. They also (sneakily) updated the original announcement to add a section that explicitly says that you do not have to update to this new firmware if you’re content with the current version of the firmware and their apps (Bambu Studio, Handy… if you’re using them).
Ok, so when is this update dropping (so we can all disable auto firmware updates) and why can’t they make updated apps (Studio/Handy) backwards compatible with printers that have not had the firmware update. No reason to block users with printers on older firmware versions from updating the app.
Also, PR people tend to lie, or promote one version of the truth. How long until you are forced to update to gain support, replace a failed component. They may also have a kill switch in the apps so at some point they force you to update the app to continue using it, and that in turn forces you to update firmware.
The whole things is shady. I’ve completely lost trust in them.
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We don’t know yet, it’s still in beta. As to why can’t they make the apps updated - it’s a tall order to ask them to maintain two different connection systems, and it’s not unreasonable to drop the ‘old’ unsupported one at some point.
Kill-switches are difficult to implement unless they really thought of all of this many years ahead - and I really doubt that. It’s true, tho, that there are different ways to ‘force’ you to update - like if you ask for support (within the warranty period) they might refuse to help you until you update the firmware under the guise that the issue might already been fixed in a newer firmware.
This is the crux of their contradictory statements. Their blogs protest that what people are characterizing as a one-way street is nothing short of a misinformation campaign and Bambu plays the victim car. Yet when their own policy and TOS are quoted that specifically state the opposite and that is pointed out to them, what do we get as a response? Radio Silence!!!
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This is ridiculous. None of this is okay. I use these printers and other Bambu products for my business. I am not at all happy with your recent changes, limiting my ability to use MY printer which I bought and paid for how I see fit.
I have recommended Bambu products to my friends, family and even clients. And they have all purchased products on the same notion that I have. This not only affects me personally, as a business owner that is now limited in how I can use my hardware to make products I sell - but it also makes me look like an idiot in front of my friends, family and clients, because now they are reaching out to me asking me “why did you tell me to buy this?!”.
If this is not walked back immediately I will cease all further purchases of all Bambu products for my business and go to an open source competitor where I am not forced into the use of proprietary drivers, firmware, software or anything else.
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Just got through reading all the posts, some may have been skimmed due to redundancy.
So I am not going to offer my personal views beyond to say that I think there is some overreaction happening.
Also, if someone wants to knee jerk sell their X1C or X1E for a good price, I wouldn’t mind adding to the 4 I have.
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So I see two problems here… if you have an issue with the printer, and are running old firmware, why should support not basically say “newer firmware with big fixes are available… We can’t really help you until you’ve tried the new firmware and checked if your issue is resolved”. This is where an unrelated and potentially more serious concern arises - not being able to roll back to any released firmware version.
The second is people keep trotting out TOS 7.4 and saying “see, your printer will be bricked”… and fail to prove it is not simply a matter of them interpreting that clause to mean something it doesn’t. That it may simply be the skipable update prompt that “blocks” the UI till you clear it. Also, it there is the “block” the use of newr version of Bambu Handy/Bambu Studio until a compatible firmware installed upgrade path. Where is the proof that there is a “Killswitch” or hard block?
Finally, let’s go back to the claim of security. On that basis, Bambu would not want to support “insecure” modes of connection, which is why future Bambu Handy and Bambu Studio versions would require newer “secure” firmwares. Note: secure in this instance is a complete joke/farce, but does not invalidate this the premise of this argument.
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just found this video, which explains it really nice…
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So it says “your product may block new print job before the updates is installed” - that seems pretty unambiguous, it’s not saying you may be presented with a reminder before each print, it’s saying it may ‘block new print jobs’. Whether or not they have the capability there (who knows) the mindset and intent is clear.
With regards to supporting insecure modes of connection in newer versions of the app or it being unreasonable for them to have to maintain ‘two versions’; I think that’s nonsense. The current mode of connection is there built into the software already, they don’t need to create anything new to keep it there. It also presents no additional ‘security risk’ to keep it there in the client apps - it would not impact devices running newer firmware as their connection to the app would use the new ‘secure’ method of connection.
Why should users miss out on updates to the apps (security, bugfixes and new features) because they don’t want their devices firmware updated to limit its functionality.
I agree regards the inability to roll back to previous versions of firmware - that does not help at all, and it’s not for the benefit of the owner/user, it’s so Bambu can stop people rolling back to exploit a bug or vulnerability to install their own firmware etc.
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Define block. Is it a permanent block? Is it a temporary block? Is it an avoidable block? Is it one you can skip? Is it a unconditional block?
Interpretation of TOS and legislation is not as “simple” as you make out, and needs to be be read in the context of everything else that is said, and the intent of the author determined from that. The English language is not unambiguous by a long shot, and be cause of that, it is very much up to interpretation. (side note: this is why there was an entire module/course in my law degree on just that alone - statutory interpretation). This is why I have repeated asked whenever anyone brings that up to provide an example where you have been unable to skip a firmware update / actually forced with no other recourse to install the firmware update (other than the self-inflicted interoperability with updated software cat and mouse updates) or that they know (not guess or assume) Bambu has the ability to force updates/update process. As until then, it is unfounded hysteria. Facts, not assumptions, matter. Fact: the TOS could be interpreted that way. Thus asking support if this is the case and sharing the answer would be a good way to resolve this, as well as suggesting they word the statement differently if that is not the intended interpretation. Not jumping up and down and saying “look, the TOS says they can, they must be evil!” as some people have done.
Yes, the current mode of connection is there… but in their words, it is insecure… so keeping it present is an inherent security risk, if they are “patching” the risk with a software update. Keeping it there only encourages use of the “insecure” method. The underlying principle itself is sound, and is done all the time in other software and by all different companies… what is not sound is the “security fix” they are proposing.
“Dude!!! What’s wrong with you? Clearly, you’re under the wildly mistaken impression that this is your property. Bambu Labs would like to politely disabuse you of that notion. Why on earth would you think that—oh, just because you paid for it? No, no, no. Ownership is such an outdated concept!” Let’s get with the program, shall we? 
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