Info and questions about Brother[tm] multifunction machine

[Da Rock]

On 02/22/12 08:33, Ronald F. Guilmette wrote:
> So, um, I just came into possession of a brand spankin' new Brother
> MFC-7860DW all-in-one multifunction machine, and 'me having some fun
> exploring it.
>
> Unlike the multifunction machine this is replacing (which had only an
> old centronics/parallel port and a USB port) this new Brother machine
> has only USB and Ethernet ports.  (Well, um, it apparently can be spoken
> to wirelessly, via 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, also, but I'm studiously ignoring that.)
>
> Anyway, I needed to hook this thing to a single Windows 2000 machine and
> a single FreeBSD (8.x) machine.  I couldn't immediately figure out how
> to make FreeBSD talk to it over ethernet so I just used the USB port for
> that connection, and (fortunately) the supplied software that came with
> the machine allows Windows 2000 to talk to the thing over the ethernet
> connection.  I've run simple printing tests and this setup is all working
> just dandy, for both plain text and Postscript.
>
> One thing that I learned is that (contrary to the setup instructions) when
> you first wire the thing up to your ethernet hub/router/whatever, you have
> to power cycle the Brother machine in order to get it to initiate DHCP and
> pull an IP address for itself (and other stuff) from your router.  (I have
> a nice old reliable Linksys WRT54g and this worked fine with no problem.)
>
> But like any new high-tech toy, I can't help being curious about the thing,
> so I ran a TCP port scan and here's what I came up with:
>
> 25
> 23
> 21
> 80
> 515
> 631
> 9100
> 54921
> 54922
> 54923
>
> Very interesting!  I'm damn glad the thing is behind a nat box, elsewise I
> can well imagine all sorts of mischief that outsiders could get into with
> this thing.
>
> I wasn't familiar with any of the ports above 80, so I had to look those
> up.
>
> Port 515 is apparently implementing the "LPR" protocol described in RFC 1179.
> There is apparently some info available on using this with FreeBSD here:
>
>    http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/corp-net-guide/printserving-lpr-freebsd.html
>
> and when I get a bit more un-lazy I'll delve into that more deeply.
>
> Port 631 apparently implements "IPP" (Internet Printing Protocol) which is
> summarized here:
>
>     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Printing_Protocol
>
> and which apparently has a bleep-load of relevant RFCs.  It also appears to
> me (from some quick googling) that the CUPS printing system can speak IPP.
>
> Regarding port 9100, my local /etc/services file says:
>
>     jetdirect       9100/tcp   #HP JetDirect card
>
> so I guess that Brother has probably implemeted an emulation of an HP JetDirect
> thingy on port 9100.
Not necessarily. That could be accurate, but a lot of networks were 
using 9100 on an enterprise level to assist with a "global" print 
solution, printing across the internet and vpn's and such. I'm not sure 
how relevant it is today, but over a decade ago it _was_ a new thing. 
Before IPP there was this :)
> The 5492x ports are all an enigma to me.  If anybody knows what those are
> for, please let me know.
Probably some brother specific protocol to tell the app more 
specifically whats happening. Also to assist setup.
> Port 80 is running a web server, and this thing can be configured with a
> web browser via that port.  (This seems to be the way that EVERYTHING is
> going these days.)
>
> Port 25 is apparently implementing _something_ that sort-of vaguely acts
> like an SMTP server.  However it appears to me that it only accepts e-mail
> for one very specific email address,<... at example.com>, where the '...'
> part is actually a long (unique?) string of letter and numbers that I found
> on one of the config printout pages that I generated when I was installing
> this thing.  I have no idea what this is all about.  I successfully sent
> a short test e-mail to that address, manually typing in all of the necessary
> SMTP commands (via telnet to port 25) and nothing whatsoever happened.  I had
> kind-of been expecting that what I sent (via SMTP) would be printed, but it
> just didn't happen.  Maybe I need to sent it a MIME-encoded message instead (?)
>
> It was pretty much the same story for port 23 (telnet).  I telnetted to it and
> it answered/connected, but then it didn't print anything at all... no banner,
> no greeting, no prompt, nothing.  So then I typed some gibberish (which didn't
> echo, BTW) and then exited telnet and I expected what I had typed to print but
> nothing happened.
Not everything is to just print. That said the ftp was nice...

Telnet specifically is for setting up the unit, and also implementing 
some "hacks" that may be required. Don't expect it to print. Perhaps try 
$ help.

You said the machine was multifunction. Does that include fax? Then that 
is what the smtp is for. If not then there may be a sibling with it and 
they share similar code.
> Port 21 (ftp) was a nice surprise however.  Apparently you can FTP to this
> multifunction machine, log in as "anonymous" and then whatever files you PUT
> to the thing get printed.  This apparently works for both plain text and
> Postscript.
>
> That's all.  I just wanted to share all this info in case it might be useful
> to anyone.  But I'm also curious still about those 5492x ports, and the
> functionality (if any) that is being implemented on ports 25 and 23.  If
> anybody happens to know about that stuff, let me know.
>
> Oh!  And also one last question:  Other than CUPS (which I don't particularly
> like very much) are there any low-level tools that are available on FreeBSD
> and that speak the LPR protocol or the IPP protocol or the JetDirect protocol?
> (I don't really NEED that, since my current setup allows me to do everything
> I need to do already, but I'd sort-of like to get my FreeBSD box talking to
> this new machine via the ethernet connection, you know, just on principal.)
Cups uses the base LPR, so there you have it. Ethernet is usually the 
easiest to use and setup - excepting maybe parallel, but who's using 
that these days? (and before I hear an outcry, I mean the manufacturers 
- Canon, for instance, have a policy of no more parallel as of around 2004)