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One of my printers, an HP m605 enterprise printer, is connected to one of 4 ethernet ports on my business class Comcast cable model. My service class has 5 static IPs. The administration for the printer can be accessed locally by using the local address from a web browser. For example, if I access the hub wirelessly and type http://10.1.10.45 (the local address of the printer) in a browser then the web administration page comes up.

Will the printer accept access to this page from external addresses? For example, if I go another network and type http://x.x.x.x into a browser where x.x.x.x is the static IP address associated with that ethernet port will the administration page come up?

Tyler Durden
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The answer is “no, your printer will not refuse connection attempts from an external system.” That’s not its job. It will happily accept connection requests from any system that manages to find its way through the Ethernet cable.

It’s the job of your network to prevent attackers from passing through your router and reaching your printer in the first place. Tools such as firewalls block external attacks inside your router before they can get inside your network. And it’s your responsibility, as owner/administrator of your router, to make sure that it’s properly configured to keep your network secure.

John Deters
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I realized that I could test this. I can't get away from the office, so I can't go to another office to test it, but realized I can use a free web proxy to try to access the printer via an external IP address.

The result of the test was that the printer is not accessible externally.

Tyler Durden
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