Managing your network printer securely

To manage your network printer securely, you need to use the management utilities with security protocols.

Secure Management using Web Based Management (web browser)

We recommend to use HTTPS and SNMPv3 protocol for secure management. To use the HTTPS protocol, the following printer settings are required.

•	A certificate and private key must be installed in the printer. For how to install a certificate and private key, see Creating and installing a certificate.
•	The HTTPS protocol must be enabled. To enable the HTTPS protocol, enable SSL communication is used (port 443) from the Advanced Setting page of Web Based Management (Web Server) on the Configure Protocol page. For information on how to access the Configure Protocol page, see Configuring the protocol settings.

Note

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We recommend Microsoft^® Internet Explorer^® 6.0 (or greater) or Firefox 1.0 (or greater) for Windows^® and Safari 1.3 (or greater) for Macintosh. Please also make sure that JavaScript and Cookies are always enabled in whichever browser you use. If a different web browser is used, make sure it is compatible with HTTP 1.0 and HTTP 1.1. To use a web browser, you will need to know the IP address of the print server.

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We recommend to disable the Telnet, FTP and TFTP protocols. Accessing the machine using these protocols is not secure. See Configuring the protocol settings.

Start your web browser.

Type “https://Common Name/” into your browser. (Where “Common Name” is the Common Name that you assigned for the certificate, such as an IP address. For how to assign a Common Name for the certificate, see Creating and installing a certificate.)

•	For example: https://192.168.1.2/ (if the Common Name is the printer’s IP address)

Note

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If you have edited the hosts file on your computer or are using a Domain Name System, you can also enter the DNS name of the print server.

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For Windows^® users, as the print server supports TCP/IP and NetBIOS names, you can also enter the NetBIOS name of the print server. The NetBIOS name can be seen on the Printer Settings Page. To learn how to print the Printer Settings Page, see Printing the Printer Settings Page. The NetBIOS name assigned is the first 15 characters of the node name and by default it will appear as “BRNxxxxxxxxxxxx” for a wired network or “BRWxxxxxxxxxxxx” for a wireless network.

You can now access the printer using HTTPS.

We recommend secure management (SNMPv3) be used along with the HTTPS protocol. If you use the SNMPv3 protocol, follow the steps below.

Note

You can also change the SNMP settings by using BRAdmin Professional 3 or Web BRAdmin.

Click Network Configuration.

Enter a user name and a password. The default User Name is “admin” and the default Password is “access”.

Click Configure Protocol.

Make sure that the SNMP setting is enabled, and then click Advanced Setting of SNMP.

You can configure the SNMP settings from the screen below.

We have three SNMP connection modes of operation.

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SNMPv3 read-write access

With this mode the print server uses version 3 of the SNMP protocol. If you want to manage the print server securely, use this mode.

Note

When you use the SNMPv3 read-write access mode, please note the following.

•	You can manage the print server by using BRAdmin Professional 3, Web BRAdmin or Web Based Management (web browser) only.
•	We recommend secure SSL communication (HTTPS) be used.
•	Except for BRAdmin Professional 3 and Web BRAdmin, all applications that use SNMPv1/v2c will be restricted. To allow the use of SNMPv1/v2c applications, use SNMPv3 read-write access and v1/v2c read-only access or SNMPv1/v2c read-write access mode.

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SNMPv3 read-write access and v1/v2c read-only access

In this mode the print server uses the read-write access of version 3 and the read-only access of version 1 and version 2c of the SNMP protocol.

Note

When you use the SNMPv3 read-write access and v1/v2c read-only access mode, some of Brother applications (e.g. BRAdmin Light) that access to the print server do not work properly since they authorize the read-only access of version 1 and version 2c. If you want to use all applications, use the SNMPv1/v2c read-write access mode.

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SNMPv1/v2c read-write access

In this mode the print server uses version 1 and version 2c of the SNMP protocol. You can use all Brother applications under this mode. However, it is not secure since it will not authenticate the user and the data will not be encrypted.

Note

For more information, see the Help text in the Web Based Management.

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