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this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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I'm also describing the machine in my office that runs my $20,000 laser plotter/large format scanner. The software in the machine uses (Java?) over a web interface which was deprecated and removed from all browsers around 2012-14, iirc. The machine isn't supported anymore and the only way to clear an error or update where it sends scans is using that interface. I have a XPSP2 machine running the internal IE6 browser which will still display the interface. Since I'm now a one-person office, and I use the scanner about 6 times a year, I keep that machine around in case I need to turn it on to update the scanner or clear a print error. Buying a new plotter isn't worth the time/money - when it dies I'll just farm out the work to a 3rd party vendor; but while it does work it's convenient to have in-house.
If it's that old, I'm betting it doesn't use HTTPS for its connections. You could do a network packet capture on the XP machine (or if you can find one, hook it up to a network hub with another computer attached and capture there) while performing the "clear error" action and find out how it works/what you need to send to it to clear the error. You could also set up a SPAN port on a switch and mirror the traffic on the port going to the printer to capture the traffic, if you have a switch capable of doing that. If not, you can get one off Amazon for about $100.
It'd be pretty simple to put together a script that sends the "clear error" action to the printer after seeing how it's done in the packet capture. I've done this numerous times, the latest of which was for a network-connected temperature sensor that I wanted to tie into but didn't (publicly) expose an API of any kind.
It's more than that, though - it's used to setup custom sheet widths as well as enter new server and login details for sending scans via FTP to a server. If I'm doing billable work, I'm charging $225/hr. If I'm snooping the network, which isn't my field and I do almost never so it takes me several times longer than an expert, I'm making nothing. With an annual value on the machine's services at less than $500 (more than half of which would become reimbursable if I didn't have it), there's no actual value in "fixing" it by creating a different work around. 🤷♂️