I tried searching for answers as to why these machines are reaching out to numerous locations despite not using PrusaConnect. Location lookup returns the expected Czech, as well as location across the US. I recently also set a friend up with with an Elegoo printer and that was expectedly noisy as hell, but I was surprised with Prusa being the ‘privacy pick’.
For those curious, here’s the logs since about midnight, it seemingly doesn’t talk during the day.
209.51.161.238:123
195.113.144.238:123
23.150.41.122:123
193.29.63.226:123
162.244.81.139:123
64.246.132.14:123
172.104.182.184:123
66.85.78.80:123
68.234.48.70:123
129.250.35.250:123
Why would a printer need time? The only think that cames to mind is freezing cartridges after x months.
You want any device that does crypto (like verifying a certificate) to have a synchronized clock.
Prusa is a 3d printer. It can be to show the date, check the validity of certificates, show in logs, or just tell you when your print will be done.
AFAIK the firmware is open source so ultimately you can look exactly what it does with it. Same as any Linux system, really.
Probably some legit uses eg direct from file prints with filename and timestamp, but also there’s the yellow tracking dots: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_tracking_dots
Printer isn’t responsible for timestamps on your document. If that would be regarding tracking dots, then block it anyway, right? And if it’s a 3d printer then it still doesn’t need to have correct synchronized time, it only needs to be able to count how the time passes.