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
Edit: Midnight brain forgot what ports are for, and that is for NTP, thanks yall
The types of attacks can be mischaracterized as “race conditions but over the network”. Theres about forty years of history here and it’s way more complicated so unless you really wanna get into it I’ll leave it there.
The printer doesn’t know if it’s plugged into a private network or is internet facing. Timing attacks can occur on private networks as well as on the internet. Having accurate utc is almost always a prerequisite for communicating with other devices.
Therefore, the printer needs to know what time it is. It does this through ntp on port 123 just like phones, computers and network connected paper and ink printers do.