Kitz Forum

Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: tickmike on April 30, 2013, 02:55:42 PM

Title: Why does my network HP printer /scanner want to contact Mexico ?.
Post by: tickmike on April 30, 2013, 02:55:42 PM
Why does my network HP printer /scanner want to contact Mexico ?.

Doing some scanning then later going to my Hardware firewall logs (To check on another mater) I was surprised to see that my device wanted to contact this IP address in Mexico  :'(   ( but my firewall had blocked it  :thumbs: ).
whois lookup
191.139.252.191
NetRange:       191.0.0.0 - 191.255.255.255
CIDR:           191.0.0.0/8
OriginAS:       
NetName:        NET191
NetHandle:      NET-191-0-0-0-0
Parent:         
NetType:        Allocated to LACNIC
RegDate:        1993-05-01
Updated:        2010-07-21
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-191-0-0-0-0

OrgName:        Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry
OrgId:          LACNIC
Address:        Rambla Republica de Mexico 6125
City:           Montevideo
StateProv:     
PostalCode:     11400
Country:        UY
RegDate:        2002-07-27
Updated:        2011-09-24
Ref:            http://whois.arin.net/rest/org/LACNIC
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any idea what's going on .
Title: Re: Why does my network HP printer /scanner want to contact Mexico ?.
Post by: asbokid on April 30, 2013, 03:03:09 PM
Don't know about HP, but this Dell 3115 printer 'phones home' periodically.. just to give Michael Dell the nod that we've fitted remanufactured toner cartridges!

cheers, a

Title: Re: Why does my network HP printer /scanner want to contact Mexico ?.
Post by: kitz on May 01, 2013, 01:03:12 AM
I would suspect its as Asbo says..  and its trying to phone home.

Some weird results on that IP though. ???

Its not actually coming from Mexico,  LACNIC's Office is in Mexico - LACNIC is the Latin American equivalent of RIPE or ARIN or AFRINIC etc.

ARIN (http://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-191-0-0-0-0/pft) says :- It belongs to LACNIC region - Country UY (Uruguay)

LANIC (http://lacnic.net/cgi-bin/lacnic/whois?lg=EN) says :- Unallocated and unassigned in LACNIC block: 191.139.252.191

Theres no RDNS (http://whois.net/reverse-dns-ip-lookup/) :-  server can't find 191.252.139.191.in-addr.arpa.: NXDOMAIN

Performing a trace gives "Destination network unreachable"...  so where-ever its trying to reach it just isnt going anywhere... Is the printer a few yrs old and trying to reach a now invalid IP?   


I did find this (http://myip.ms/info/whois/191.139.252.191) though which states it is/was supposedly in Kansas, but there is no current info for it being a live IP.
Title: Re: Why does my network HP printer /scanner want to contact Mexico ?.
Post by: tickmike on May 01, 2013, 01:58:04 PM
It's a HP Photosmart C4580 about 2/3 years old .
When I have some spare time I will get one of my test machines and set up that ip address on it and connect the printer to try to find out why it wants to connect with it .  ;)
Title: Re: Why does my network HP printer /scanner want to contact Mexico ?.
Post by: guest on May 01, 2013, 05:06:44 PM
The entire /22 is not allocated and doesn't seem to have been allocated in the last 4 years.

That's odd as 1024 IPv4 addresses are valuable now.

Best guess is the /22 was allocated by ARIN for use in the LACNIC region (LACNIC has been a basket case more than once) and then transferred from ARIN to LACNIC subsequently. Maybe the range is not desirable due to HP printers having hard-coded "phone home" firmware?