Digital Factory uploading lots of data?

[mponte 0]

Short version:

With the change over to Digital Factory we have seen a significant increase (200+Gb's at a time) in data being sent out to the cloud.  Our IT department is concerned not so much that data is being sent to the cloud but by the large amount of data being sent.  I was told we need to figure out why some much data is being sent out or we will have to turn off Digital Factory.  

 

Can someone please provide me with some information so I don't have to go back to running a USB stick around our facility?

 

 

Long version:

My company has (4) S5's and (1) Ultimaker 3 and love having the printers connected to our network for ease of printing, storing maintenance records, and looking at the analytics.  Since the release of Digital Factory we(users) haven't noticed any change in our work flow and continue to enjoying all the same features we have come accustom to.   Unfortunately, there were some changes that were unbeknownst to us(users) though. 

 

Last week the head of the IT department asked me why all of a sudden the printers have been sending out "gobs" of data to the cloud.  I  made him aware of the recent changes and informed him the increase in data may be attributed to this but not to worry because I would turn off the settings that anonymously send data out (thinking that would solve the issue). 

 

Today I talked to the head of the IT department again and he said there has been no change in the amount of data that is being sent out to the cloud.  His big concern wasn't that data was going to the cloud but the amount of data (200+GB's at a time).  He ended with if we can't figure out why so much data is being sent out then we will have to turn the Digital Factory off.  

 

Can you please help?  I need to figure out why our printers are sending out so much information.  I REALLY don't want to go back to running back and forth with a USB stick.  

The nice part of Connect was that everything was internal and we didn't have to worry about stuff like this.  In an age where digital security is so important I'm really surprised more IT departments haven't had issues with. 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2020 by mponte

[ctbeke 133]

Hi,

 

First of all, we take data security very seriously and we have multiple articles on our support forums about this topic. We also have an e-learning course for Essentials network administrators.

 

The printer uploads and downloads the following data to the Digital Factory:

 

1) A status update every 10 seconds. This is only some text containing the status of the printer and print jobs.

2) A webcam image every 10 seconds, but only if the webcam viewer in the web UI is open. This is just a few KB per snapshot.

3) A print job is downloaded from Digital Factory to the printer when you send it from Cura. The amount depends on the size of your print jobs.

 

Is there an option for you or your IT admin to see where the network traffic is actually coming from and going to? I'd also like to know what you mean with 'at a time'. Is that per minute? Per day?

 

Chris

[mponte 0]

Hi Chris and thank you for speedy reply

 

I am waiting on the information you request but in the mean time I wanted to address a comment I made that I did not do a good job of explaining.  

 

I too believe you take security very seriously and by no means did I mean to indicate that you do not.  I apologize if it came off this way.  My statement was more alluding to how IT admins, in my experience, view private company info going to a outside location.  It seems like no matter how safe or anonymous the data is, there are always questions raised and some admins are not as accommodating.  

Edited July 22, 2020 by mponte

[ctbeke 133]

No worries. Addressing these issues with IT admins is precisely why we created Ultimaker Essentials which, next to a controlled environment for IT, also contains a lot of knowledge and e-learning about security and networking topics. Maybe your IT department will find it useful, and it's free to try.

 

If there's further questions from the IT department I can help you with let me  know, we'd very much prefer you to keep printing the 21st century-way!

[mponte 0]

Sorry it took so long for me to respond but I have some answers to the questions you asked.   The IT admin sent me info for a 24 hour period. The host printer sent 243.87 GB  and received 10.26 GB, the other printers sent out 15.78, 15.26 and 7.36.  One printer didn't send or receive any data in that 24 hour period.

 

1. The large amount of data in question gets sent from our host printer to 35.190.207.247 (api.ultimaker.com)

2.  The data seems to get sent out every 2 minutes and totals to the numbers I gave above.  

[ctbeke 133]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the additional information. I've been looking through our system and can't find anything particular with an interval of 2 minutes.

 

Could you send me the logging of the printer in question? You can dump the logs to a USB drive from the settings menu. You can send them to me in a private message if you want.

 

Chris