You could try maybe, in a terminal, “arp -a” (it should be installed by default - it is in Pop!_OS) - in your mum’s LM - if it’s connected to the printer, you should see that come up in the devices / IP addresses that “arp -a” will display… Guessing which one’s the printer may be tricky, just tried with with my Brother printer - and I can’t identify from “arp -a” - but just looked on my router’s DHCP lease page and it’s “BRN30055CB2C61F” with IP address x.x.x.x. Because Brother use avahi / zeroconf / bonjour, I can then “ping BRN30055CB2C61F.local”
Install nmap (e.g. “sudo apt install nmap”) and query the IP address for what ports it’s listening on.
nmap -v -A ip.address.of.printer
(or even the “Avahi” device name e.g. EpsonXXXX.local - whatever it is in your case, but I don’t know if Epson use Avahi / Zeroconf / Bonjour - I expect they would if they want it to work with Apple devices).
Where “x.x.x.x” is IP address of your mum’s printer :
╭─x@titan ~
╰─➤ nmap -v -A x.x.x.x
Starting Nmap 7.80 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-12-07 09:18 AWST
NSE: Loaded 151 scripts for scanning.
NSE: Script Pre-scanning.
Initiating NSE at 09:18
Completed NSE at 09:18, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating NSE at 09:18
Completed NSE at 09:18, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating NSE at 09:18
Completed NSE at 09:18, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating Ping Scan at 09:18
Scanning x.x.x.x [2 ports]
Completed Ping Scan at 09:18, 0.02s elapsed (1 total hosts)
Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 09:18
Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 09:18, 0.10s elapsed
Initiating Connect Scan at 09:18
Scanning x.x.x.x [1000 ports]
Discovered open port 23/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 21/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 443/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 80/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 25/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 515/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 9100/tcp on x.x.x.x
Discovered open port 631/tcp on x.x.x.x
Completed Connect Scan at 09:18, 0.36s elapsed (1000 total ports)
Initiating Service scan at 09:18
Scanning 7 services on x.x.x.x
I usually hit CTRL+C here - but if you let it finish (it can take a while - e.g. 5 mins to complete) - and if you let it finish it should tell you more information about the device - e.g. :
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
21/tcp open ftp Brother/HP printer ftpd 1.13
| ftp-anon: Anonymous FTP login allowed (FTP code 230)
| total 1
| -r--r--r-- 1 root printer 4096 Sep 28 2001 CFG-PAGE.TXT
|_---------- 1 root printer 0 Sep 28 2001 Sleep-----------
23/tcp open telnet Brother/HP printer telnetd
25/tcp open smtp Brother printer smtpd
|_smtp-commands: SMTP: EHLO 500 Syntax error \x0D
80/tcp open http Debut embedded httpd 1.20 (Brother/HP printer http admin)
| http-methods:
|_ Supported Methods: GET
| http-robots.txt: 1 disallowed entry
|_/
|_http-server-header: debut/1.20
| http-title: Brother MFC-9335CDW
|_Requested resource was /general/status.html
443/tcp open ssl/https?
|_ssl-date: 1970-01-11T08:03:30+00:00; -53y329d17h16m47s from scanner time.
515/tcp open printer
631/tcp open ipp?
9100/tcp open jetdirect?
Service Info: Device: printer
Host script results:
|_clock-skew: -19687d17h16m47s
NSE: Script Post-scanning.
Initiating NSE at 09:21
Completed NSE at 09:21, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating NSE at 09:21
Completed NSE at 09:21, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating NSE at 09:21
Completed NSE at 09:21, 0.00s elapsed
Read data files from: /usr/bin/../share/nmap
Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 177.66 seconds
Also - is your mum’s LM running ufw or firewalld? Is there a chance that somehow your mum’s PC’s firewall is blocking the ports needed?
If nmap doesn’t work - then there’s a good chance its a local firewall on the LM installation. You could also try “sudo nmap -a -V ip.address.of.printer” - but - you shouldn’t need sudo…
I do have an Epson Ink MFC - that I only ever used as a scanner (I detest inkjet printers) - but it’s under a pile of crates and boxes (I “inherited” it when my younger brother succumbed to brain cancer about 9 years ago) and I’ve changed routers and WiFi 4 times since I last powered it on… I actually kinda preferred it’s scanning features to my Brother MFC - Epson’s scan to cloud is heaps better than Brother’s scan to network (I use FTP to save Brother MFC scans to my NAS)… But I don’t want two devices cluttering up space on my printer desk… But I don’t want to toss it in the trash or e-waste, 'cause I hate e-waste, and it has some sentimental value for me (had a big “blue” (Aussie slang for “fight”) with his ex-wife who claimed she bought it for him - but she’s lying [his best mate took him to the shop to buy it] - and what claim does he have on ANYTHING of his the b–ch anyway, she dumped him 5 years before he died).
