Reboot HP Printer via FTP

Look, I know, you just read the post title and thought “What in the blue hell was James on when he was writing this blog post” but please, hear me out.

While working on a remote networked HP LaserJet printer I needed to reboot it so it would receive a new DHCP IP address. Naturally I trawled through the HP web gui to find a reboot option but weirdly enough there is none to be found. Telnetting the printer also was fruitless.

I really wanted to get this printer sorted and time was running out. After doing a bit of Googling I found out you can reboot a HP printer via FTP. Weird but okay, I’ll take anything at this point.

So let’s breakdown how to reboot a HP printer via FTP.

1. Prepare a text file called reboot.txt and file it with the following:

   %-12345X@PJL COMMENT
   @PJL DMINFO ASCIIHEX="040006020501010301040105"
   %-12345X
   

2. Drop to a Command Prompt and connect to the printer via FTP with the following:

   ftp x.x.x.x

   Once connected, you will be prompted for a Username followed by a  Password. Leave both blank and hit the ENTER key to continue.

3. Now that you are authenticated enter the following to send the reboot file to the printer:

   put x:\pathtofile\reboot.txt

   Ensure that you replace x:\pathtofile\ with the full path to where you stored the reboot.txt that you made in step 1.

That’s it, once the file has uploaded to the printer it will reboot like some kind of FTP magic!