We often get asked about how we will be managing the HP Printers, MFPs, and Copiers that we are putting in at a customer.  Usually the main questions is about our plans for periodically updating firmware so that the machines have the latest firmware.

Updating the firmware in your printers, MFPs, and copiers to the latest version is very important.  In most cases, bugs are fixed, security is enhanced, new features are added, and other issues are resolved with each new firmware release.  Upgrading your firmware should be a part of your maintenance of all your printers, MFPs, and copiers.

Updating your firmware is a time consuming task and must be scheduled accordingly to you business needs and times of availability.  A great tool for doing firmware upgrades if the HP Web JetAdmin software.

The HP Web JetAdmin software allows you to easily upgrade the firmware on any of your HP machines.  You can schedule a firmware upgrade to run at any time and also upgrade many machines at the same time.  However, this is a manual process since you have to go into the HP Web JetAdmin software and initiate the firmware upgrade.

Another way that this can be done is by using the Automatic Firmware Upgrade option.  HP offers a way to have the machines automatically upgrade their firmware when a new version comes out without any user intervention or having to schedule a firmware upgrade using the HP Web JetAdmin software.

With the HP Web Web JetAdmin software, you can configure the HP devices to perform automatic firmware updates for any date or time.  When you enable this, the HP device will check to see if a new firmware version is available and automatically upgrade the firmware if needed.

In the HP Web JetAdmin software, you will use the configure device option.  Under the firmware section is an option for Automatic Firmware Updates.  You can set this up to check for new firmware updates based on a schedule that works with your business operating times.

Once you apply the configuration,  you will be able to see that this is a scheduled task under the Event Schedule Summary of the printer's web page.

Not everyone will want to do this.  if you have some application specific dependencies that rely on a specific firmware version to operate properly, most likely you will want to do some extensive testing prior to doing any firmware upgrades to your machines.  However, for most customers, updating your firmware to the latest version will usually not cause any problems.