Internet Printing Server

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I have seen Internet Printing Server device in the market. I am interested in it. But I am not fully understand the concept of it. Let’s say, if I install this device with my printer behind the firewall (I am using a Cable modem plus router for internet sharing), here is my question:

When someone, outside of the firewall, wants to print something to my printer, is it necessary for this person to install a special printer driver in his machine? Or he can just need to go to the IP address of my printer to do the printing.

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My understanding is, if there is a public IP address and you don’t block it, anyone can print to your printer. (Not sure about versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000; they might require an add-on.)

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Jefferson, can you comment on how that process works if the ROUTER has (like most small networks, including mine) the public IP address and the machines on the LAN all have internal-only addresses either using DHCP or pre-assigned IP numbers? He didn’t say if his firewal is of the hardware variety or something like ZoneAlarm.

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Bigaldoc,

The firewall of my set up was the built-in hardware firewall came with the SMC 4-port cable router.

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You’ve really sparked my interest in this topic. I have an in-home network with a 4-port Linksys router/switch, also “somewhat” of a firewall. Don’t know anything about the SMC variety. Even though there are only three (sometimes four) machines on my LAN, I have my one printer connected directly to LPT on one of the desktops and shared. The Linksys doesn’t complain if one of the other computers uses the printer, but it (the printer) does chew up resources on its computer, so I’ve been thinking of adding a network print server too recently. Do you mind saying which one you’re considering?

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bigaldoc,

My SMC Barracade Cable Router comes with a built-in printer server. It was the reason I chose SMC instead Linksys before.

The following are the places I found the Internet Printer Server:
Hawking: http://www.hawkingtech.com/prodList.php?FamID=42%5B/url%5D
BlackIce: http://www.blackice.com/Internet Print Server.htm[/url]

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Inbound traffic would probably not get through the router unless you created a rule that indicated where that type of traffic should go. That said, I don’t know what type it is (e.g., what port it’s on). Anyone have a protocol analyzer and a few minutes to sniff an outbound print job to an IP address?

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jscher2000,

Does the person, whoever wants to print to my printer, need to install a printer driver in his Win XP PC?

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I think the odds of it printing correctly with a mismatched driver are not very good. If I target an Epson inkjet printer, for example, with a print job formatted by an HP LaserJet driver, I think the result would probably be garbage. But this might be an effective denial of service attack by wasting all your paper. I really couldn’t say for sure.

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