How To Add Internet Printing To A Network Infrastructure

It can also include more common scenarios such as an office campus, where employees are moving themselves--or just documents--between buildings and need ad-hoc access to printers with limited administrator intervention. Not all Tier 1 printer manufacturers are offering wireless printing solutions. But integration of an Internet-based printing solution can be an approach for solution providers to deliver new capabilities to legacy printers without the need for a lot of new and costly overhead.

That is exactly why printing via the Internet can be so convenient for end users, as well as relatively easy to set up. Achieving this requires a few steps and knowledge of IPP.

The easiest way to set up Internet printing is by using Windows 2003 server as a print server. If a print server is already in place on a non-Windows 2003 server, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Print Migrator 3.1 is a good tool to migrate printers.

On the 2003 print server, IIS also is required. In IIS, under "Web Extension Services," Print Services must be allowed. In addition, ASP pages will need to be allowed to access the Web printer management interface.

The above steps are outlined from Microsoft's TechNet paper on how to set up Internet printing. But there's a rub: The only steps available from Microsoft seem to pertain to an older version of IIS and not version 6.0, which is the one installed on the test network. Microsoft's documentation neglects to mention that Print Services must be added as an IIS component in order to see it in IIS. To get there, add it under "Add Remove Windows Components" in the Server 2003 Control Panel. Under "Application Server" select "Internet Information Services>Details" and then choose "Internet Printing." Re-open the IIS management interface and under "Web Extension Services," "Print Services" will be listed.

Once "Print Services" status is set to Allowed, the IIS management interface will need to be closed and reopened to see the printers' virtual directory under "Default Web Site." By default, the only Virtual Directory permissions needed to get Internet printing to work was Read Rights and Scripts Only Execute permission. Setup Directory Security based on the authentication method set for the domain: Integrated, Digest Authentication, Basic authentication or .Net Passport Authentication.

When these steps are completed, a Print Management utility will be added under "Administrative Tools" in the Program menu. In the Print Management utility, more drivers can be added, there is a forms management feature, ports can be configured from there and all network printers can be managed.

In the Test Center, a printer was configured with a public IP address as its port, and the printer was remotely manageable from any browser using http://ip address/printer server/printer name.

Next, the printer drivers for respective connecting clients must be installed under "Additional Driver" in the printer properties page. Here is where drivers for XP or Vista clients are installed.

To connect clients to the public printer, Test Center reviewers added a printer through the normal print setup wizard. The URL for the Internet printer was specified in the "Specify A Printer" window. Connectivity required domain credentials because of the authentication method setup on the virtual Printers directory in IIS. The print server then automatically downloaded the appropriate drivers to the client.

Performance-wise, using a wireless router with cable modem bandwidth, printing from the client to the remote printer via the Internet was not seen as being more time-consuming than printing to a network printer. Even changing printer properties remotely through a browser did not cause noticeable latency when applying the changes.

Internet-based printing can be a great way to set up remote users like consultants or auditors to print to an on-site printer, without having the users access through a VPN connection or giving them access to any other network resources. In many situations, it's at least worth a try.