Internet Printing

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Fors
  • Start date Start date
J

John Fors

Thanks in advance for your help. Even if you just clue me in on what new
group I shoul be posting to.

I'm useing DDNS from DynDNS.org to give me access via my Linksys router to
my Home computer network. Currently in the router I have requests for Port
80 routed to my host where I have Win2000, Personal IS running and all is
well I can bring
up web pages I create from the internet.

I would like to do something similiar to enable me to print to my home laser
printer from the internet when I'm on the road. I would think there is a
port for similiar routing requests or ? Can you help me understand what I
may do to enable this feature?

What kind of security risks am I taking by doing this?

Thanks Again
John Fors
 
John Fors said:
Thanks in advance for your help. Even if you just clue me in on what new
group I shoul be posting to.

I'm useing DDNS from DynDNS.org to give me access via my Linksys router
to
my Home computer network. Currently in the router I have requests for
Port
80 routed to my host where I have Win2000, Personal IS running and all is
well I can bring
up web pages I create from the internet.

I would like to do something similiar to enable me to print to my home
laser
printer from the internet when I'm on the road. I would think there is a
port for similiar routing requests or ? Can you help me understand what I
may do to enable this feature?

What kind of security risks am I taking by doing this?

Thanks Again
John Fors
Click to expand...

This is usually done by establishing a Virtual Private Network
(VPN). I understand VPNs are very secure.
 
There are probably other ways but a VPN would be the
most common and best understood method.

You could use Remote Desktop too if your office machine
runs WinXP Professional. It includes support for remote
printing, which is internally based on VPN technology.
 
John Fors said:
Does your short reply mean that VPN is the only secure way to do this?
Click to expand...

It is the most common, it is secure, and the most flexable way,...but your
Broadband device may not be capable of acting as a VPN Server/Router.

You might be able to Reverse NAT back to the printer if the printer is a
networkable printer with its own network card (or external adapter) and has
its own IP#. Since the Traffic is directed straight at the printer itself
and not another PC it is relatively "sort-kinda" secure. The broadband
device probably calls the process Port Forwarding but I refuse to use that
term because it really means "nothing",...there is no such thing as "port
forwarding" according to what the words mean,...it is just "geek slang", and
very inaccuarte slang at that. Unfortunately it has woven its way into all
the Consumer grade device's documentation and even some of the Commercial
stuff.

I do not know what the specifics of the traffic profile would be like for
print jobs sent to a printer,...this is not something that most people would
ever try to do.


--
Phillip Windell
www.wandtv.com

The views expressed, are my own and not those of my employer, or Microsoft,
or anyone else associated with me, including my cats.
-----------------------------------------------------
 
Back
Top