A Few Questions
- Does your organization have road warriors, People that travel, and are on the road most of the time and need to print to a central or head office?
- Do you need to print something to the office printer while you are way from the office and have access to the internet?
- Do people at other sites or depot offices need to send you hard copies of digital documents that they have and do not want to use email? Some people prefer this as email is sometimes tracked or some specific files are blocked like jpeg files. These remote users can print the specified documents on this remote printer.
Well soon you will be able to, this tutorial covers these issues and as long as you have an internet connection you should be able to print to an IP address that is published on the World Wide Web.
Fig 1: The diagram above displays how typically the ISA remote printing setup will look when completed.
What needs to be done?
Make sure that you have configured your TCP/IP printer correctly and that it works on you local area network. There are many vendors that produce TCP/IP printing cards HP Jet direct, Intel, Cnet and many more thus I will not run through how to configure them in this tutorial. It should be pretty simple and a wizard will guide you though it assign an IP address, name the printer and bingo that’s should be it. Note: some printers have LAN capabilities built into them and no extra print server is required. These printer servers should function on the same principle.
Creating a TCP printing Protocol Definition
1. Locate the protocol definition in the ISA MMC and right click it and then click new then click Definition.
2. Name the protocol definition and then click Next>.
3. You will be presented with the screen above, click within the port number field and type in the port number 9100 for normal TCP printing, LPR (Line Printer Remote) this is a printing protocol that is part of the TCP/IP protocol suite printing. LPR uses port 515. Within the direction dropdown box change the state to Inbound. Then click Next>.
4. In the screen above click Next>.
5. Now click Finish>.
Creating a TCP/IP printing Server Publishing rule
1. Locate Server publishing rules Right click and then click new and then rule.
2. Name the rule then click Next>.
3. Type in the IP address of the printer or print server. Then under that in the External IP address on ISA server type in the IP address of the ISA server external network interface card or another IP address that you have pooled then click Next>.
4. Click on the drop down box of the “Apply the rule of this protocol” click the name Remote printing protocol definition then click Next>.
5. Click Next>.
6. Check the config and then click Finish.
You have successfully setup the remote TCP printing.
Summary
In this tutorial I have shown you how to publish your LAN TCP/IP printer on the Internet. This can prove to make your users life a whole lot easier especially when wanting to print something from a branch office that has only internet connectivity to your head office, or when away from work and you need to get that printed memo urgently to the directors. Whatever the scenario I am sure you will find good use in understanding this technology.
