How to Share Printer Over Internet

With the amount of printing work increasing by the day at workstations and homes, a printer has become a much needed resource. The problem with printers is that they are bulky and carrying them everywhere is a hassle. This problem can be easily solved if you share printer over Internet. It easily enables you to operate your printer in the office when you are at home or vice versa, provided both are connected to the internet and configured accordingly. I discuss some ways in which you can share printer over Internet.

How to Share Printer over Internet Using IIS (Internet Information Services)?
Internet technology has made every computer resource portable. One simple way of sharing printer over Internet is setting up the computer connected to the printer to be shared, as a server. I will discuss one particular case here, which is sharing of a printer on the Windows XP Professional operating system. Firstly you need to install the IIS (Internet Information Services) software from the Windows Operating System CD. This software enables your computer to function as a web server. The Internet printing facility is provided by the IIS which needs to be enabled as its not switched on by default. To switch on this feature do the following.

• Select the 'Add or Remove Programs' applet in Control panel.
• Then click on 'Add or Remove Windows Components' button.
• Amongst the options, select one titled 'Application Server' and click on details''
• Amongst the check boxes, select check the 'Internet Printing' box and say 'Ok'.

Thus, when the 'Internet Printing' feature is enabled, users can view as well as connect to the printer node by using http:///printers URL. Of course, only users with correct access passwords will actually connect with the printer and even be able to carry out some printer actions.

IIS software installation and configuration is not that simple. You will have to refer to windows online help desk to get all the details. There is a certain amount of risk in doing this, as the permissions that you enable in the IIS, may also compromise the web security of your computer. So read the instructions thoroughly on the windows help desk before going ahead.

How to Share Printer over Internet Using PrinterAnywhere Software?
Yet another way to share printer over the Internet is through special software programs like 'PrintAnywhere'. What these programs enable you to do is print any document on your pc through any other pc on the Internet connected with a printer. It takes care of all the rest of the details like security, firewall problems as well as networking details.

How to Share Printer over Internet with IPP?
Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) is one more way to share printer over the Internet. It is a built in protocol which enables printing over the web in a platform independent manner. That is using IPP, you can print over the Internet, connecting with any remote computer, irrespective of what operating system it has.

How to Share Printer over Internet using Remote Desktop?
Using the built-in function called 'Remote Desktop Connection' in Windows XP and Windows Vista, you can share printer over Internet along with other resources connected with the computer. Without going into details, I will request you to look at the Microsoft help desk website, which will provide you with the procedure to set up remote desktop log in. You have to create a new user on the computer (attached with a printer) and give him a log in name and password. Then you tweak the windows firewall to allow for remote desktop log ins . Then you must configure the remote computer from which you want to access the printer. Once all this procedure is done, you can access all the resources of the computer including the printer. For more on this, refer to 'remote desktop configuration tips'.

As you can see, in the networked world, sharing printer over Internet is easy and there are many ways of doing it. With wi-fi technology coming in, we now live in an increasingly wireless world where tasks like printer sharing over Internet can be easily done.