Wirelessly printing

[thegurio]

Seeming as we have a few nerds on this board i was wondering if anyone could help me with my dilemna.

I have a printer in my car that im sick of replacing every 2 or 3 months as it gets ruined and wont work and then i need to get a new one. What wonderful idea i came up with was that i could use my office printer that is attached to my network via wi-fi somehow dialing in using i.p addresses or something from my laptop on the road connected via mobile phone. Is this possible?

Basically i want to go from my laptop (connected by mobile phone) to my printer through my network. I ahve all the usual firewalls, encyption etc so these would have to be dealt with.

I would have googled my question but i honestly dont know what terms to use to start with - all of my searches dont actually answer my questions.

 

[Mal]

An interesting question, but one I think you need to push to your local IT type dude/dudette.

I'll attempt to answer - but apply the usual spiel that Lawyers/Accountants etc spout : This is not an answer, but merely a suggestion as to what you could consider.

A printer tends to be no different to your email server or other servers you access. It is a physical IP address (or server) where you push data to. It should be possible to push data to it once you're connected back into your work network.

Do you normally access email or applications (hosted at your workplace) when you're on the road?

 

[Blue Peter]

Hi,

If this is any help, I use LogMeIn Pro, which gives me remote desktop access to my PC at work. While I can't directly print from my laptop when in the car, I can transfer a file to my work PC, switch to remote access and then print the file as if I was sat at my desk (and therefore on any printer on the network).
In reverse, I can be sat on the sofa at home logged onto my work PC and print using the printer I have at home which is wirelessly connected to the router.

 

[munitalP]

We have a VPN (virtual private network) connection on laptops to our server. Each printer has a network address. I have each printer in the company (country wide) that has a network address installed on my laptop. From this, through the VPN I can print to a particular printer from anywhere over the internet... phew

I don't know how it is done (sorry) but an average IT person could do it easily enough (our IT person seems to be less than average and he manages it ok )

Mr!

 

[Flying Fox]

Would it be an option to create a PDF on your laptop and email to someone in the office for printing?

 

[tscharke]

do you use a blackberry? as there are various apps out there that allow you to print documents straight from your bb to any fax machine.

I use Smart Print2Fax on my bb quite frequently to send docs to our various offices - works great!

 

[dot]

Seeming as we have a few nerds on this board i was wondering if anyone could help me with my dilemna.

I have a printer in my car that im sick of replacing every 2 or 3 months as it gets ruined and wont work and then i need to get a new one. What wonderful idea i came up with was that i could use my office printer that is attached to my network via wi-fi somehow dialing in using i.p addresses or something from my laptop on the road connected via mobile phone. Is this possible?

Basically i want to go from my laptop (connected by mobile phone) to my printer through my network. I ahve all the usual firewalls, encyption etc so these would have to be dealt with.

I would have googled my question but i honestly dont know what terms to use to start with - all of my searches dont actually answer my questions.

thegurio - why do you have a printer in your car? Do you need to be able to print while you are driving around (not literally I presume)? If that is the case, how do you see connecting back to your network for printing meeting your requirement to print on the road?

If printing on your network (at home or in the office) is what you want to be able to do, that can be achieved pretty easily. Using Bluetooth on your laptop to get your phone connected to the GPRS or 3G network, then connecting over that Internet connection to your network via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or (if the printer is exposed to the Internet) directly without a VPN is not really difficult to achieve.

When you say 'network' are you refering to your home network or some corporate/office network(potentially already with a VPN)? I presume you are not talking about an in vehicle network with a wireless access point...

 

[albatross710]

If you are on the road and print back to a network printer...who picks up the print job?

Perhaps a low tech solution is to use a PDF t when you are on the road. Save all of the PDF files into a common directory and then print them when next in the office, or as previously mentioned email them to the office or even email the PDF files jobs direct to customers.


Slightly OT. When I was staying in a hotel with a flight later that day I did my online check-in via remote access to my office network. I 'printed' my boarding pass via the network fax server, sending the boarding pass to the hotel reception. They politely delivered the BP to my room...no charges.

 

[NM]

Perhaps a low tech solution is to use a PDF t when you are on the road. Save all of the PDF files into a common directory and then print them when next in the office, or as previously mentioned email them to the office or even email the PDF files jobs direct to customers.

Of just print to an off-line printer so it is spooled on the laptop and will automatically print when you get to the home/office network where the printer is available.

 

[thegurio]

Wow... What a lot of responses, let me try and go through them one by one..

Mal - I dont normally access documents etc. whilst on the road - i ahve my email on my phone and that all i generally need.

BP - I hate the lag in LogMeIn. Its the most frustrating thing to use and remember that if i can/do do this i'll be connecting through a 2g connection and i have a shortage of patience in the day...

Mr! - No VPN, just home office setup.

FF - I am the one in the office, if im not there, there isnt anyone to print it out... lol

Tsharke - I have an iPhone, as it comes they arent fully integrated into the corporate environment so therefore - as far as i know - there isnt an app for this functionality

Dot - I am referring to my home metwork. There isnt a VPN, although if its not too difficult to set one up im sure i can. No im not talking about a vehicle access point, but this is one thing that has my mind turning! I ahve a printer in my car for two reason (well the third is coz its cool but we wont get into that one!) One - so that billing is done on the spot and i dont forget about it and it creates cash flow bonanza's as there is no waiting for them to recieve it, pay it etc. Secondly, it makes me look a whole lot more professional as opposed to all the other guys around here. To be honest all that printing remotely will do will allow me to not forget to send stuff out, but i can do that now by what NM said by sending the invoices to the off-line printer and then when i open up the computer at home it prints and then i send it.

Albatross - No one picks up the job. Well i guess i do when i get home, but no-one will do it as soon as it is printed.


In the near future (and hence the reason for this thread) i will be putting someone in the office, in theory, to handle admin stuff who will be able to pick it up and send it. Of course, if this market (naughty R word coming up!) keeps diving and stuffing about its a moot point as there may not be all that much work to go around anyway.

 

[albatross710]

Thanks for the update. I think NM is on the money. Just print them to your usual printer ( which will appear offline). When you get back to the office, connect to your network and the print jobs will come forth.

 

[browski]

If you are using a printer on the road then I am guessing that you print the invoice from a laptop or hand held device.

If so, then perhaps (whilst at the client) print the Invoice as a PDF and email it from your laptop/PDA to the client. They will have the invoice whilst you are still chatting to them.

Alternatively, perhaps look at these babies. They are the most "ruggedized" printers in the world. They also come in 2, 4 and 8 inch paper formats.

O'Neil Printers - The Most Reliable Portable Printers

 

[thegurio]

I'll have a look at that link as that may be what I'm after.... Yes you are correct - I am printing from laptop at the moment. The reason why I do that is because MYOB hasn't been all that reliable with actually attahing the attached invoice to the email. It will just send the email with nothing so as I got sick of that I have decided to just send everything now.

 

[dot]

If MYOB is having problems with the emailed invoices, perhaps you could print to a PDF (using something like PDFCreator) and then manually email the customer the file . That could certainly be done while you are out without the need to return to your home office. I could see you sending the invoice while at the customer site, and asking them if they got it before you leave the site and without having to go back to your car for the printout.

It would manually achieve the same thing as the MYOB facility - and lave you carrying on less thing as you visit your customers...

 

[thegurio]

If MYOB is having problems with the emailed invoices, perhaps you could print to a PDF (using something like PDFCreator) and then manually email the customer the file . That could certainly be done while you are out without the need to return to your home office. I could see you sending the invoice while at the customer site, and asking them if they got it before you leave the site and without having to go back to your car for the printout.

It would manually achieve the same thing as the MYOB facility - and lave you carrying on less thing as you visit your customers...

I never thought of that - i might try that for the next week and see how i go... It just frustrates me that you pay good money for these programs and they never work as they say they would, but then again why am i surprised, the physical operating system neve works as it should so why should i expect the programs that run off of it to do so!

 

[munitalP]

...why am i surprised, the physical operating system neve works as it should so why should i expect the programs that run off of it to do so!

here, send a complaint to [email protected] and see if he replys...

Mr!

 

[serfty]

I use the free CutePDF Writer for tasks like that; works really simply and well.

 

[Flashback]

I never thought of that - i might try that for the next week and see how i go... It just frustrates me that you pay good money for these programs and they never work as they say they would, but then again why am i surprised, the physical operating system neve works as it should so why should i expect the programs that run off of it to do so!

Are you using Microsoft Outlook as your mail client? I've often seen this, it is to do with the way it attaches the file to the email. 1 alternative is to set Outlook Express as your default, before you do your printing.

 

[thegurio]

Yes i do use Office Outlook. And it only does it to certain clients. Others it doesnt have an issue with! I'll have a look at all the suggestions that were mentioned and report back when ive gotten further...