Remote printing- outside network

[SkyHawk]

PAT is port address translation or port forwarding.

If you have a relatively static IP, you have a shot. And you do not have to expose your printer to the whole internet, only to the public IP address range at work.

If your firewall is flexible enough for PAT and a policy to restrict access by IP, here are your two options:

1) you add an IP printer port (pointing to your home IP) and driver to your corporate print server, and then your users simply add that printer to their work desktops profiles, work VMs, whatever they use to work remotely - just like they would any printer in the corporate environment. This is what I would recommend, because then you only have to set it up once - and the print server will distribute the driver for you automatically when folks add it to their profile.

2) you add an IP printer port (pointing to your home IP) and print driver to every desktop or VM or whatever your users use to work remotely.

Then you create a policy on your home firewall that only allows your corporate public IP range to access your device.

These folks at home will not be sending jobs from their homes, they will send the jobs from the corporate network where presumably they have a remote presence from home. You didn't specify how they work from home, so I am assuming they use Citrix Xen, VMWare Horizon, RDP etc to remotely control a Windows session that exists on the corporate network, as this is pretty typical for remote workers.

However if they work directly on their home computers, with no remote presence at the office, and they have Windows - then option 2 would also work for them on their home computers. It may also work for Mac but I am Mac illiterate.

[BuddyBoy]

Looked into it. Seems more like a print sharing option v.s. direct print.

In other words, from my understanding, with Google Cloud Print and others, someone would upload a file to be printed. Then someone else could print that document, or it could be printed on their printer... but it must be uploaded first.

There are Google Cloud print drivers for both Mac and Windows that enable you to print from ANY application to a Google Cloud printer. The Windows one is from Google and is free. The Mac one is commercial software and costs $1.99.

https://itunes.apple.com/app/cloud-printer/id463448876

[Casual_Shooter]

PAT is port address translation or port forwarding.

If you have a relatively static IP, you have a shot. And you do not have to expose your printer to the whole internet, only to the public IP address range at work.

If your firewall is flexible enough for PAT and a policy to restrict access by IP, here are your two options:

1) you add an IP printer port (pointing to your home IP) and driver to your corporate print server, and then your users simply add that printer to their work desktops profiles, work VMs, whatever they use to work remotely - just like they would any printer in the corporate environment. This is what I would recommend, because then you only have to set it up once - and the print server will distribute the driver for you automatically when folks add it to their profile.

2) you add an IP printer port (pointing to your home IP) and print driver to every desktop or VM or whatever your users use to work remotely.

Then you create a policy on your home firewall that only allows your corporate public IP range to access your device.

These folks at home will not be sending jobs from their homes, they will send the jobs from the corporate network where presumably they have a remote presence from home. You didn't specify how they work from home, so I am assuming they use Citrix Xen, VMWare Horizon, RDP etc to remotely control a Windows session that exists on the corporate network, as this is pretty typical for remote workers.

However if they work directly on their home computers, with no remote presence at the office, and they have Windows - then option 2 would also work for them on their home computers. It may also work for Mac but I am Mac illiterate.

Thanks Skyhawk. We use a program called Filemaker. The server is at my house (the office) and use FM's remote capabilities to access the database, create orders, etc. Different than a Windows session, I think.

Adding an IP printer seems easy enough, but it's the syntax(?) that I'm lost on. Using google, there are a few different ways I found people enter the "host name/ server".

It's either http://public_IP:631/printername or http://public_IP:9001/printername etc...

I've tried port forwarding 9001 to my printer's IP, but that didn't work and I don't want to get too far into something I don't know much about.

Pretty sure I'm missing something that will be obvious once I get this squared away.

Thanks again.

[Casual_Shooter]

Then your best bet will be to hire a IT professional

Pretty much at this point now. Know anyone in San Diego?

[glockman19]

I have a HP 8600 that allows me to print to it from anywhere from over the internet.

[Casual_Shooter]

I have a HP 8600 that allows me to print to it from anywhere from over the internet.

Do you know how it does that? Is it eprint?

[yellowsulphur]

Looked into it. Seems more like a print sharing option v.s. direct print.

In other words, from my understanding, with Google Cloud Print and others, someone would upload a file to be printed. Then someone else could print that document, or it could be printed on their printer... but it must be uploaded first.

I'm sure those options have their place. I'm looking for a way for a remote user to click "print" and have the document go straight to my printer as if they were on my LAN.

Would have thought this could be done with a setting in the JetDirect or IPP step when adding a printer, but maybe not.

As others have mentioned Google print works quite well. To see if your printer supports Google print, first login to your printer through its local IP.

For me it is 192.168.1.24



Select Google Cloud Print and register your printer if possible.

Once registered manage the printer through the Google Cloud.



Select share and create a group with the employees that you wish to grant access to your printer.



When printing users should encounter a dialog box like this:



Print jobs should be sent to your printer at this point.

Initially, I had problems with users outside the network connecting to the printer, but after opening printer ports 80 (http), 443(https), and 5000 it worked perfectly. This is really bad security, but I think only port 5000 is needed.

You might need a high capacity (standard capacity) printer magazine to meet your remote printer needs.

[UEDan]

Logmein Hamachi.
used it once... its ok, but it works.

[Casual_Shooter]

As others have mentioned Google print works quite well. To see if your printer supports Google print, first login to your printer through its local IP.

Thanks. Been messing with Google Cloud Print off and on. Have added my printer to my google cloud account. "Shared" the printer with others but so far it's not working the way I need it to.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious. It does not appear that you can print directly from Word, etc to a google cloud print.

If you have google cloud print, open a Word document and click print. Is there a google cloud print option or do you need to be in Chrome to make it work?

[yellowsulphur]

Have you tried installing the Google cloud print service?

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudprintservice

Google Cloud printer driver

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudprintdriver

[glockman19]

Do you know how it does that? Is it eprint?

It is an HP program/app that comes with the printer. I enter my IP and it prints to the network printer. It's the HP All-In-One Remote.

[Casual_Shooter]

Have you tried installing the Google cloud print service?

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudprintservice

Google Cloud printer driver

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/cloudprintdriver

Doesn't look like Cloud Print Service is compatible with Mac:

Your operating system is not supported.
Requires Google Chrome and Windows 7, Vista or XP with XPS Essentials Pack.

The cloud printer driver is a Mac based automated script that saves the file to a pdf and uploads it to your google cloud acct.

These cloud options work, but not like I need it to.

[Casual_Shooter]

It is an HP program/app that comes with the printer. I enter my IP and it prints to the network printer. It's the HP All-In-One Remote.

My first thought when you posted was that it was ePrint. But if you are saying you can enter your IP and it will print remotely using an IP address, to your printer, then it's different.

ePrint emails your print job to your printer. IP printing is different (it's direct). I'd be curious of the settings you entered to make this work.

[Casual_Shooter]

UPDATE: I got it working.

I was able to get this working the way I was hoping for. There may be other ways, but here is how I was able to do it for those interested.

From the beginning, I was told (by pluke, above) and others that the best way to accomplish this was to create a VPN so that remote users could log-in to my network. I was hoping to avoid that since I knew nothing about setting one up. Turns out, it was very easy.

I purchased a new router so that I could run a separate "work" and "home" network. The new router is a Buffalo N600. It happens to come with the ability to create a VPN built in. That was just a lucky coincidence.

I set up the VPN service in the router using this video.

Since this router was linked to my other router (airport Extreme), I had to forward port 1723 on my Airport Extreme. I had already done this for our database software so I was familiar with the process. Easy enough.

Once that was set up, I contacted one of the employees (we are all on Macs) and had them set up a new Network within the network pane of the system preferences. Selecting VPN (PPTP) and then entering the appropriate credentials, they were able to connect to my network (router).

Step one complete... so far so good.

Next was to have them add a printer. Nothing came up in the default pane of the add-a-printer window, so we selected IP. Using the IPP option, and entering the local IP address of the printer, they were able to add the printer.

Step 2 complete.... getting excited.

Next was to see if they could print using the print command as if the printer was connected to their own network. Had him open an email and click "print".

VOILA! 2 pages came out on the printer in my office. Success!

[Casual_Shooter]

May have spoken a bit too soon.

Just tried it with another employee and he couldn't add the printer.

I'm 1 for 2.

Correction.. I'm 2 for 3 now. Worked with the third guy this morning. Must be something missing with employee #2.