Configure and share printing under Windows 2003

The use of printer sharing in the local area network makes the printing resources reasonable, and the Printer Sharing service can be realized in the largest network of Internet by configuring the Internet Print Service under Win 2003. As the IPP (Internet Printing Protocol, Internet Printing Protocol) is perfected, any printer that supports the IPP protocol is connected to the Internet and has its own web address, and all computers on the Internet are only aware of the printer's web address , you can access and share this printer and complete your own print job. In fact, the Windows 2000 era already has Internet printing services, and in Windows2003, this feature is improved, win 2003 more security, so need to enable the relevant settings to achieve Internet printing services, which is different from Win The default setting for 2000. This article fully describes the entire process of configuring an Internet Print Service under WIN2003, and after that, you will be able to set up your own Internet Printing service. Think about it, local documents, remote distance printing over the Internet, the scope of the application of this function is very wide.

First, IPP Internet Printing Protocol printing principle

Simply put, the IPP protocol is a protocol based on the Internet application layer, which is intended for end users and terminal printing devices. IPP is based on commonly used Web browsers, using HTTP and other existing Internet technologies to transfer print tasks from end users over the Internet to a print output device that supports IPP, while transferring printer properties and status information to terminal devices. With the IPP print device, users can quickly, efficiently, and practically use the Internet to print locally or remotely without having to perform complex printer installation and driver installations. The following is an example of how the IPP protocol works with a print job process.

1. Addressing and positioning of IPP print output devices

The IPP printout device can be a printer that supports the IPP protocol, or it can be a printer server that supports the IPP protocol plus one or several printers. Because of the need to support the IPP protocol, the IPP print output device differs from the normal printout device. It must have a separate internal processor, along with the required memory capacity. Furthermore, it has a network interface that is connected to the Internet, supports the common communication protocols for the Internet, and also supports SNMP (Simple network Management Protocol), which supports automatic IP address network allocation.

When an IPP-enabled print device is connected to the Internet, it automatically obtains an IP address that becomes an independent terminal device on the Internet. A terminal computer can address this print device through a browser, which can be addressed either by entering the IP addresses or by entering a printer name. If this print device is powered on and online, it will return the printer's property information to the computer to which it is addressed, including the supported print media type, size, and color support.

2. Transfer print jobs, printer status information, canceling print jobs

The job information packet that the terminal computer will print (including the name of the print job, the media used, the print score, the printed content, and so on) is encoded according to the IPP protocol and sent to the IPP print device in accordance with the Protocol, and the IPP print device decodes the information received by the Protocol. and to interpret the resulting print based on its own properties. The printer transmits its own state information to the terminal computer addressing it before printing and printing, such as the status of supplies, the status of the media, and so on. The current IPP 1.0 terminal computers can cancel the IPP print devices and terminate the control function of the print jobs that have started.

Second, the Internet printing implementation process

The Internet printing process is as follows:

1. The user enters the URL of the print device (the Uniform Resource Locator) and connects to the print server over the Internet.

2. HTTP requests are sent over the Internet to the print server.

3. The print server requires that the client provide authentication information. This ensures that only authorized users will be able to print files on the print server.

4. When a user is granted access to a print server, the server uses the Active Server Pages (Active Server Pages, ASP) to display status information to the user, including information about the current idle printer.

5. When a user connects to the Internet to print any printer on the Web page, the client computer first attempts to locate the driver for the printer locally. If the appropriate driver is not found, the print server generates a cabinet file (. cab file, also known as the Setup file) that contains the correct printer driver files. The print server downloads the. cab file to the client computer. The client computer prompts the user to allow downloading of the. cab file.

6. When users connect to an Internet printer, they can use the Internet Print Protocol (Internet Printing Protocol,ipp) to send files to the print server.

Client computers running Windows 2003 SP4 can use the Internet to print by default. However, the user must first authenticate with the print server to be able to use any printer connected to the server. The security configuration of the print server is covered below.