A user on a Windows 2000 computer can access information about available printers, and send jobs to those printers available on a Windows 2000 print server, or any print server that supports IPP v1.0. The process of finding an Internet printer and sending a print job to that printer includes the following steps:
A client connects to a Windows 2000 print server over the Internet by entering a URL.
The print server can require the client to provide authentication information. This helps ensure that only authorized users print documents on your printer, rather than making it available to everyone with an Internet connection.
After a user is authorized to access the print server, the server presents the client with Active Server Pages (ASPs) containing information about the currently available printers. Figure 14.1 shows an example of such a page.
Windows 2000 users can connect to any of the available printers using ASPs or get information about each printers capabilities. Figure 14.14 shows an example of a printers properties page, as presented by an Internet print server.
Only computers running Windows 95 or Windows 98 with the Internet Printing Client or computers running Windows 2000 can connect to available printers. Windows NT and and Windows 3.11 will be unable to connect.
Figure 14.14 Printer Queue for a Printer on an Internet Printer Server
After users have connected to an Internet printer, they can print documents. Documents users print are sent using IPP v1.0 or RPC to the print server that uses RPC calls to send the job to the Internet printer of the users choice. Figure 14.15 shows potential steps included in the Internet printing process.
Figure 14.15 Internet Printing Process