Remote printing: My pen pal is a printer
Q. To streamline our sales-ordering process, we want to implement LogMeIn’s remote-access solution to enable our traveling sales reps to print directly to our office’s new Epson printers. Is this the remote-access solution you would recommend for this purpose?
A. You don’t need a remote-access solution to accomplish your goal. Epson provides a solution called Remote Print that enables your sales reps to email documents (including attachments) directly to your printers from their mobile laptops, tablets, or phones to be automatically printed back at the office. This solution is free, and it eliminates the need for your sales reps to expend time launching their remote software, logging in, and establishing remote connections each time they simply want to print a sales order. Following are instructions for setting up Epson’s Remote Print:
1. Make sure your Epson printer(s) is connected to the internet, either wirelessly or using an ethernet connection to your network router.
2. Download and install the Epson Connect Printer Setup Utility at epson.com. Launch the utility program, agree to the end-user license agreement, and then click Next (to unblock the firewall for the Epson printer), Install, Finish.
3. In the resulting Select a Printer dialog box (see above), select the printer you want to receive emailed print jobs, and then select Next, Printer Registration, Next, Agree, Next. When you see the Register a printer to Epson Connect message, click OK, fill out the Create An Epson Connect Account form, and then click Finish to view your new email address (an example of which is pictured below), which prints directly to your printer from any application on any device, anywhere in the world. Click Close.
4. Your printer is now ready for remote printing, but I recommend you visit epson.com/connect to log in to your account and adjust the following settings:
- Simplify your printer’s email address. The screenshot above shows me changing my printer’s email address from the more complicated evs7283i0uvw78@print.epsonconnect.com to the simpler carltoncollins@print.epsonconnect.com.
- Approve senders. Create a list of approved senders, as pictured below, to prevent spammers from printing messages to your printer.
- Set up a password. Or if you prefer, instead of setting up approved senders, you can create a Remote Print Access Key (or password) so anyone with the proper password can print directly to the printer. This option is easier than setting up a list of dozens of approved senders and eliminates potential problems caused should users attempt to send print jobs using their alternate email addresses. In the example below, I’ve created a print access key using the password georgia.
Features and limitations. Epson’s Remote Print utility enables users to indicate the number of copies, page range, reverse order, and collation options. This utility supports any Windows applications with a printing function. The maximum total file size is limited to 20 MBs. Print jobs are held for a maximum of 72 hours if the printer is unavailable, after which they are discarded. Many printer manufacturers offer this type of capability; as examples, HP offers ePrint and Canon offers Print from E-mail.
About the author
J. Carlton Collins (carlton@asaresearch.com) is a technology consultant, a CPE instructor, and a JofA contributing editor.
Note: Instructions for Microsoft Office in “Technology Q&A” refer to the 2007 through 2016 versions, unless otherwise specified.
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