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Many people take printing for granted. They print to a printer that is physically connected to their computer, and that works for them. However, once you realize what can be done, you begin expanding possibilities.

This post will explain how to set up a print configuration to allow you to print from and to anywhere on the Internet. You may ask, why would I want to print somewhere if I wasn't physically there? Here's why: If you have a need to be on a computer remotely (using services such as LogMeIn.com or many others), you may want to print from the remote machine to your local printer.

Internet Printer Configuration
These instructions here are fairly generic, because they may vary depending on your Internet Service Provider, router, print server, and operating system. It would be impossible to encompass all possible scenarios. Therefore, some level of expertise is required to set this up. If you know what dynamic IP addresses are and how to configure a router, you should have no problem setting up a printer over the Internet following these instructions. You must have a network-enabled printer (whether direct or using a print server) for these instructions to be of use. We will not cover setting up a network printer in this post.

Before continuing, be sure to evaluate all your options. It may be easier, quicker, more practical and more secure if you use a program like PDFCreator instead of trying to print remotely. PDFCreator allows you to “print” to a PDF file, and you can distribute or print it later. In addition, saving your document to a PDF file can potentially decrease paper usage. If you are interested in trying PDFCreator, you can download it for free from SourceForge.net. Note—not all programs that call themselves “PDFCreator” are free. To be sure to get the most recent version of the correct program, be sure to download it from SourceForge.net.

If you still want to set up remote printing, continue with the following steps.

Router/DNS Setup

Dynamic DNS

To begin, you will need to set up a dynamic DNS service to automatically point to your IP address regardless whether or not your ISP changes your WAN address. I recommend DynDNS.com for this service. It is free and appears to work very well. This posting does not go into detail on how to subscribe and configure DynDNS, because they may change their process or you may choose to use a different service.

If you use DynDNS.com, one recommendation I have is to use a dynamic DNS resolution software client. Although it is probably more convenient to use your router to automatically check and update your dynamic DNS settings, the software client provided by the dynamic DNS service will probably be much more reliable and consistent. If you have a static WAN IP address, the dynamic DNS will not be necessary.

Router
Log in to your router administration setup using whatever method is appropriate for your router. You should see a section labeled DMZ, Port Filters, Servers, or something like that. You will need to go to this section to tell your router to accept certain in-coming ports and route them to a specific internal IP address (which probably starts with 192.168...).

Make an entry in the port listing for port 631. This is the port that will be used by your remote printing connections. Direct port 631 to the IP address of your print server (a dedicated print server is recommended, because you don't want to print remotely and “hope” a print server PC is on).

Verify that the new port rule is “active,” and save your settings. Your router should now accept and route print jobs correctly.

Workstation Setup

1. Log onto the workstation from which you wish to print.
2. Install the printer driver for the printer. You should be able to download the latest driver for any modern printer from the manufacturer's web site.
3. Go to your control panel, select Printers and Faxes, and choose Add a printer.
4. When asked, select A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer, then click Next.
5. Select the option to Connect to a printer on the Internet or on a home or office network.
6. In the URL box, enter the dynamic DNS name you are using, including the port and print queue. For example, this may be a valid URL: http://myAccount.DynDNS.com:631/lp2. If you have a static IP address, you may enter that address or another valid URL that points to your IP address. Also, the port number (631) is optional if your router directs all traffic to a specific IP address. However, I recommend you include it in the URL just to be sure your print jobs direct properly. Click Next.
7. Select the appropriate print driver for the printer you wish to use, then click OK.
8. The setup tool may take a few seconds as it check for the existence of the printer. If everything is set up correctly, you should be prompted whether or not to use this printer as your default printer. I recommend you select no, since you don't want to start “printing” documents only to discover they are printing several miles away. Click Next.
9. Click Finish to close the window. You will now have a (very poorly named) printer added to your printer list. It should be listed as “unknown on http://myAccount.DynDNS.com:631,” or something like that.

Although the printer should be set up and usable at this point, you can rename it to something a little more useful by changing the settings in the registry. If you are not familiar or comfortable changing registry settings, please do not attempt to make the changes. It is very easy to really mess things up if you are not careful. If you feel confident in making the necessary changes, proceed with the following steps.

1. Open your registry editor. (If you do not know how to do this, you should not be attempting these steps!).
2. Navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Printers. You will see the
   new entry labeled something like, ,,http://myAccount.DynDNS.com:631,unknown.
3. Right-click this entry, and rename it to something similar to the following:  ,,http://myAccount.DynDNS.com:631,MyRemotePrinterName.
4. Select this folder, and update the following settings: (The first two can also be done by changing the printer properties from within the control panel. If you make any changes from the control panel, be sure to do so before making changes in the registry to prevent erroneous results.):
   1. Change Description to something useful: My Laser Printer (remote)
   2. Change Location if desired: East Office
   3. Change the Name to whatever you would like to see in the printer list: HP LaserEye 1000 East
5. Close the registry.

The changes will probably not be reflected until the registry is reloaded at boot time. However, next time you boot the computer, you should see a nice, user-friendly list of available printers.  You should now be able to print to the remote printer as if you were sitting next to it. Keep in mind, though, remote printers are subject to the same problems as local printers, so it's probably not a good idea to print a high volume without verifying things are working correctly. You could potentially “print” a 100 page document without any toner.

Hopefully, these instructions will be useful to you. Please leave comments if desired.