Week 3 — Remotely accessing and sending files to a printer

A printer transforms the digital copy of a file into hard copy that can be handled physically in the form of paper. The printer finds its significance in many organizations, offices, hospitals and the academic environment. Printers are also found in public cafes where they can be accessed at a fee. In general, printers are a useful tool in converting soft copies into hard copies.

Although there are different kinds of printer manufacturers, printers can be classified into two major Classes:

1. Local printers
2. Network printers

Local printers can be found in offices, Cyber cafes and Schools. These types of printers can be used when they are physically connected to the computer (through a USB cable).

The network printer on the other hand does not require a physical connection to a user’s laptop before a print job can be made.

Network Printer (Source:iStock)

As long as the user’s device is remotely connected to the printer, printing can be done from anywhere. The two major advantages of network printers are:

1. Remote accessibility
2. Remote printing

REMOTE ACCESSIBILITY

Network printers have the ability to accommodate various remote or physical staff of an organization who would want to access the printer. Employees can send documents for the purpose of printing from anywhere in the world or in the same organization as long as they are in the same home network. This kind of setup is mostly common in banks. The network printers can be accessed remotely through the following steps:

1. Connect the printer to a power source.
2. Connect to your home network.
3. On your computer, navigate to the control panel and click on the ‘devices and printer’ icon.
4. Click ‘Add a printer’ and wait for the window to scan for the printer.
5. If the system is able to detect the printer, select the printer and click ‘next’ to complete the configurations.

If the printer name is known, you can navigate to ‘share printer by name and type the printer’s path which is usually written in the format, \\network name\brand name. the printer can also be located through the IP address, this can easily be gotten from the user’s manual.

REMOTE PRINTING

Following the deprecation of google cloud print in January 2021, Chromebook and other remote printing alternatives have been introduced. However, application software like Teamviewer, AnyDesk, Parallels RAS and Radmin VPN are now playing major roles in remote documenting. To print documents remotely, the most important steps involve the connection of the mobile device to the printer and subsequently, the connection of the mobile device to the remote printing software. The latter is usually a function of the remote printer software user interface, for AnyDesk, you just need to choose AnyDesk printer in the print dialogue of any software on the remote device. You can find out more about the software applications that can facilitate remote printing and how they can be used, based on your preference of which is the easiest to understand. Teamviewer and Anydesk are however the most popular remote printing software in the market. The software is a way of letting you login remote into your printer to perform the printing job.

REFERENCE

1. computerhope.com
2. dummies.com
3. smallbusinness.chron.com
4. windowsreport.com

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