Remote WiFi Printing? Is it possible

Hello all,

I recently purchased a Canon ip4000r wireless printer. I have it setup on my home network and it works great. However, I'd love to be able to print to it remotely via my broadband connection. Is that possible?

I've done a little reading and most of the sites reference print servers or hotel setups for "public wifi printing". One company, such as

I cannot get that to work so I'm trying determine what is really needed.

Any help is appreciated.

So what have you done, what hardware do you have at home etc?

For a no-cost solution, you could RDP into a machine at home (assuming you're running Windows), but that would require that a machine on your home network be left on. With RDP you can print to a printer attached to the client device. Not sure how secure this is, but I'm sure not very.

In the distant past, I did a bit of work supporting netcat printing on SCO Openserver Unix. See:

The current list of port numbers at:

It's registered to HP, but seems to be designated for other functions. HP also uses 9101-9102 for print servers with multiple ports, which is NOT registered to HP.

So, you're proposing that he exposes his print server directly to the internet? Yes, that would work for a few minutes. I once put a Xerox N17 laser printer on a routeable IP address. The printer has an internal web server that was constantly being hit by scripted attacks. After finding it hung several times a day, I gave up on that idea.

Well, I'll confess that I don't know anything about IPP either. IPP is supported by W2K and XP. There's also an update to add it to W98/ME. If he wants to leave his computah turned on in order to print over the internet, that's an option. More correctly, it should be supported by the print server directly. Searching the Canon PIXMA printer support web pile and FAQ yielded nothing for IPP or "internet printing protocol". Google didn't do any better. I'll leave IPP implimention for someone who's used it. I still like my VPN method.

It's just a port. Just because HP uses it for some specific purpose, doesn't mean that's what it's always for, unless it's an IANA assigned port (which it isn't). The question is how does he print to it wirelessly on his home network. If he can do that, he _should_ be able to do it from the Internet - providing that his router can redirect appropriately or his wireless printer has a static IP.

Well, the question comes down to whether the Canon PIXMA implimentation supports IPP (Internet Printing Protocol). At first glance, I would guess(tm) it does not.

In the distant past, I've done quite a bit of work with wired print servers. Like routers, these were originally multi-protocol devices. Hp and Axis print servers would support just about every protocol known to man or machine. NETBEUI for Windoze, LPR/LPD and FTP for Unix, NDPS NPRINT and PSERVER for Novell, Direct to IP socket for Unix and DOS, HP Jetdirect emulation, AppleTalk for Mac, Named Pipe PROS, telnet scripting, and bunch of mainframe stuff I don't understand. You name the protocol and the print servers would support it. The catch was these devices cost $300 and up. Not exactly useful for imbedding in a $150 printer.

So, out went all the versatility, protocols, features, options, and goodies leaving only the most basic printing protocols, which these days means Windoze NETBEUI support. Some of the cheapo stand alone print servers also do LPR/LPD which is also supported in W2K and XP.

My guess(tm) is that IPP is not easy to impliment in a simple built in print server. That's because when I tried to find the applicable RFC documents, I found a rather huge list.

OK, so it is. It's not in my /etc/services, but I should have checked with IANA first.

That's not what _I_ proposed. That's what _he_ wanted to do.

And he might, too.

Exactly what IPP does. If he's got a genuine network printer, it almost certainly uses IPP and exposes an IPP server. He won't need to leave his computer on.

Sure, that's more secure and he might be prepared to do it. I simply don't see any real barriers to him doing exactly what he wanted to - IFF if is functioning as a network printer on his local network.

IANA listings don't mean a whole lot either. They "expired" my listing. Not sure how they decided that was a good thing to do. I didn't realize it until someone else was issued the number, which now appears on newer Unix systems. My software still works, it's just that a netstat listing shows some other software name instead of mine.

otoh, I'd guess it would, as most modern network printers do - and Canon was in on the ground floor setting the standard. However, the question is moot if the OP won't tell us how he was getting his printer to work on his local network.

Sorry for all the dealy in writing as I've been sick. In any event, I'll answer how I'm connected.

I don't have a server in my SOHO network.....just 2 wireless XP machines, 1 laptop & 1 desktop. All TCP/IP & no NetBEUI. I'm not running vpn or IPSEC. I have a Netgear Wireless router...108Mbps.

One bit to add is that I also have Vonage (VoIP) which precedes my router in the chain of cable modem, router & vonage device. NAT is being used also.

I have also set my vonage device to redirect any pages to my netgear router but I think that maybe part of my hang-up. At this point, I'm just trying to determine **if** there's a way to access my wireless printer remotely and what steps are to be taken.

I am using a dynamic IP address but with the use dyndns.org, that's not an issue.

The printer needs a static IP address. Log into the router check the dhcp client list to find the printer's IP. Log into printer, disable dhcp client and set the static IP just above the router's dhcp range of IP addresses. (1 to10 set printer IP to 12). Then go into the printer setup on Each computer and edit the printer's port address and change the location to the static IP.

The computers look for the printer in one IP location and if the IP is changing IP they cannot find the printer. . TeddyBare

I can print locally and the printer does have a static IP address. I'm trying to print remotely....say from my dad's house thru his firewall to my printer that's behind my firewall. Essentially, printing to a public printer like they do in hotel or airports but I just want to do it at home.