Method of printing over a network
AssigneeSeiko Epson Corporation
InventorToshihiro Shima
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The invention proposes a scheme in which even in the case where a lot of print sites each of which provides a printing service by secure network communication are constructed on a network the print sites can be managed easily, as well as a system as an implementation of such a scheme. A printing method is provided which uses a server computer for a relay between client computers and printers that are connected to each other via a network. The server computer establishes sessions in response to secure communication session establishment requests from a client computer and a printer, respectively. The server computer connects the two sessions, and the client computer sends a print job to the printer via the server computer and causes the printer to perform a printing operation.
Claims4
A printing method using a server computer connecting at least one client computer and at least one printer via a network, comprising:
- receiving a registration request from the at least one printer and managing as usable printers, the printers that have sent the registration request;
- receiving a registration request from the at least one client computer and assigning one of the usable printers to each of the client computers that have sent the registration request;
- sending, to an output destination printer that is one of the assigned usable printers, a request for sending a printer secure communication session establishment request to initiate establishment of a printer secure communication session;
- receiving, from the output destination printer, a printer secure communication establishment request in response to the request for sending the printer secure communication session establishment request;
- establishing the printer secure communication session with the output destination printer based on the printer secure communication establishment request;
- and
- transferring a print job sent from the client computer using the established printer secure communication session,
- wherein the at least one printer is located inside a firewall,
- the server computer is located outside the firewall, and
- the server computer receives a communication session establishment request from the output destination printer prior to the request for the printer secure communication session.
A printer operatively connected to a server computer having a digital certificate, comprising:
- a module for sending a registration request, as a usable printer, to the server computer, the usable printer being one of a plurality of assigned usable printers assigned to one or more client computers;
- a module for receiving, from the server computer, a request for sending a printer secure communication session establishment request as an output destination printer that is one of the assigned usable printers to each of the one or more client computers;
- and
- a module for sending a printer secure communication session establishment request to the server computer to establish a printer secure communication based on the digital certificate,
- wherein the printer is located inside a firewall,
- the server computer is located outside the firewall, and
- the server computer receives a communication session establishment request from the printer prior to the request for the printer secure communication session.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.