Question Printing remotely to a Brother?

[punkncat]

I am having an absolute brain block....

We had a program set up called Brother Cloud print or somesuch name that would allow us to see a specific printer at a remote location and print forms to it. It was buggy, to say the least, in it's use case at that time. I cannot seem to locate anything beyond printing from WiFi "from your phone" etc. in a search.

I need to be able to set up the existing network printer we have and be able to print documents to it from the home office, at the shop (main) office.

What would be the best way to make this happen?

Edit to say-
Standard desktop PC over consumer residential style dynamic IP. Windows 10 enviro.

 

[xenthia]

I am having an absolute brain block....

We had a program set up called Brother Cloud print or some such name that would allow us to see a specific printer at a remote location and print forms to it. It was buggy, to say the least, in it's use case at that time. I cannot seem to locate anything beyond printing from WiFi "from your phone" etc. in a search.

I need to be able to set up the existing network printer we have and be able to print documents to it from the home office, at the shop (main) office.

What would be the best way to make this happen?

Edit to say-
Standard desktop PC over consumer residential-style dynamic IP. Windows 10 enviro.

Is the office also in a dynamic IP range? and also is the printer behind a NAT or a firewall? Also, does the printer have a form of a network interface to it? like is it directly connectable to the network? like an ethernet port or wifi interface? or is it only connectable to a pc? like usb or printer port?

 

[punkncat]

The current printer is an MFC-L2700 series. The one we used in a similar situation before was along this same line but without a scanner.

As above, standard residential type internet, a Windows 10 PC available, and the WiFi hookup is preferred.

 

[Ralston18]

Take a look at ("see") the remote printer via Powershell's "Get-Printer".

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/printmanagement/get-printer?view=win10-ps

Example 4.

The Get results may provide some additional insight with respect to remote computer's overall printer configuration.


You can easily find other similar links via a browser search.

 

[punkncat]

Take a look at ("see") the remote printer via Powershell's "Get-Printer".

Reference:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/printmanagement/get-printer?view=win10-ps

Example 4.

The Get results may provide some additional insight with respect to remote computer's overall printer configuration.


You can easily find other similar links via a browser search.

I honestly wished I was technically informed enough to know how you are helping me here. My perception of this is having the system tell me where/what the network printer is?

I was thinking more along the lines of what I thought was an existing Brother "app" that we utilized before to do this but which I cannot recall the name of. At that time the owner of the company was playing with the idea of using a mobile hotspot for internet comms at the (then) location where the printer was. We couldn't make it work right because the connection kept dropping out. The issue now is I cannot seem to find reference to the app.

 

[USAFRet]

damn you punkncat.

While looking through all the settings and whatnot on my Brother printer, I discovered I need new toner carts...🙁

And no, I've not found a solution for this question.

To verify, you're looking to print to a printer not in the same LAN?

 

[punkncat]

damn you punkncat.

While looking through all the settings and whatnot on my Brother printer, I discovered I need new toner carts...🙁

And no, I've not found a solution for this question.

To verify, you're looking to print to a printer not in the same LAN?

Lol, crisp prints, you are welcome.


Yes.

To be clear. We had the non scanner version of this same printer set up at a remote shop that was utilizing a hotspot for internet. There was a program that I installed on a cheap laptop left on site and set to stay powered on that allowed us to "see" that printer as an option from other locations. I was almost positive it was called Brother Cloud Print which does still exist, but I cannot seem to find that specific functionality within it any longer.

I still use Cloud Print to print things from my phone but cannot say that I utilize it away from that LAN.

 

[Ralston18]

The objective was to help "see" by finding/identifying the available printers.

First try Get-Printer on your computer - see what the results are.

From my computer:

PS C:\Users\YourUserName here> Get-Printer

Name ComputerName Type DriverName PortName Shared Publishe
d
---- ------------ ---- ---------- -------- ------ --------
OneNote for Windows 10 Local Microsoft Software Pri... Microsoft.Of... False False
Microsoft XPS Document Writer Local Microsoft XPS Document... PORTPROMPT: False False
Microsoft Print to PDF Local Microsoft Print To PDF PORTPROMPT: False False
HP9B79C2.hsd1.XX.comcast.ne... Local HP OfficeJet Pro 9010 ... WSD-192485ba... False False
Fax Local Microsoft Shared Fax D... SHRFAX: False False

I underlined my physical network printer.

[Note: Actually the output display is properly formatted into neater headers and columns. Copy and paste into a post jumbles things up a bit.]

Then use the same Get-Printer command except target the command at the remote computer to view its printers. (Per Example 4 in the provided link.)

However that is all moot if the requirement is to "see" a wireless connected network printer then Powershell can do that - takes a bit more doing.

What I am missing, I think, is why the print jobs are not simply directed to the intended network printer?

Obviously off track - apologies...

 

[hang-the-9]

I am having an absolute brain block....

We had a program set up called Brother Cloud print or somesuch name that would allow us to see a specific printer at a remote location and print forms to it. It was buggy, to say the least, in it's use case at that time. I cannot seem to locate anything beyond printing from WiFi "from your phone" etc. in a search.

I need to be able to set up the existing network printer we have and be able to print documents to it from the home office, at the shop (main) office.

What would be the best way to make this happen?

Edit to say-
Standard desktop PC over consumer residential style dynamic IP. Windows 10 enviro.

VPN will work for this. If the printer is on the network, the computer is on VPN to the office they are on the same network, will print without issues. Going to the cloud to do this, for a company, I would not. Likely to have security holes.

 

[USAFRet]

+1 for VPN.

 

[punkncat]

VPN will work for this. If the printer is on the network, the computer is on VPN to the office they are on the same network, will print without issues. Going to the cloud to do this, for a company, I would not. Likely to have security holes.

Yeah, no sensitive information unless you really dig looking at sprinkler repair work orders. Even the portal we submit to isn't "secure" because it essentially doesn't matter. Handy that way.

If I were going to use a super simple "one user" VPN what would it be? Would there be some advantage to doing this instead of Team Viewer (or the like) if it came down to that?

 

[hang-the-9]

Yeah, no sensitive information unless you really dig looking at sprinkler repair work orders. Even the portal we submit to isn't "secure" because it essentially doesn't matter. Handy that way.

If I were going to use a super simple "one user" VPN what would it be? Would there be some advantage to doing this instead of Team Viewer (or the like) if it came down to that?

There is really no simple VPN setup, a remote access to another computer is not the same thing as VPN. Those product allow you to access a system remotely, a VPN will make the computer you are using act like it's on the same network as the other building. All the products I have used have been full on corporate ones for hundreds of users, but something from here may work for you https://www.techradar.com/news/best-vpn-for-business-our-5-top-choices I've never setup a simple one for a single system using only software like these products, has always been using a router setup for VPN.