CHAPTER 8 BIP INTERNET PRINTING INSTALLATION
Brother Internet PrintGeneral Information
The BIP software is installed using a standard Windows® 95/98/Me/NT®4.0 Installation Wizard. It creates a virtual port on the Windows® 95/98/Me/NT®4.0 PC that operates in a similar way to the standard LPT1 printer port from the Application program point of view. The user can use the Windows® 95/98/Me/NT®4.0 Print Manager to create a printer that uses this port along with a standard Windows® 95/98/Me, NT®4.0-compatible printer. Any Windows® 95/98/Me/NT®4.0 applications program can therefore print to this printer (and hence to the virtual port) without modification or operational procedure.
When a job is printed to the BIP virtual port, it is actually MIME-encoded (converted to a standard Internet E-mail message) and sent out to a Brother Print
/Fax server at the remote location using Winsock This means that BIP is compatible with most common E-mail software packages. The only requirement is that the E-mail server be capable of sending E-mail message over the Internet.
In more detail, the procedure works in the following way:
•If you are connected to a Local Area Network, the E-mail message is passed to the E-mail server, which in turn transmits the message out over the Internet using the SMTP protocol (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) to the remote Print / Fax server.
•If you are connecting via a modem directly to an Internet Service Provider (ISP), the ISP handles the routing of the E-mail to the remote Print / Fax server.
•At the remote site, an E-mail server receives the E-mail message. The remote Print / Fax server, which has its own E-mail address, uses the POP3 protocol (Post Office Protocol 3) to download the E-mail message from the server. It then decodes the attachment and prints it out on the printer.
If an E-mail is received that has not been configured to use the BIP virtual port driver, the printer will print the e-mail out as a text document.