CHAPTER 8 BIP INTERNET PRINTING INSTALLATION
8-2
Brother Internet Print
General Information
The BIP software is installed using a standard Windows
®
95/98/Me/NT
®
4.0/2000/XP Installation Wizard. It creates a virtual port on the Windows
®
95/98/Me/NT
®
4.0/2000/XP 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
®
4.0/2000/XP Print Manager to create a printer that
uses this port along with a standard Windows
®
95/98/Me, NT
®
4.0/2000/XP -
compatible printer. Any Windows
®
95/98/Me/NT
®
4.0/2000/XP 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.