Share a printer over the internet

[RottPaws]

Does anybody know of a how-to for sharing a printer over the internet with XP Pro? I searched, but haven't been able to find anything helpful.

I've got a local printer attached to my personal computer via USB and I have it set up to be shared. I've got a work computer on my LAN that has that printer mapped and it works find as long as I'm not connected to my work network.

The VPN software that it uses to connect to work seems to create a tunnel directly to the work network and when it's connected, it can't seen anything else on my home LAN.

So I'd like to set up the printer so I can print to it through the internet from the work computer when I'm connected to work.

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Rott Paws

...It's not a bug. It's an undocumented feature!!!

 

[bcastner]

The issue is your default gateway, and this is VPN vendor specific.

Call their tech support.

 

[bcastner]

Sorry, I forgot to add that XP will at times have issues with USB defined printers:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q302361

 

[Jasen]

You would end up having to do something really funky, like forward those incoming ports (should be 137-139) on your router to the PC sharing the printer. Then map the printer using your router's "external" public IP address. Not very safe, as this then opens that PC's file and print sharing to the world.
But as Castner said, the problem is your VPN software locking out the local LAN. I use the built-in MS VPN client and don't have that kind of problem.

 

[RottPaws]

Thanks for the responses. It's a company owned computer and I have no choice in what VPN software to use or it's configuration. I think they have it locked down pretty tight intentionally.

I've got another Linux server set up on my LAN and when I telnet into it while I'm connected to work, the IP looks like I'm coming from the company's network, not my own.

So maybe I can try opening up 137-139 and then using the firewall to only allow incoming data from the specific IP address. ???

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Rott Paws

...It's not a bug. It's an undocumented feature!!!

 

[Jasen]

If you can filter by a specific incoming IP or IP range that would be much safer.