Print off the iSeries to a remote location

With the virtual workforce of today, remote connectivity and support is essential. Maybe you're a programmer working from home, a support person trying to diagnose a program problem, a salesman on the road or you're supporting clients from a remote location. In all of those situations, you probably have some sort of temporary connectivity solution -- PPP dial-in line, secure sockets over the Internet to your iSeries, a VPN to your iSeries, etc. But because a lot of those types of connectivity needs are temporary, often what gets overlooked is the ability to print from the remote location to where you are.

As long as you are connected through an IP connection, Client Access provides an easy solution to just such a problem. If you are not a Client Access user, then there are third-party products available that will also do LPD/LPR to handle remote printing. However, I haven't found any that are as easy and reliable as Client Access for these types of temporary remote printing needs. I also prefer Client Access for printing in these types of situations because even non-technical people can set this up for the first time with little outside assistance. Unless you are trying to avoid buying a print server for your network, these types of temporary remote printing needs are the only time I prefer to use Client Access for network printing. For a more permanent type connection, remote outqs do a much better job.

Tim Granatir

To use this feature, first set your default printer in Client Access. This is under File, Printer setup on your Client Access menu. This does not have to be a printer attached to your PC; it can also be another printer on your network.

Your second step is to define your printer session. You can do this from your Windows menus by going to the Client Access group of programs and configuring a new session, or you can choose to use an existing session by hitting Communication, Configure from the Client Access menu.

From this first screen, I prefer to name the outq by specifying a name in the box that says Specify workstation ID. Then select printer as your emulator type and hit the setup button. Check the transform print data box, select your type of printer emulation and hit OK. You are now ready to print. If you look on the remote system, you will see an outq with the name you specified. Any spool file you transfer to that outq, will now print at your local location.

If you want to know more about IP printing through Client Access or if you're having trouble getting this to work, you can also refer to the IBM Web site.

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About the author: Tim is vice president of Technical Services at Interlink Technologies in Maumee, Ohio. He has worked in the banking, insurance, healthcare and distribution industries in various positions, including programmer/analyst, systems analyst and DP manager. Tim has worked on IBM midrange platforms since 1983.

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MORE INFORMATION
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