| 摘要 |
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for forwarding a print job over a communications network. In particular, the present invention enables a user to obtain print jobs at a location which may be unspecified, and which may be remote from the source (10) of the print job. A print driver is provided which is capable of forwarding one or more print jobs over a network. The print driver may be interfaced with any suitable print job source (10) (eg., a client device capable or generating a printable document, such as a computer) to obtain a print job. The print job is forwarded from the print driver, over the network, to a spooling server (50). A printer polling device (100), which may be used at a location remote from the client device (10), is capable of polling a spooling server (50) via the network (110) to identify whether any print jobs associated with the printer polling device (100) are available for printing at a printer (120) currently associated with the printer polling device. The spooling server (50) need not initiate contact with the printer (120) through a firewall, since it is polled by the printer polling device. Thus, network security is maintained. |
