SMTP address for Printer

Discussions about Internet service providers (ISPs), the Meetinghouse Firewall, wired and wireless networking, usage, management, and support of Meetinghouse Internet
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johnshaw
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SMTP address for Printer

#1

Post by johnshaw »

Our new building received 2 printer/copiers that both of the functionality allowing a scan-to-email. My stake presidency wants me to pursue setting up this functionality for at least the stake office printer/copier. Has anyone set this up in their own units? If so, what did you need to do? If you were given an SMTP address would you mind sending me a private message with the IP Address.

thanks
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aebrown
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#2

Post by aebrown »

JohnShaw wrote:Our new building received 2 printer/copiers that both of the functionality allowing a scan-to-email. My stake presidency wants me to pursue setting up this functionality for at least the stake office printer/copier. Has anyone set this up in their own units? If so, what did you need to do? If you were given an SMTP address would you mind sending me a private message with the IP Address.

Configuring such a printer with an SMTP address only makes sense if you have an SMTP server. Such a server is not part of the software we have been given as part of our standard local network installation, and would require that some computer running the server would be on continuously (or at least whenever the scan to email feature is used). There are certainly options for SMTP servers (some are free) that could be installed (with the stake president's permission, of course) if you wanted to do this.

Without a local SMTP server, the only way this could work is if you had access to some SMTP server on the Internet. But that would require authentication credentials for the SMTP server. The Church has not informed us of such a server or given us such credentials, and I would be wary of trying to configure connection to a third-party SMTP server.
Questions that can benefit the larger community should be asked in a public forum, not a private message.
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johnshaw
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#3

Post by johnshaw »

I have no interest in using a local SMTP Server (it would need to go through the firewall anyway which is probably blocked). I am looking for an address within the Church systems that we can use, which doesn't seem all that unreasonable, the church printer/copiers are all setup with this functionality. If the intention is to provide this capability to stake offices going forward (by purchasing devices capable of it), then we need to make it part of the standard firewall scripts.
russellhltn
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#4

Post by russellhltn »

There may be SMTP service available from the ISP. The details would be dependent on what service you are using.
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crislapi
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#5

Post by crislapi »

JohnShaw wrote:If the intention is to provide this capability to stake offices going forward (by purchasing devices capable of it), then we need to make it part of the standard firewall scripts.
I have started to notice this argument being used more and more and I would issue a caution on this line of thinking. The only safe conclusion to draw from the church providing printers and copiers is that they intend the devices to be used for printing and copying. Almost any MFP you buy now has extended capabilities like scan to fax, scan to email, scan to folder, etc. I don't think they're against a particularly tech savy person figuring it out and setting it up, but I would be careful in assuming this is the expected office setup.

That being said, I love that I can print to my copier (double-sided printing) and can scan from it to my computer. However, it took me figuring it out on my part. In fact, both the GSD and the Xerox rep he contacted told me it wasn't possible with the device I had.
harddrive
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#6

Post by harddrive »

JohnShaw wrote:Our new building received 2 printer/copiers that both of the functionality allowing a scan-to-email. My stake presidency wants me to pursue setting up this functionality for at least the stake office printer/copier. Has anyone set this up in their own units? If so, what did you need to do? If you were given an SMTP address would you mind sending me a private message with the IP Address.

thanks

Why not do this, it is a bit more manual, but will accomplish the same intent. Set the printer/copier to scan the file to a PDF and save it on the stake clerk's computer or another computer within the building.

Then go to that machine, open up your email system and then attach the file that you created. This is easier, because you will also have to create a from address for the copier that goes somewhere. Also, your email system should already have a group list of people that you would send the document to and so forth.

So don't make it so complicated.
atticusewig
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#7

Post by atticusewig »

JohnShaw wrote:If the intention is to provide this capability to stake offices going forward (by purchasing devices capable of it), then we need to make it part of the standard firewall scripts.
crislapi wrote:I have started to notice this argument being used more and more and I would issue a caution on this line of thinking.
I've used this line of thinking to argue that CHQ wants us to install games on church computers, otherwise why would they buy ones with graphics cards. Too bad the Stake President (and everyone else) doesn't agree with me.

But seriously, if you wanted to scan to email, one option might be to use a SMTP-to-POP3 gateway to send it through the POP3 functionality of gmail. Provided the firewall allows POP3 through. Otherwise you will need to tunnel the traffic through HTTP to an outside server you control that can send it from its SMTP server. It get rather complicated, rather quickly - so the PDF attachment option mentioned earlier is probably the easiest.

- Atticus
russellhltn
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#8

Post by russellhltn »

harddrive wrote:Set the printer/copier to scan the file to a PDF and save it on the stake clerk's computer or another computer within the building.

You can not share a folder (or a printer) on WinXP without opening up the entire hard drive. Windows 7 may be more secure, I haven't tested that.

As as result, I'd strongly discourage that approach with any WinXP machines.
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harddrive
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#9

Post by harddrive »

RussellHltn wrote:You can not share a folder (or a printer) on WinXP without opening up the entire hard drive. Windows 7 may be more secure, I haven't tested that.

As as result, I'd strongly discourage that approach with any WinXP machines.

Russell, I'm with you most of the time, but for this one, I totally disagree. There is a global share that is drive letter with a $ afterwards (i.e. C$) that will open up the entire hard drive. You can delete this share.

However, in Windows XP, you can share a single folder. I'm currently doing that at my office. When someone connects to that share, they only see what is in that folder and below, but nothing else. I'm also doing this with my system at home.

When you share a printer or a folder, that is the only thing that is visible on the network. You will not see the entire content of the hard drive. So I, personally don't see any problem with share a single folder for just scanning of documents. It does not open up the entire drive.

I don't see how a single folder would open up your entire drive. If you got proof of it, then I would love to see it.

Thanks.
Terry
russellhltn
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#10

Post by russellhltn »

That global share is the issue. Simply enabling File or Printer sharing turns that on. Last I looked, there was no easy way to turn that off on WinXP. It might be possible by editing the registry.

If you're counting on the fact that it's hidden, that's a rather weak "security though obscurity".
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