---In order not to keep those of you who have not got the ComputerWorld article handy in suspense until next week, I had the short article typed up for you.
Carl-Uno
---Source: ComputerWorld - March 24, 1997
Users DOUBT SECURITY OF NET PRINTING by Matt Hamblen
Vendors in recent weeks have announced new products and plans to allow for printing digital documents over the internet. But potential customers are skeptical that their transmissions will be secure.
Printer vendors say the market could be large because printing over the Internet can save users the cost of faxing over long-distance telephone lines.
But analysts and users said the idea of sending sensitive files over the internet for printing raises serious security and reliability questions - even after considering some recently announce production (CW, March 17.).
Given what some observers see as ripe market piercingly, this relatively new area continues to draw vendor activity.
The following companies recently made these Internet printing announcements:
- XCD, Inc. in Tustin, Califf., announced the $49 PrintraNet remote Internet printing software. It lets a PC user at one site print a file on a remote printer by sending the document as a standard electronic-mail message.
- Sun Microsystems, Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., has joined the Salutation Consortium, a global group that's is developing a standard for locating and managing devices across the Internet.
- Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, Wash., is poised to enter the market after unveiling its Internet printing concept before a section of the Internet Engineering Task Force, a group of vendors working on a series of Internet standards. According to Microsoft's plans, printers would be attached to a Windows NT print server, and end users could print documents over the World Wide Web by filing the printer's uniform resource locator. Microsoft officials declined to comment on specific product plans.
Sending print jobs to a remote printer over the Internet may have appeal, but security is still a concern, said Vince Agresti, director of information systems at Management Recrutiers International in Cleveland. "I'd want the files to be encryptable," Agresti said. When told that XCD touts its Internet printing software as being as secure as E-mail, he ansered: "Saying your print job is just as secure as E-mail is like saying something's just as secure as a cell phone."
Agresti said his company produces legal, sales and office manuals and could benefit by having high-quality printing on demand at its 700 regional offices.
----
Carl-Uno Manros Principal Engineer - Advanced Printing Standards - Xerox Corporation 701 S. Aviation Blvd., El Segundo, CA, M/S: ESAE-231 Phone +1-310-333 8273, Fax +1-310-333 5514 Email: manros@cp10.es.xerox.com