Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of transmitting device status information via syndication services. Specifically, it relates to transmitting device status information of a printer, scanner, fax, multifunction printing device, or other printing device via syndication services such as RSS, Atom, or other syndication service to a user computer device. The device status information may be received via any syndication service reader or custom configurable client application.

Abstract: It is a first aspect of the present invention to provide a computer implemented method of updating a device via syndication services that includes receiving a syndication feed from the syndication change server via a user computer device; and updating the firmware, software, configuration, bookmarks, and/or settings of the device.

Abstract: A method of printing includes providing a computer server linked to a plurality of printers, initiating a print job on a user computer device, querying the computer server for one or more available printers; transmitting identification information and location information of each printer from the computer server to the user computer device; displaying the information in the form of a list to the user computer device; selecting by a user one of the printers in the list; transmitting the selection to the computer server; transmitting configuration information for the selected printer to the user computer device; configuring the print data by with the configuration information; and transmitting the configured print data from the user computer device to the selected printer for printing.

Abstract: A system for transmitting encrypted print job data across a network. The printer driver on the client device encrypts the print job data using a random AES key and uses the printer's public key to encrypt the random AES key. The print job data remains encrypted during transmission from the client device to the printer via the server. As such, the contents of the print job cannot be viewed by anyone who eavesdrops on the communications between the client device and the printer or by anyone who obtains the print job data from the server's data storage medium. The printer's public certificate, containing the printer's public key, is promulgated to the client device via the server which stores the printer's public certificate with other data pertinent to the client device's printer driver.

Abstract: A computer implemented method of printing includes the steps of: (a) providing a computer server linked via one or more data links to a plurality of printers, where the computer server has access to identification information, location information and configuration information pertaining to each of the plurality of printers, where the configuration information includes information to ensure each of the plurality of printers is configured to correctly print a print job; (b) initiating a print job on a user computer device, where the print job includes print data; (c) querying the computer server by the user computer device for one or more available printers; (d) transmitting identification information and location information of each of the plurality of printers by the computer server to the user computer device; (e) displaying identification information and location information in a list of the plurality of available printers on a user interface operating on the user computer device; (f) selecting by a user o