PrinterShare: share any printer over the internet

PrinterShare is a free service that allows your computer to share printers with any other computer, given that both are online and running the PrinterShare software. Runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Imagine the following: computer A has a printer attached to it, while computer B does not. If both are online and running PrinterShare, computer B can send a document to print that is received by A and printed on the attached printer. Now imagine that computer A happens to be in Seattle while B is in Istanbul.

At the core of it this is a document sharing program where instead of a document on your desktop the end result is a hard copy on your printer; (closer to a FAX machine than to email). Here are more notes on this service:

• PrinterShare accounts: you will have to create a PrinterShare account for every computer you would like to connect. This requires (a) choosing a login name, and (b) providing a valid email. Other requested info is optional.
• Encrypted communication: PrinterShare promises that your printed documents will be encrypted as they are sent online and decrypted on the other end. Your document will be transferred through the servers of the PrinterShare service.
•  How it works: once both computers have the PrinterShare software installed, you can right click and share any connected printers in the main interface. You will also have to “find” the other PrinterShare accounts (you can search by account name) and once that happen’s you’re ready to print. PrinterShare lives in the system tray and will be displayed as a printer in your printers list. Predictably your documents will take slightly longer to print using PrinterShare than if they were printed directly on a connected printer.
• The printers: you can share any printer including network printers and virtual printers (such as the PDF-generating PDFCreator or PrimoPDF).
• Differences between the free and paid service: the free service will generate a cover-page that includes an ad. This is an extra page that you can discard afterwards; your document’s integrity is intact without watermarks or modifications.
• Connecting: PrinterShare promises to connect “behind any proxy or firewall you may be under”, provided you are able to surf the internet with IE. You will need to unblock the app if your local firewall is blocking it.

With PrinterShare you can also print directly from your phone (selected models only) to anywhere in the world including your own printer. Install our mobile software on your Android phone or iPhone through Android Market or Google App Store correspondingly and Have a Good Print!

Nearby Printing: We can now print to Wi-Fi Printers shared on your Local Area Network (Nearby Printers). You can print from Android phone directly to a Wi-Fi printer or the one shared by your computer Bonjour service (Mac OS X has this by default) without having to install PrinterShare computer software. You don't need to log in or sign up with the system for Nearby Printing.

For Remote Printing over the Internet, you need to either log in with your existing account or create new one of the fly, it's free. Then you need to find and select the printer you want to print to. The computer connected to the printer needs to have PrinterShare software installed, just like when you print from computer to computer using PrinterShare.

When printing from the phone the printout information is securely sent over the Internet through PrinterShare service to the target printer. Whenever possible, we try to optimize print data flow, for instance send it over local network if your mobile device and the printer are on the same LAN.

Developers Website: http://www.printershare.com/

Choose carefully the Operating System for your Desktop or Mobile Phone for downloading a correct software version for your computer and gadgets.