Patent ID: 8077334

Claim:
A method of managing printing in an environment with a plurality of workstations and a plurality of printers in one or more networks each workstation having a unique ID and each printer having a type and a configuration which is dependant on the unique ID, wherein one or more of the printers is connected to a one of the plurality of workstations; and wherein the network also includes a document server and a identity generator, the method comprising: polling a workstation when it connects to the network to determine what printers are connected thereto; determining the unique ID of the workstation; determining the type of printer; determining the configuration of the printer from the type and workstation location; determining an identification code (ID code) for each printer connected to the connected workstation using the identification generator; developing a look up table of unique ID of the workstation; type and configuration of the printer and ID code; receiving a print request from a workstation at the document server; identifying the configuration of a printer from the look up table in response to the print request which can receive the print server; sending the print request to the identified printer with the appropriate ID code, as identified by the look up table wherein the step of determining the unique ID comprises determining a discriminator selected from the list containing location, function, definition, level of priority, age and company.