Patent ID: 8891106

Claim:
An access control method for print services provided over a network including one or more subnets, said access control method comprising: (a) submitting user credentials, entered through an access control application or browser application on a terminal, via the network to an access control apparatus, to cause the access control apparatus to authenticate the user credentials and register an access control session in association with the authenticated user credentials and a device identifier of the terminal; (b) receiving, from a subnet proxy apparatus, advertisement of print services; (c) submitting a user-specified print job from the terminal to a generic job destination not associated with any particular printing device, to cause the print job to be stored in association with the user credentials in a job repository associated with the generic job destination; (d) transmitting a print service query from the terminal, which is connected to a particular subnet, to cause the subnet proxy apparatus to (i) determine based on the device identifier of the terminal, whether an active session is registered in association with the terminal and (ii) in a case that the subnet proxy apparatus determines that an active session is registered in association with the terminal, determine based on the user credentials registered in association with the terminal in the active session one or more printers available to the terminal on the subnet and return a list identifying the one or more printers available to the terminal; and (e) specifying, from the terminal, a particular printer amongst the one or more printers available to the terminal, to cause the print job stored in association with the user credentials in the job repository to be transmitted to the particular printer.