Patent ID: 8230066

Claim:
A method for servicing a print request from a specific client system of a plurality of client systems, said print request being able to be serviced on a plurality of printer server systems, said printer server systems being connected via a network, said method comprising: in response to receiving said print request from said specific client system, setting up a network connection between said specific client system and the plurality of printer server systems; reading, from a database accessible to each printer server system, client-specific information from a client profile, printer server information from a server profile, and printer information from a printer profile, wherein said client-specific information pertains to the specific client system, wherein the printer server information pertains to each print server system of the plurality of printer server systems, and wherein the printer information pertains to a plurality of printers utilized by said printer server systems; ascertaining at least one best-suited printer of the plurality of printers to be used for servicing said print request, wherein said ascertaining comprises utilizing said client-specific information, said printer server information, and said printer information; and in response to said ascertaining, servicing said print request, said servicing performed by said at least one best suited printer, wherein said client-specific information comprises: server identifiers identifying each printer server system of the plurality of printer server systems, a home server identifier identifying which printer server system of the plurality of printer server systems is the specific client system's home server, the specific client system's geographic location, a favorite time span reflecting when the specific client system has previously been connected to the network, an amount of data reflective of a quantity of data previously printed within a given historical time span, a maximum data transfer rate at which the specific client system can transfer data to the network, and a minimum speed required for printing data received from the specific client system by each printer server system of the plurality of printer server systems.