Patent ID: 7587468

Claim:
A method for providing printing services, the method comprising: associating a unique identification (ID) with a printing device; associating a print job with the ID, the print job comprising print data; forwarding the print job from a print job source to a spooling server over a network, wherein the network is configured with a firewall to control access to the network, wherein the firewall is configured to restrict printer-packets access to the network, wherein the spooling server is positioned outside the firewall; converting the print job from printer-packets into web-style traffic; polling the spooling server via a printer polling device associated with the printing device to identify a print job stored at the spooling server for the printing device based on the ID, wherein the printer polling device is configured on the inside of the firewall; transmitting the identified print job from the spooling server to the printer polling device as web-style traffic, such that the firewall does not limit access to the receipt of the identified print job; receiving an identified print job from the spooling server at the printer polling device; reformatting the web-style traffic into a format capable of being understood by the printing device; and printing the print job at the printing device.