Many printer vendors support IPP (Internet Printing Protocol). It supports HTTPS to encrypt the data. I am not sure which, if any, mainframe printing products support the protocol. Check with LRS, McKinney, and IBM to see if their products support it.
SSL encryption of TN3270E printer sessions is possible and easy to implement. You can attach the printers to a dedicated PC using USB. You can build a multi-session print server by running several instances of a TN3270E printer client. Do LPR/LPD to a PC running an LPD print daemon. Use an IPSEC VPN to encrypt the data between the host and the PC. Connect the printer to the PC using USB. LPD can support many target printers using a single IP/PORT and different queue names. PC based LPDs are cheap. Buy an ESCON to USB print server appliance running TN3270E print sessions or LPD print sessions. The device looks like a 3172 to the mainframe and server routes the printer data to printers defined in Windows. Good Luck Steve Bireley BlueZone Software www.bluezonesoftware.com BlueZone Terminal Emulation BlueZone Free Secure FTP ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
