ePrint (was Re: HP OfficeJet 6500A plus)

[Bill Campbell]

On Thu, Jan 06, 2011, Bob Rasmussen wrote:
>The printer mentioned is one of several recent printers from HP with a new 
>feature called ePrint. I recently bought and tested another one, the 
>PhotoSmart d110.
>
>The ePrint feature is intended to address one primary need: printing from 
>mobile devices. Perhaps unintentionally, it also addresses the 
>difficulties of printing on printers with dynamic IP addresses exposed to 
>the net, such as in branch offices. I believe it would also address the 
>situation of a mobile worker with a printer connected to a wireless 
>hotspot.
>
>It does this by giving the printer an email address. Anything that address 
>receives, the printer prints. It can handle the primary part of the email 
>and (especially) attachments in a variety of formats, including PDF, DOC, 
>JPG, TIF, etc.
>
>You're probably thinking, "This opens me up to printed spam, which will 
>waste a lot of paper." They have addressed that issue. The email address 
>for the printer is managed by HP (this seems to not be optional). The 
>server at HP....

This sounds like a very Bad Idea(tm) to me.

I can't imagine sending critical print jobs through somebody
else's server where it's not under my control.  Perhaps if there
were a way to send the print job properly encrypted, and have the
printer decrypt, but otherwise forget it.  The same could also be
said for sending anything sensitive via e-mail unencrypted :-).

Bill
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