PrinterOn Corporation, a Web services company specializing in wireless and remote Internet printing, has enhanced its Focus software for driverless printing in hotel and public printing venues.

The company said the enhanced software complements its driverless printing service for hotel business centers and adds features tailored for hospitality applications. From their room, guests can print documents, e-mails, e-mail attachments and Web content privately and securely from their Internet-enabled notebook or handheld wireless device.

PrinterOn said new features include an operator interface for unattended business centers to allow private and confidential guest printing from the guest room. The Focus software achieves confidential printing by spooling the encrypted print data and holding it until the guest triggers the release to the printer. All print jobs received by Focus that are not released within 24 hours are automatically deleted. The company claims this self-managed printing utility is ideal for hoteliers who want an inexpensive, 24/7 unattended business center.

For attended business centers, Focus can be administered for automatic printing with a forced cover page in cases where the guest desires delivery to their room. The company said the Focus software is a lightweight PC application that runs as a background service, meaning the PC is available for other hotel or guest services such as Internet access. To access the Focus service, proper login credentials are required such as the unique print job reference number for the print job or, optionally, the guest e-mail address.

For hotels with 802.11 (WiFi) guest Internet access, PrinterOn said the Focus software closes the loop for end-to-end data encryption using 3DES, providing secure piece of mind for guests printing over wireless networks. The encrypted print data is received immediately from the source so that guest files are not compromised by being saved on an off-site server for later "pull" down to the destination printer. The company said the additional security benefit of the PrinterOn "push" approach is that data prints immediately when released so no waiting is required.

Focus does not require special printers or hardware printer peripherals. Focus lets the hotelier use existing printers of any make or model, so new printers do not need to be purchased. The Hotelier may choose to make printers available to guests at the business center, front desk, conference room, on every floor, or each guest room. A single implementation of Focus supports all the printers in a hotel.