Idiot-proof autoprint emails?

[Guest]

I need to put an idiot-proof, inexpensive, barebones computer whose ONLY
function is to receive emails from a single email address (by filtering) and
automatically print the emails to a printer as they arrive. No monitor or
keyboard is necessary - or desirable. The box must be configured to boot up
and start receiving and printing emails over a DSL line without human
intervention. If power is lost, it needs to reboot and start again printing
emails that were not printed during the outage. Alternately, it could be
configured to dial up to an ISP every 60 seconds or so and print any emails.
Is this possible with windows and/or 3rd party software? What's the cheapest
solution? Can anyone think of any other way to print out emails over the
internet to a location that does not have a PC installed?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

No.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

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:

| I need to put an idiot-proof, inexpensive, barebones computer whose ONLY
| function is to receive emails from a single email address (by filtering) and
| automatically print the emails to a printer as they arrive. No monitor or
| keyboard is necessary - or desirable. The box must be configured to boot up
| and start receiving and printing emails over a DSL line without human
| intervention. If power is lost, it needs to reboot and start again printing
| emails that were not printed during the outage. Alternately, it could be
| configured to dial up to an ISP every 60 seconds or so and print any emails.
| Is this possible with windows and/or 3rd party software? What's the cheapest
| solution? Can anyone think of any other way to print out emails over the
| internet to a location that does not have a PC installed?

 

[D.Currie]

I need to put an idiot-proof, inexpensive, barebones computer whose ONLY
function is to receive emails from a single email address (by filtering)
and
automatically print the emails to a printer as they arrive. No monitor or
keyboard is necessary - or desirable. The box must be configured to boot
up
and start receiving and printing emails over a DSL line without human
intervention. If power is lost, it needs to reboot and start again
printing
emails that were not printed during the outage. Alternately, it could be
configured to dial up to an ISP every 60 seconds or so and print any
emails.
Is this possible with windows and/or 3rd party software? What's the
cheapest
solution? Can anyone think of any other way to print out emails over the
internet to a location that does not have a PC installed?
--
The Powerful Hosting eStore is a complete, very affordable, scalable,
e-commerce solution that makes it easy to build, manage, and market an
online
business.

You could set up "rules" in outlook that will filter out the emails based on
the rules you create, and print them. Setting up rules is sometimes a little
tricky, so it may take some fiddling to get exactly what you want.

To get Outlook to start every time the computer reboots, you just put it in
the startup.

You can manage it remotely if you're got XP Pro on it and you use remote
desktop to check it now and again.

Then you have some glitches to deal with. For example. if there are errors
with the ISP, email could get "stuck" and send/receive could freeze up. Or,
if Outlook could a get an error that shuts Outlook down but doesn't reboot
the computer. And of course, you could have computer issues, like viruses
and whatnot that hose the project.

Presumably someone will be looking at the printed emails, so if they expect
one or more every day and they aren't arriving, they should have the
brainpower to either check the computer or alert someone that there's a
problem.

As far as printing something over the internet to a location that doesn't
have a PC -- I'd have to ask what the printer is attached to. You could have
a network printer, but then we're assuming a network which would include
some computers.

Or if you mean *you* don't have a computer at the location, there are some
hotels that allow Internet printing, and I think some places like Kinko's
that the service as well. Might be pricey, though. Depends on how many pages
you're going to print.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

Not with Windows.

 

[Leythos]

Not with Windows.

Sure you can - a simple Win98 box with Outlook or even an XP box with
Outlook can fetch email every X minutes, print them to an attached
printer. Can even auto-logon and run Outlook with the configured profile
and such.... If you disable Stop-on-error in the BIOS, you don't have to
have a keyboard/mouse connected.