I’ve always been a bit of an HP fan when it comes to their printers. Ages ago, my dad bought a LaserJet that worked for what seemed like forever.

So, back when I first started telecommuting, when I needed a printer, I naturally thought of HP and ended up with a G85 Inkjet/Copier/Scanner.

I also picked up a JetDirect box to let me hook it up directly to an ethernet network. This was all circa 2000. Yep, seriously olden days.

But, that printer is still going strong. Absolutely no problems with it. I’ve dropped it. Moved twice. And most recently, the house got struck by lightning. I lost computers, a SAN drive, network switches, hubs, a TIVO, even UPS’s and my AC units.

But that printer and the Jet Direct box survived unscathed.

So what?

Here’s the thing. The G85 is a great scanner, BUT, the software is hopelessly outdated and HP hasn’t updated it since the XP days. So running it under Vista or Win7 has been a pain.

After the lightning, I was re-setting up new machines, when I happened to try browsing over to the printer’s IP address, basically on a whim.

Guess what I found?

That JetDirect box has a webserver built into this WHOLE TIME!

Not just that, but check that scan button…

Click it, and it leads you to this page…

Yep, that’s right, you can initiate a scan right here, from the browser, then download the resulting image. No drivers to load, no compatibility issues. Nothing but good ol’ fashioned sweetness.

I’ve had this thing literally ten years and never knew that was there. Certainly never came across it in the docs or any online info.

Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks (or get him to do tricks you’ve never seen before <g>)