Network Printer Management Software

[pmassingham]

Latest edition of PCounter and PAdmin from Altman work fine on our system. Very flexible and works well with AD.

[Alis_Klar]

We have used Print Manager Plus 5.5 and Ranger Print Manager 1.6 (GAIA)

PMP
Pros
Allows job blocking based on jobname, no of pages (we can use this feature to block printing from a browser for example by adding "http:" string
Allows custom Error messages

Cons

• Uses NETSEND method to display error messages to client
• No 1 click history of individual user (has crystal reports which i have used through gritted teeth twice in 4 years)

Ranger Print Manager
Pros

• Allows 1 click history for individuals
• Good end user reporting tool

Cons

• Weird non-standard GUI style
• Some printer drivers caused it to count pages incorrectly (probably fixed now)

Does anyone know of software which will archive thumbnails of printjobs with the logs so we can actually "see" what they have been printing as the printjob name will only tell you what they called the file

[secman]

We've been using Papercut Quota NG for a couple of years. It works very well. The costs do only include step upgrades, but they offer special pricing to cover major version upgrades. It's still good value.

[Geoff]

Does anyone know of software which will archive thumbnails of printjobs with the logs so we can actually "see" what they have been printing as the printjob name will only tell you what they called the file

I can do that with the Linux/Cups/PyKota based print solution we have here. It's just a case of shoving some postscript + ImageMajick voodoo in the post-processing script to archive off PNGs of the printouts.

[SOSAGES]

sorry to bump an old post but i noticed that the equitrac lads finally do an embedded version.
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=218650
looking good (i think its only on ricoh machines for now)

and the papercut chaps have been very busy by working on the embedded version some more and also finding time to release a new product called papercut mf this seems to extend papercut ng's printer/copier charging options.
http://www.papercut-mf.com/

and thats about it for now

[SOSAGES]

fyi:

Pcounter price changes 1st Aug 2008
Pcounter price changes


Papercut Price changes in July 2008
PaperCut - News
(im sure if you pm me i can work out some discount for papercut to combat the price price for a while)

the first increase since 2005 for both products.