Network Printer Management Software

[western]

Can anybody suggest a printer mangement software to sit on server 2003 r2 to control printers with options like restricting printing by user etc.

 

Thanks

[Norphy]

PCounter

Print Manager Plus

 

Out of the two, I prefer PCounter.

[Geoff]

Also Papercut

 

http://www.papercut.com/products/quota/

 

They also do a free logging only version.

 

http://www.papercut.com/products/free_software/print_logger/

 

Which is often sufficient if all you wish to do is monitor and produce some stats for SMT (to maybe convince them they need to consider quotas).

[sidewinder]

I find Papercut far easier, more reliable and more modern than either PCounter or PMP. Great software

 

PCounter when I used it, required every printer port to be changed to its own type and big problems occurred. Papercut doesnt require you to change any of that

[western]

Thanks very much everyone. Papercut looks the best for me.

[mrforgetful]

We use Papercut.

[kestrel1]

Anyone know if Papercut works with thinclient networks?

PMP is not reliable on thinclients (well the version I used wasn't a couple of years ago)

Have found PCounter to be more restrictive & can't restrict file name, size etc. on a per user basis only per printer.

[Geoff]

There's a trail version of Papercut available. Why not try it?

[mrtechsystems]

I use Printer Manager Plus with Billing there is version 7 comming out at the end of this month I have been told

[kestrel1]

Cheers Geoff I will have a look.

[SOSAGES]

i am still a huge fan of papercut in the last few months we have seen off the glass photocopying options as well as an embedded version on its way.

 

for the money you cant go wrong imo i use it at work without any issues.

 

(edit)

actually i keep printing then have to walk up and release the print! i must remember to disable the software for me

Edited May 19, 2008 by SOSAGES

[Michael]

I use 2003 Server R2 and Print Manager Plus 6. Works perfectly!

[maniac]

Papercut also give you free updates for the life of the product. Very good product, been running it for a year with no problems. Also demonstrates good value for money, and you can log activity on local printers if you install the lightweight monitoring application on all your workstations.

 

Mike.

[plexer]

Papercut only gives you minor upgrades according to the website Free minor upgrades (e.g. 7.0 to 7.1) what happens when they do a major update?

 

Ben

[richardp]

Using Print Manager Plus 6 with 2003 R2 with no problems. I tried a few out over 18months ago and settled on PMP for ease of setup / operation and cost. Its nothing fancy but it does the job.

 

Richard

[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:mad:)
  

 

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.

Edited June 12, 2008 by SOSAGES