Papercut - BYOD options

[win]

There are various options to choose from, but none seem to be a simple all in one solution:

 

• iOS Printing (apple only)
  
• Google Cloud Print (needs a google account)
  
• Windows Print Queues (for Windows RT - who uses that?)
  
• Email to Print (supports everything)
  
• Web Print (doesn't support office docs, unless separate server added)
  

Email to print & web print looks like the best options, but both requires an additional sandboxed server

 

Is this really necessary? has anyone set this up?

[MatthewL]

Email to print and web print will work on your current box if you just open the relevant ports from your BYOD network. I have a number of schools who just have the one box and does everything about minus IOS as that gets installed on a Mac OS.

[win]

Does 'web print' work with word/excel/ppt files if office is installed on the print server?

 

The papercut manual says it needs an extra sandboxed server to make it work with office files, but the open port from guest wireless to print server option looks like a better option.

[pete]

Web print only needs a Win7 VM with Office/Reader/(something I'm forgetting) and the web print components installed. All it's doing is ingesting uploaded files from a share on the Papercut server, rendering them and then shunting them off to print.

 

It's more of a "don't install end-user applications on servers FFS" guideline.

 

We've been running it for about a year(?) without issue.

[MatthewL]

Have a look here.

[win]

This is the part that says single server setups do not work with office applications:

 

Default Mode - running the Web Print software on the same system as the PaperCut server. However, only printing of PDF documents (and picture files on Windows) is supported in this mode. Microsoft Office applications are not available due to limitations in the applications.

 

Sandbox Mode uses a virtualized system, isolated and dedicated to the task of processing Web Print jobs or converting documents for Email to Print. Sandbox Mode offers more supported document formats.

 

So from what i can gather:

 

user => sandboxed VM => papercut server => printer

 

2 computers to make it print is a bit of a faff but anyway... Is the sandboxed VM in the BYOD network or on the domain?

[MatthewL]

I would put it on the domain and just open up what ports are needed. I've never done a setup like that before.