getting printers to notify toner/cartridge is empty

[russdev]

titlle says it all must be way to do this

 

Russ

[indie]

I'm thinking SNMP, but depending on the manufacturer, you'll have to see what traps there are for the printer!

[beeswax]

we use quite a few Brother HL-5170DN printers and there's a utility with the drivers which allows you to view all the printers on the network, and what they're up to, such as toner low etc. as far as I can see it still requires you to be proactive, but with this KS3 pilot I haven't had much time for anything else.

beeswax

[indie]

We use HP's and when I go into Printers and Faxes if any have low toner, it says in the status column, again this requires being proactive.

[ChrisH]

Some of my HPs can send email but I havent set it up yet.

[Geoff]

I'm thinking SNMP, but depending on the manufacturer, you'll have to see what traps there are for the printer!

 

SNMP is standard across printers. There's a standard set of MIBs you use to query consumable levels (amongst other things). Manufacturers do tend to add their own non-standard enhancements though (which sometimes require figuring out if you want to know paticular info).

 

Most printers I've seen don't send SNMP traps. You'd have to query the printer SNMP interface periodically. Consider something like Cacti for this.

[russdev]

we use quite a few Brother HL-5170DN printers and there's a utility with the drivers which allows you to view all the printers on the network, and what they're up to, such as toner low etc. as far as I can see it still requires you to be proactive, but with this KS3 pilot I haven't had much time for anything else.

beeswax

 

 

where can i get this tool 80%of printers are are that model

 

russ

[Ric_]

HP also provides HP Web JetAdmin for its networked printers. A lovely web GUI that will configure your printers, upgrade the firmware, remind you to order consumables and much more!

[webman]

Most of our printers are HP and we have them set up to send mail to us via our mail server IIRC our Kyoceras (C5016N and C8008N) can also do this but aren't set up.

 

I used FreeSnmp to debug the SNMP info but its like finding a needle in a haystack if you can't get hold of the MIB references.

[Geoff]

I'm using NetSNMP on Linux. It comes with about ~360 MIB files.

[beeswax]

we use quite a few Brother HL-5170DN printers and there's a utility with the drivers which allows you to view all the printers on the network, and what they're up to, such as toner low etc. as far as I can see it still requires you to be proactive, but with this KS3 pilot I haven't had much time for anything else.

beeswax

 

 

where can i get this tool 80%of printers are are that model

 

russ

 

it comes on the installation cd. let it autorun then you should see 2 sections, the top one (I think) is for stand alone etc, the bottom one is for administrators (or somethiong along those lines) has the utility, called BRE... or something similar. sorry, end of week, wind down.

 

beeswax

[john]

Our HPs e-mail about Low Toner and Jams, as do our Tosh copiers, very handy as I can then know when the toners empty, low, out of paper, paper jam etc....

[indie]

I've only seen this on the higher model lasers, our 2200's don't have it, but our 5500 does. Still should be able to snmp them both, might have a try on monday.

[Michael]

As already mentioned HP has JetAdmin (which I used years ago). It was ok, but at the time I didn't find it that simple to use. At school we mostly use Kyocera photocopiers and by simply typing its IP address into IE, I can see toner levels, paper levels and control other various functions all remotely, which is nice.

 

I suspect most manufactuers have their own software which allows admins to view a device status. Most big printers using Ethernet for connectivity should have some monitoring features at hardware level, whereas smaller USB printers generally use software drivers to notify a user of low cartridge levels.

 

@webman - How do you get your Kyocera's to mail you when it needs toner or paper etc...?

[john]

I unfortunatly have Kyocera copiers (roll on 2010 when they will be gone for good) and its an option burried deep in there for error reporting. I have a 4530 and a 5530 both with print controlers, I cannot see it at home to confirm how i did it but I did do it, but then binned them from the LAN as they were rubbish at printing.

[beeswax]

it comes on the installation cd. let it autorun then you should see 2 sections, the top one (I think) is for stand alone etc, the bottom one is for administrators (or somethiong along those lines) has the utility, called BRE... or something similar. sorry, end of week, wind down.

 

beeswax

 

it's called BRAdmin. and having a quick scan through it there's a Configure POP3/SMTP link in there which seems to imply that you can get the printer to email you, but I haven't had time to look into it.

 

beeswax

[Michael]

@John - That's very interesting to hear of your experience with Kyocera Photocopiers because my experience of them is very poor also.

 

We do have a KM-4030 which is a normal black and white copier which also allows printing through Ethernet at 40 pages a minute. It's generally very reliable and the quality is acceptable (most of the time), however we also have two KM-C830's which are colour photocopiers. If there's anyone out there looking for copiers, please do not even consider leasing these machines. Performance is so slow it's unbelievable and printing even the smallest of documents takes minutes rather than seconds.

I've tried new drivers, updating the firmware on the machines, having numerous engineers from the leasing company and also a Kyocera representative visit the school. To put it simply he was an ar$e as he also couldn't resolve the slowness. It just angers me how Kyocera can get away with manufacturing poor products and even worse leasing companies still offering them to customers. In future HP or Canon will definitely be receiving a call from me.

[john]

@Michael, the thing i can agree with them is they are cheap, but it shows all the way through the machine, its very cheap, cheap software, cheap metal, cheap plastic, just cheap cheap cheap. We had 3, now down to two, and I hate them. Go for a Toshiba they are so much nicer and the print contoler is a lot more user friendly from an admins point of view.