RICOH Printers User Code Authentication

[ReBoot]

We have recently taken delivery of two new RICOH IM C3000 multi function printers. The head has asked me to setup user codes for staff so that we can get some usage stats within the school.

 

Pupils are also going to be required to enter a class code and to facilitate this I am deploying a customized driver which pops up a dialogue requesting a code prior to printing.

 

I'm creating the driver using the RICOH Printer Driver Packager NX Lite tool.

 

All seems to be OK until I submit a print job. I get the user code dialogue but the printer auto deletes/cancels the job usually with Error 91 (Printing was canceled by the auto job cancel function due to a command error).

 

The printer rcf file is as follows and I have set preferences for job type, colour and the code dialogue.

 

 

I've been in touch with RICOH support a couple of times now and so far they've not come up with anything useful.

 

I've also tried starting with a number of different drivers including the PCL6 UniversalDriver and PCL6 Printer Specific driver all with the same results.

 

Our clients are running LTSB 2016 x64 and connect direct to the printer with no print server. (As I understand it the code dialogue won't work through a server).

 

Has anyone any experience setting something similar up and any idea what's going wrong here ? Any insights much appreciated.

[old_n07]

I realise that this doesn't answer your question but have you thought of using a central print server running Papercut?

 

It can do everything you are looking to achieve out of the box and you can report on individual use or group use - these reports can be run ad-hoc or scheduled. The added advantage is that the charge code can be done away with and reporting run on the class groups

[sted]

dosent it just pop up asking for a code anyway? i cant remember the last time a copier diddnt prompt me for a code when printing to it without me doing much other than getting the driver options correct

 

[ReBoot]

It probably depends on the authentication scheme being used. The fact that this is an option in the driver suggests by default there is no automatic dialogue for the code.

 

If papercut involves spending money its probably not going to be an attractive option. Also my DC is a Linux Schools server running Ubuntu so not sure if papercut would be an option in this environment.

[mavhc]

I'd look into using LDAP and Windows auth to make it magic

 

Windows Authentication

[gds64]

Do the user codes already exist on the Ricoh?

[jmak]

I spent ages (well, a day) playing around with Printer Driver Packager and failed, so I gave up in a huff.

 

It's always seemed ridiculous that it wasn't built-in/easy.

 

We received a new C5500 yesterday and I've noticed that in the management console there's what looks like a straightforward way to configure either Windows or LDAP authentication.

 

 

 

I'll be giving it a go on Monday...

Expecting trouble as all the drivers are currently configured manually per user per machine with passcodes and the hold print feature is being applied.

[ReBoot]

"Do the user codes already exist on the Ricoh? "

 

No they have to be configured in the printer address book. There is also an option to create them dynamically as they are used.

 

I have configured accounts for all staff users on the machine.

Edited July 11, 2019 by ReBoot

[ReBoot]

The RICOH Driver Packager is reasonably straightforward to use although the documentation is a bit hit and miss. However, the resulting drivers don't seem to work with the machine as expected.

[mikeprice]

I had this at my last school - I manged to get it working more by magic that brilliance

 

There is a web interface to the printer that makes it easier to set up the code - but this must be done first

 

Sorry but I can't find any details of the NX lite thingy - but it does eventually create a driver that puts up a request for a user code - which isn't the box you have shown - I dis that as well

 

 

But I can offer is best wishes

[ReBoot]

Update on this. Have taken a couple of fresh builds using LTSB 2016 and W10 Education and installed the vanilla driver for each machine.

 

If I turn on authentication on the printer I'm still getting no output (using preferences to set a user code) however with no authentication everything works as it should including hold print jobs with a user code.

 

So the Driver Packager was a bit of a red herring as authenticated printing does not work even with a vanilla driver.

[jmak]

Are you setting the user name in the driver preferences?

 

It's the next level in from "hold print". It defaults to custom, but I was told to set it to Windows.

 

The user code is then in the "Detailed Settings" tab.

[ReBoot]

Hi

Here are some screen grabs of my print preferences.

 

[ReBoot]

Finally got this working. Turns out I was getting confused over the User Id which is used to identify a "Hold Print" job and the User Code used for authentication.

 

You need both these set to submit a successful hold print job.

 

In my custom driver I enabled the User Code pop up but the default for the User Id is "Create Own Id" which was blank and caused the job to be rejected. Setting this to "Windows Login Name" provided a value for the User Id and the job ran successfully. Easier to see on these screenshots.