Printer polling software?

[dgsmith]

Does anyone know of free software which can poll printers and grab info such as remaining ink/toner, page counts etc? I know spiceworks does this to an extent, however it is rather slow and we only want the printer polling functionality.

 

Simply, we're just looking for a way to easily overview our printers in 1 area and see from a glance which consumables we need to make sure we have!

 

I appreciate all printers are different and we can't expect it from all of them, however most of our printers are pretty standard (mainstream modern HP and Brother lines) so hopefully we should be at an advantage there.

[srochford]

if they're SNMP enabled then you can use that to monitor them.

 

If not, what I've done in the past is write a script to grab the web status page and parse out the info from that.

[Michael]

Most larger networked printers have a web interface with useful information. Create your own favourites list with the IPs of your printers.

[dgsmith]

if they're SNMP enabled then you can use that to monitor them.

 

If not, what I've done in the past is write a script to grab the web status page and parse out the info from that.

 

Any particular software you can suggest that doesn't come bundled with unncessary additions? PHPhp seems interesting but quotes it only works with HP printers.

 

Most larger networked printers have a web interface with useful information. Create your own favourites list with the IPs of your printers.

 

That is what I have used for a long time, but it is still eaiser and quicker to see an overview (especially when you have quite alot of printers)!

[SpuffMonkey]

HPs JetAdmin will pull data from lots of printers.

[Geoff]

Yes, I have the WebJetAdmin installed on my PC. It's a bit heavy weight but it does the job.

 

If you have a nagios install, you can use the 'check_printer' command to check up on network printers that supprt SNNP.

 

Monitoring Network Printers

 

You may want to grab an 'improved' check printer script from nagios exchange though.

 

MonitoringExchange: check_printer - All in one printer check suitable for most devices

[dhicks]

Any particular software you can suggest that doesn't come bundled with unncessary additions?

 

On Linux, SNMPTools, i.e. snmpwalk / snmpget, e.g.:

 

snmpget -v 2c -c public 10.0.0.166 hrPrinterStatus.1

 

gives you the status of a printer at IP address 10.0.0.166. snmpwalk lets you see every SNMP variable returned by the printer, e.g.:

 

snmpwalk -v 2c -c public 10.0.0.166

 

--

David Hicks

[dgsmith]

HPs JetAdmin will pull data from lots of printers.

 

We have other printers besides HP. For instance, phphp says it only does hp printers similarly to HP's own JetAdmin, however ideally something that can do our brothers too (maybe konicas, but I don't hold a great deal of hope)

 

Yes, I have the WebJetAdmin installed on my PC. It's a bit heavy weight but it does the job.

 

If you have a nagios install, you can use the 'check_printer' command to check up on network printers that supprt SNNP.

 

Monitoring Network Printers

 

You may want to grab an 'improved' check printer script from nagios exchange though.

 

MonitoringExchange: check_printer - All in one printer check suitable for most devices

 

Don't particularly want or need nagios, nor to install it just to get the printer consumable info

 

On Linux, SNMPTools, i.e. snmpwalk / snmpget, e.g.:

 

snmpget -v 2c -c public 10.0.0.166 hrPrinterStatus.1

 

gives you the status of a printer at IP address 10.0.0.166. snmpwalk lets you see every SNMP variable returned by the printer, e.g.:

 

snmpwalk -v 2c -c public 10.0.0.166

 

--

David Hicks

 

Ideally, something that can be ran in a windows exe or a web browser.

 

My hope was that there would be a simple (or at least, easy to use) script/program to input the ip addresses of our printers and that does it's best to grab just some basic info, including toner/ink levels. Am I living in cloud coo-koo land?

[User3204]

We use the Brother BrAdmin tool to watch this, as most of the printers/mfc we have are brothers, and the Okis will send some information back to it too. It comes with any Brother printer that is networked, and I think it is downloadable from their site too.

 

It even does a scan of the network for new printers, we get all the information that displays on the LED screens on the printers, and the page count.

 

It even works with the older HP 4050/4100 printers we have.

[dhicks]

Ideally, something that can be ran in a windows exe

 

Try Python.

 

or a web browser.

 

What, SNMP from JavaScript? Not sure how practical that is.

 

--

David Hicks

[Soulfish]

We have other printers besides HP. For instance, phphp says it only does hp printers similarly to HP's own JetAdmin, however ideally something that can do our brothers too (maybe konicas, but I don't hold a great deal of hope)

 

 

 

Don't particularly want or need nagios, nor to install it just to get the printer consumable info

 

 

 

Ideally, something that can be ran in a windows exe or a web browser.

 

My hope was that there would be a simple (or at least, easy to use) script/program to input the ip addresses of our printers and that does it's best to grab just some basic info, including toner/ink levels. Am I living in cloud coo-koo land?

 

I've just received a demo Konica Minolta 5650EN which was dropped off by a Konica Minolta rep. He had a handy program that ran from a usb stick that scanned the network for all network printers and grabbed their total print count and consumable status.

 

He mentioned that the basic version he was running was about £300, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. I suspect it was just a pretty and easy to use interface for grabbing the SNMP data that could also produce reports for you. If you want to know what it was called I can drop him an email and ask for some more details?

[dhicks]

something that can be ran in a windows exe

 

snmpget for Windows.

 

--

David Hicks