Password for printing on OS X 10.6 and changing every day

Here's some info:

The need a password tickbox in mcxprinting has limiting effects. It appears in Photoshop that it only prompts for a password if you change the print settings for the printer! Seems to only stop you if you're using the OS X printer interface. Any other interface might get around the password facility.

I suppose one option is to see if the CUPS printing facility has an admin password thingy.

Alternatively, you could just have one user which can log into the machine.

One thing we need to do is to get something automatic in place which automatically changes the password depending on the day.

Found this which describes the use of passwd command line utility to change a users password. We could set up something automatic which would change the administrators password every day and loop.

Another thought I had was to share the printer with the server, but call the instance on the machine something miscellaneous like -error-, and have another printer set up which connects to the server. That way we can use it like any other! I think this is the best solution yet.

So, I tried to setup a network printer:

1. I set up the printer on the machine and called it "-error1-" so no-one would use it
2. ticked the "printer sharing" box in system preferences
1. also ticked the windows sharing box
3. I read somewhere it was best to turn the firewall on, so I did. I checked to see the exceptions and printing and smb were listed
4. Next I went to the windows 2000 server added a 'local port' printer
1. using port "\\123.45.67.89\-error1-" and used the right windows driver for it so papercut would be able to work out paper size etc.
2. I shared this printer with the name "n239-Ep7600"
5. I did a test print from the windows server and it came out fine, although it wanted the roll paper instead of sheet paper feed.
6. On the Mac I set up the networked printer, using LPR, the ip address of the server and the queue name "N239-Ep7600"
1. gave it the correct print driver
7. I performed a test print from the OS X machine and it came up with some sort of "rasterize" error.

/Library/Printers/EPSON/InkjetPrinter2/Filter/rastertoescpII.app/Contents/MacOS/rastertoescpII failed

I can only assume that the print driver cannot cope with being sent through a network, and has to "rasterize" it on the fly?

Another option is to have the print queue paused for every printjob which requires an administrator to unpause it. Found this post which is for os x 10.5 and involves CUPs config file.

PaperCut print quotas for staff and students on different domains

We're now implementing a print quota for both Students and Staff. The only real issue we have come across is how to seperate the staff from the students.

We initially had the system so that whenever anyone printed to the system, it would add their account to PaperCut, setting their credit to £2.00 and limiting them to that quota. For staff we simply went through the list and unticked "limit account".

Now we are giving students £1.00 per week and Staff £2.00 per week. It was a while ago so I can't remember specifically, but I remember having to set up a group in the staff domain with staff members from the department in, and a group in the student domain which had the group in the staff domain in it. I think this was because with PaperCut NG you couldn't import groups from different domains.

I didn't have access to staff domain to add new members so computer services have added me as some sort of read/write user. I am writing here how I can add members to the group so as to not forget:

1. Load up outlook
2. search for users and groups
3. Open ArtDesignStaff group
4. Modify Members
5. Then click the Add button

Sorted!

Now, every week I simply:

1. Click Bulk User Actions
2. Click:
1. All Users
2. Whose balance is less than £1.00
3. Set credit to
4. £1.00
5. Apply
3. Click Bulk User Actions
4. Click:
1. ArtStaffPrintList
2. Whose balance is less than £1.00
3. Set credit to
4. £2.00
5. Apply

It appears that PaperCut does update the groups. I checked it 18 hours later (the next day) and the new users were registered as being in the ArtStaffPrintList group.

Cheers

Copying printers from one computer to another - windows

I've currently got a PC running windows server 2000 acting as a print server. It's essentially just sharing it's printers, but all computers in the department use the shared printers on this computer. It runs very well even though the computer is about 8 years old. We've also got PaperCut NG install with unlimited user license which gives each user £2 credit each week and deletes any jobs costing more then what the user has in credit. It's saved a lot of money down to wasted prints!

Just one problem we have now is that if this old computer fails, no one can print in the department. My plan is to copy the printers from this computer to another and if the server fails, simply rename the new computer to the old computers name and everything should go quite smoothly. The only thing which won't work is the print quotas, but this wouldn't take too long to fix.

So, after reading up on how other people do it (and also trying your simple copy and paste and other menu's on the computer) I found this where they talk about Print Migration Utility. Works like a dream. Load it up on the original computer, backup the printers to a cab file. Load the program on the new computer and restore it from the cab file. Takes a while as it installs all the correct printer drivers, but what amazed me was that it was from windows server 2000 to windows xp. Perfect.

HP Colour Laserjet 5550 service error 49.4C06

Got a service error 49.4C06 error yesterday in N212. Wasn't able to clear it by switching it off and back on. I deleted the top job in the queue just incase this was blocking it (it was an ai file). Went to the printer and the error was still there (deleted the job from my room). I opened the printer and cleaned out the thing at the top (with the little cleaner thingy) and closed it up. Still error. Switched it off and back on. Error cleared.

I had a look on the internet and found this to occurance:
http://www.fixya.com/support/t1606568-error_message_49_4c06

and this error code explanation page:
http://www.printertechs.com/tech/error-codes/error-codes-20-49.php

It appears that the error is linked to the computer program sending the print job. Possibly illustrator in this case. It might be worth noting that on these computers it is set up with the HP Colour Laserjet 5500 driver and sends the job to the server with HP Colour Laserjet 5500 driver installed. Also, I've only noticed the error since we have installed PaperCut NG on the system. So there are a few variables which need testing.

Maybe the first thing to do would be to update the firmware on the printer though.