Print Quota System

The one piece of my network that I have not been able to put into place since moving to OS X from OS 9 is a reliable print quota system that will manage student printing quotas.

I was using MacLaser Biller under OS 9 and with it, students would enter a password when they went to print and a dialogue box would inform them of how many print jobs they had left.  We issued them 25 print credits when they entered high school and sold them additional pages at a cost of $5 for 100 pages.  They would buy the pages through the office and their accounts would be updated daily.  (the added bonus of having the print quota separate from the account was that a student could be "out of pages" but have a friend enter their name and password to "lend" them pages if they were in a jam)  Unfortunately the company ceased operation as they were trying to move to OS X.

I would like a system that managed both OS X and OS 9 printing if possible as I still have a lab of OS 9 machines.  If need be, I could run one system for each platform but would like to avoid it.

I heard many times that the print management part of OS X server was weak up to 10.3 but haven't heard if 10.4's improvements have made a big difference in the real world.

Last year students could print for free from the OS X machines in the library and multimedia lab and printing costs started to rise once they figured that out!

Anyone running a quota system that works in a high school?

Jim Cartlidge

Network Resources Dept Head

Brookswood Secondary School

20902 37A Ave

Langley, BC Canada

604-530-2141 ext 250

email@hidden