I will mention a product that might not be a proper fit for your
needs, but it is out there. Uniprint from Pharos is a server side
rather than client side (though it does have some optional client side
tie in pieces) that can be used for tracking and billing printing. It
is a Windows based product - sorry about that. Interestingly, it is
mostly just a billing/tracking system/interface. Underneath it uses
Windows print server to do the actual printing leg work. The academic
wing of the central IT group at Purdue (that is my group) is in the
process of rolling this out to our 50 some computer labs (Ok, it is in
production, but quotas aren't enforced yet). Indiana University rolled
it out to their labs summer of 2004. I had talked with some other
higher ed sys admins who had rolled it out about 2 years ago as well.
Now, the CUPS layer in OS X (skipping Apple's printer server
implementation in the GUI) can do all kinds of quota control and
configuration stuff. However, it isn't a billing/tracking layer. I
haven't heard of a billing/tracking layer that sits on top of CUPS like
Uniprint sits on top of Windows Print server, but I haven't looked much
either. Nor have I dealt with Apple's print server implementation at
all, in any OS version.
Now, as I said, it may be overkill for you; Windows may not be a good
option; it may cost too much; etc. Oh, and it has its problems own
problems as well (what doesn't? Welcome to systems administration :-).
Just mentioning the option.
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
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Client-management mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/client-management/
email@hidden
