not sure its the right place, but hey...

I work as IT Tech at a school (yeah great... honest)....

and have been asked by senior staff to log all print jobs so that relevant departments / users can be billed for the paper / ink that they use.

a/ How difficult would it be to code something to do this (and indeed, where would I start)
b/ is there anything allready developed out there that does the job well at a reasonable price (i.e. free if poss, or under £100....)

I would suggest that you google for it...
http://www.google.com/search?q=prin...=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Also try the printer vendors, they often have their own software to track print jobs, paper used etc for the very reason you need it.

cheers!

Am I thinking this the wrong way?

You want to bill the teachers for the print jobs they do? Does
this include the school work?

Well each department in a school has a budget and printing costs come out of those budgets. It doesnt come out of their pay

Sleeve... damn right I do - they have to fill in a sheet of paper at the moment for every print job that their class do - however this conviently gets "forgotten" about rather often, and we end up paying the brunt of the paper and ink bills with no ability to charge departments....

Vodau, PM me with some more info (servers, os, printer types, etc). I have written a printer logger (.exe) before and I will hack it around for your needs if you wish! (you can have it free)

In windows server versions (nt4, w2k server), this option is iirc built in in the printer share property sheet. Unix has it for sure (lpd/cups). What is your printer server running on?

ROTFLMAO!


Yeah, PM me toO! I've written a program (.exe) you can install on your school network. I just need to hack it around for your needs as well - please send me the following information:

- Your Internet Gateway IP
- The passwords to your routers and servers
- Your BACS payment authorization details
- Plus anything else you feel might be useful.



RIGHT.

what? i'm trying to help?

all i wanted to know what platform this is running on and how the printers are setup!!!!!!

Honest

Vodau,

Just pulling your leg - computer's cool man... I just thought it would have been funny if I actually DID get a PM with all the info... not saying anybody is stupid here, but trust is such a rare commodity these days.

Anyway, good luck with your printing!

BTW, at imperial collage (blackett physics labs, london) they let students keep their own 'log' in a large notebook! Mind you, these are postgrads... I read in New Scientist that, over time, it pays off to trust people or to have an environment where trust is encouraged.

But, take computer up on his offer - you'll find yourself earning some real 'brownie' points while helping our education system pay for itself! (ah, who am I kidding!)


Are you, by any chance, running Win2k Server?


Nao

funnily enough, yes it is win2k

as for trust....

665698552 barcleys.... (maybe... hey I might be telling the truth..)

I know at my ol uni - Aberystwyth, they had a print quote system, but theirs was for Unix. Which kinda don't work for us mortal windows users :*(

Vodau,

Is that Win2K Server or Win2K Professional on a peer-to-peer network?

Reason being, I found some documentation at Microsoft's website about setting up a print server for Win2K Server - have to find it again, but wanted to know which version of Win2K you're using before I went through the trouble!

Econmy of time...

Aberystwyth?! WOW, I was on the Llyn Peninsula last Friday, and I'm going back up tomorrow - I work on a farm-converted-to-texas-style-ranch-with-swimming-pool-and-THX-cinema near Pwllehi... phew!

nao

beautiful isn't it!

Sounds like I'm going to have to visit Pwllehi soon

The question is, do you have as many pubs there as in Aber? more than 100

Anyway.. back to serious things. Yes its win2k Server, we run XP on the client pc's, and use kixTart to do all the drive mappings and printer mappings that the Active Directory can't do.