PaperCut Print Logger
PaperCut Print Logger is a free utility for tracking printer usage. Home users are probably not interested in knowing what is being printed, but companies will find this useful. As the IT Department at our company, we were given the task of finding a way to report how much people are using desktop printers. My co-worker found PaperCut and we've had it running for about a month.
The free version of this software has to be installed on the computer any printer is connected to by USB or parallel port. It also works with networked printers, you just install it on the print server. Fortunately, we have software that allows us to install programs silently, so we didn't have to inform users that we were installing it or interrupt business flow. The output is a basic log of what was printed, who printed it, how many pages were printed, was it in color and how big the file was that was printed. This information is available in an HTML format or can be downloaded as a .csv file that can later be converted to something else if needed. Logs are available in a daily or monthly format.
To view the logs, you simply go to a web page created by PaperCut Print Logger stored on each machine. Since we have administrative access to every machine, we can pull up those logs using the administrative share of the hard drive (C$). We simplified this process by creating a web page on one of our servers that lists links to all of the installations of the software.
The information is very useful, but if you have a bunch of printer logs to sort through, then you have to compile that information with Access or something like that to perform a full analysis. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this. The non-free version has better reporting functions, but we try to save money as much as possible.
PaperCut Print Logger Free
The free version of this software has to be installed on the computer any printer is connected to by USB or parallel port. It also works with networked printers, you just install it on the print server. Fortunately, we have software that allows us to install programs silently, so we didn't have to inform users that we were installing it or interrupt business flow. The output is a basic log of what was printed, who printed it, how many pages were printed, was it in color and how big the file was that was printed. This information is available in an HTML format or can be downloaded as a .csv file that can later be converted to something else if needed. Logs are available in a daily or monthly format.
To view the logs, you simply go to a web page created by PaperCut Print Logger stored on each machine. Since we have administrative access to every machine, we can pull up those logs using the administrative share of the hard drive (C$). We simplified this process by creating a web page on one of our servers that lists links to all of the installations of the software.
The information is very useful, but if you have a bunch of printer logs to sort through, then you have to compile that information with Access or something like that to perform a full analysis. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to do this. The non-free version has better reporting functions, but we try to save money as much as possible.
PaperCut Print Logger Free
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Utilities
Hi Catron,
Some good tips there. I'm one of the developers at PaperCut. One extra point on the free software side - PaperCut NG, our "fuller" version with all the reports, quota control, and job accounting is also free for 5-users or less. This makes it another great free option for the smaller businesses.
Also an extra tip for the technical guys: There is a command-line switch on the installer that can be used to help automate silent installs. Just run papercut-print-logger.exe with the /VERYSILENT command-line switch. This option will cause the install to run hidden in the background. There are a few other cmd-line options such as /NOICONS to suppress the icons in the start menu. The full list is here:
http://www.papercut.com/products/ng/manual/apdx-tools-installer-options.html
Thanks for spreading the word.
Chris, thanks for your input--I'm new at this so I'm bound to forget important information. I was glad that you guys made those switches available when we deployed the software--it made our job easier.