do you do page accounting?

[lurker]

[my sincere excuses should this post be posted here twice]

hi all,

we have a network with a debian print server (runs lprng), tens of
unix/linux clients, hundreds of winx clients, and some mid-volume
printers (xeroxs and hps) attached, on a physically separated subnet,
to the print server

we'd like to control the patterns of usage, with user quotas etc, and
we have two problems:

1. authenticating the windows clients

2. doing a sensible page accounting (e.g., hp's prints are better/
more expensive)

please note that i'm not directly in charge of system administration,
but i am decently half-competent (e.g., i have heard of something
named ifhp, but have little ideas about windows clients) and have been
assigned to report to our administration

what i'd like to hear from you are not, of course, detailed step by
step instructions, but case histories or references to them, that i
can study to form an opinion and make an useful report that can rest
in peace on someone else's desk...

thank you in advance, ciao
gb

--
ATTACKED BY IRC SERVER. WEB PAGES. SINKING. U-26.

[phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu]

lurker <boffi@sanmartino.it.invalid> wrote:

> [my sincere excuses should this post be posted here twice]

> hi all,
>
> we have a network with a debian print server (runs lprng), tens of
> unix/linux clients, hundreds of winx clients, and some mid-volume
> printers (xeroxs and hps) attached, on a physically separated subnet,
> to the print server
>
> we'd like to control the patterns of usage, with user quotas etc, and
> we have two problems:
>
> 1. authenticating the windows clients
>
> 2. doing a sensible page accounting (e.g., hp's prints are better/
> more expensive)
>
> please note that i'm not directly in charge of system administration,
> but i am decently half-competent (e.g., i have heard of something
> named ifhp, but have little ideas about windows clients) and have been
> assigned to report to our administration
>
> what i'd like to hear from you are not, of course, detailed step by
> step instructions, but case histories or references to them, that i
> can study to form an opinion and make an useful report that can rest
> in peace on someone else's desk...
>
> thank you in advance, ciao
> gb

This is of no help to your problem, but a suggestion might be
to use samba as interface to your win-pc, this could ease
both authentification and accounting. Samba would of course
use lprng in it's turn.

> --
> ATTACKED BY IRC SERVER. WEB PAGES. SINKING. U-26.

--
Peter Håkanson
IPSec Sverige ( At Gothenburg Riverside )
Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out,
remove "icke-reklam" if you feel for mailing me. Thanx.

[lurker]

>>>>> "phn" == phn <phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu> writes:

hi peter!

phn> lurker <boffi@sanmartino.it.invalid> wrote:

>>
>> 1. authenticating the windows clients

phn> This is of no help to your problem, but a suggestion might be
phn> to use samba as interface to your win-pc, this could ease
phn> both authentification and accounting. Samba would of course
phn> use lprng in it's turn.

samba is definitely an option, but i had no idea that samba could do
accounting...

we have a small lab with ~30 pc's, a w2k server and a low end
laser, and i was surprised to find that page accounting was a mere 18
lines sh+awk from the w2k logs that the operator mails me weekly

to clarify my ideas, samba could do the same level of accounting?

[phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu]

lurker <gb@sanmartino.it.invalid> wrote:

>>>>>> "phn" == phn <phn@icke-reklam.ipsec.nu> writes:

> hi peter!

> phn> lurker <boffi@sanmartino.it.invalid> wrote:

> >>
> >> 1. authenticating the windows clients

> phn> This is of no help to your problem, but a suggestion might be
> phn> to use samba as interface to your win-pc, this could ease
> phn> both authentification and accounting. Samba would of course
> phn> use lprng in it's turn.

> samba is definitely an option, but i had no idea that samba could do
> accounting...

> we have a small lab with ~30 pc's, a w2k server and a low end
> laser, and i was surprised to find that page accounting was a mere 18
> lines sh+awk from the w2k logs that the operator mails me weekly

> to clarify my ideas, samba could do the same level of accounting?

Samba could be better way of steering resources ( just my gut feeling)
and the clients don't need any additional software.

You could even make 'login' needed in order to print.

--
Peter Håkanson
IPSec Sverige ( At Gothenburg Riverside )
Sorry about my e-mail address, but i'm trying to keep spam out,
remove "icke-reklam" if you feel for mailing me. Thanx.

[Jerome Alet]

lurker <boffi@sanmartino.it.invalid> wrote in message news:<m28ymxt8hv.fsf@polimi.it>...

>
> we have a network with a debian print server (runs lprng), tens of
> unix/linux clients, hundreds of winx clients, and some mid-volume
> printers (xeroxs and hps) attached, on a physically separated subnet,
> to the print server
>
> we'd like to control the patterns of usage, with user quotas etc, and
> we have two problems:

I'd suggest you use one of the several print accounting software
which work under GNU/Linux, most notably :

PrintBill : already present in Debian

PyKota : free access to CVS sources, or official
package purchase options from my
website (licence is GNU GPL in any case)
at [url]http://www.librelogiciel.com/software/[/url]

As suggested by others, you should use Samba to ensure
all your windows machines users are correctly authenticated,
so the correct username is passed to the print server and
the accounting software.

hoping this helps

Jerome Alet