Printer recommendations?

[Kyle Harriss]

						Nov 21, 1997

I didn't go as far as this in my first comment about choosing laser
printers over inkjets.  However, what Terri is asking about is precisely
what we have done this Fall.  More info after this excerpt..

On Fri, 21 Nov 1997, Terri Muraski wrote:
> We are looking to set up a laser printer network similar to the one
> described below using a Windows NT server.  We are looking for print
> queue software which will hold and queue print "orders" from the PC's
> until the student requests printing.
> We plan to charge for the printing using a card reader system already 
> on campus.
> 
> Does anyone have any experience/recommendations regarding software for NT?
> 

Our campus has a WindowsNT server running a custom print server package.
My explanation is long.  Sorry..

Basics - How it Works for Us
============================
Client "popup" software on all of our public PC's in the Library and in
the campus "Web Labs" directs printing to managed queues on this server.

After printing, a user walks over to a "Print Station" in the Library or
in the Web Lab where they are working.  The Print Station is a
PC running another piece of software to display the appropriate print
queue from the server. 

The user inserts their id card (with a cash-value magnetic stripe on it).
The Print Station displays the waiting print jobs, so the user can select
the ones to print.  Users can password protect their own jobs, so that
others are unable to print or delete them.

(Unprinted jobs are deleted from the queue after a fixed number of hours.)

A per-page fee is deducted from the cash value on the user's ID card and
the pages print on a nearby networked laser printer.


Specifics
==========
Software Package:	UnipriNT	

Produced By:		Pharos Co. (New Zealand)  www.pharos.co.nz

US Distributor:		Ikon Office Solutions   		
			6636 Cedar Ave S
			Richfield, MN  55423
			Contact: Shelley Hamilton
				 shamilton at cdp-ikon.com


How Long it Took
================
>From installation in late August, it took until November for us to
feel like things are working reliably.  We had some trouble with our NT
server, various other glitches.  I don't work with the server and am
somewhat ignorant about that side of things.

This was the first NT server our campus staff had set up, and I believe I
heard there were some problems with the server hardware to complicate the
matter.

My Biggest Library-Related Headache
====================================
In the Library, we used to lock down our software configuration with
a Win95 "security" package.  It worked well, none of the student "hackers"
had found a way around it.   But I was unable to make UnipriNT work with
it.  I do NOT think it was UnipriNT's problem.  The security package we
were using seemed to cause problems with Windows 95's built-in print
spooling features - in a manner that prevented UnipriNT from working.  

Now, instead of locking down the public PCs in the Library, we are taking
a different tack:  We will let users make changes, as long as we can
easily and quickly restore a PC to it's normal configuration.


How We Maintain the Desired PC Configuration
============================================
We are setting this up this week.  (We know it works, because the campus
Web Labs are already set up this way, and use UnipriNT.)

We are setting up the PC's to rebuild when they boot.  Also to rebuild
when a "rebuild" command is selected from the Win95 "start menu".  We also
can boot from a floppy and rebuild a hard disk.

To do this, PC-Rdist.  A master copy of the hard drive is stored on a
network drive.  PC-Rdist can detect what has or has not changed on
a PC by comparing it to the master copy.  Desireable features include:

	Rebuilding only needed pieces (its NOT "all or nothing")

	Ability to use different sources to rebuild specific
	  Win95 components, such as the registry files, which
	  will not be the same on each machine.
	  
	The choice of what source to use for rebuilding can be
	  automatically based on a PC's network card "mac address".

	Ability to temporarily move all files that users have added
	  to a specified folder for later deletion..
	  Or, if you choose, to delete those files immediately.

An interesting essay related to this:

	http://act.kent.edu/stapp/win95rem.htm

A link to the company that produces PC-Rdist:

	http://www.pyzzo.com

--
Kyle Harriss				kharriss at d.umn.edu
UMD Library				(218) 726-6546
10 University Drive
Duluth, MN  55812
USA