How to slow down a network printer?
i run a lab. so far, we've offered free printing to the students. up until a year ago, we had a 10 year old Apple Laserwriter as the main printer. although it still works, we got some money for a new printer, and bought it.
it's a great little HP 4300 sitting on the network. does duplexing etc. like a champ. only one problem.
printing costs for the year have already gone from $2,000 to $3,500 and look to keep on rising. i checked and we're kicking out over 400 pages a day, and this is for maybe 40 grad students.
i've noticed sitting in the recycle bin that a lot of them have started printing off stuff they don't really need. in large part because the printer is so fast, it's easier to print here and print the entire article than to just take out what they need.
i'd like to set it up so that the new printer prints slower than it is. anyone know of a good way to do it?
it's a great little HP 4300 sitting on the network. does duplexing etc. like a champ. only one problem.
printing costs for the year have already gone from $2,000 to $3,500 and look to keep on rising. i checked and we're kicking out over 400 pages a day, and this is for maybe 40 grad students.
i've noticed sitting in the recycle bin that a lot of them have started printing off stuff they don't really need. in large part because the printer is so fast, it's easier to print here and print the entire article than to just take out what they need.
i'd like to set it up so that the new printer prints slower than it is. anyone know of a good way to do it?
Comments
How about you tell the students something along the lines of "Don't print everything, suckers!" I mean, it's worth a shot. Of course, I figure if you're here, you may have done that already.
Maybe you could run the print jobs over a middle-app who restricts it to 10 pages/min? Or connect it over a slower node? Maybe connect it over a serial cable?
Just throwing ideas?
I'm not sure how it would work in software, though...
i know when the machine was slower, i didn't have any of these issues.
i'm thinking maybe i'll pull out almost all the RAM, so these huge 100+ page jobs won't seem like such a good idea.
i've talked to the students, posted notices at the printer etc, but it made no difference.
you should limit that to like 20 pages or something...
Originally posted by Brad
I'd try to implement some sort of quota system rather than slow it down.
MacOS X Server has printer quotas. Hook the printer into one machine, install MOSXS, set up quotas.
I used to feel kinda bad, but the librarians use everything for themselves too. The one was printing out so many pages of "marc" codes or something for a college course she teaches.
Originally posted by ast3r3x
I mean it must have been easily over 75 pages.
That's NOTHING. I once printed out 4 manuals of WebObjects documentation and bound them using the clinic's equipment/supplies. Easily over 600 pages. Last year, I also printed out a couple of the R stat package manuals. Well over 400 pages.
But sometimes I'll print at home. (Using reams of paper lifted from the computer lab. I figure if I didn't print here, I'd just use their paper AND ink there.
Failing that, just go round with a collection tin every time you see a new face.
http://www.ncsu.edu/it/essentials/to.../printing.html
"WolfCopy charges $0.06 per page printed on a WolfCopy printer."
There are only two publicly-available printers on the entire campus that don't fall into this "WolfCopy" shit. You should implement quotas and post some rules like this:
How can I best conserve my print quota?
"a" open a can of whoop ass on them
Hopefully if they realise that there is an enforced group paper limit then they will be more responsible and nobody likes the wraith of whoop ass.
MacOS X Server has printer quotas. Hook the printer into one machine, install MOSXS, set up quotas.
Hook up the printer to the slowest Mac you have -- ideally one requiring an Xpostfacto install. Set up CUPS on that machine to act as the print server for the HP. That should throttle down everything. With CUPS you should also be able to set quotas per user, or per printer.
Oh and don't forget the 10Base-T hub.
i just don't want people printing out piles of crap that's not necessary. i think i might just hook it up to something really slow.
that would work.
i feel bad for my students otherwise. we have no money for that lab.
or, if they are (but i presume they aren't) using something like 'lp' or 'lpr' to print, u can write a wrapper for it. something that reads in the input, and every 80 lines or so throws a big ol' sleep. u could even do it in a shell or perl script. the script reroutes stdin to the real lp/lpr/whatever at the appropriate delay.
Originally posted by cowerd
Oh and don't forget the 10Base-T hub.
Why not one of those old Phoneline networking kits.
Originally posted by Ebby
Why not one of those old Phoneline networking kits.
Naah - LocalTalk, baby! And run the printer from that old Mac Plus that's sitting in your loft.
It won't have the RAM to cope with anything bigger than a page or two!
Amorya
Add a nice rule around each and make sure they flow correctly.
The type is usually still quite legible and readable.
Do that for 20 years and you are saving a lot of paper.
Then again, I never print unless at work.
Never once owned a printer personally. They've never seemed worth the hassle. To many moving parts and planned obsolescence.