Below you will see several typical cases of how the application may function and the optimal configuration variants from our point of view.
Terms
Workstation – a network computer
Print server – a server one or several printers are physically connected to users working at workstations print documents at
Desktop printer – a printer that is physically connected to a workstation
Shared printer – a desktop printer that is connected to one of the workstations and shared for access by all users working on other workstations on the local area network Usually, such printers have network names like \\WorkStation\PrinterName
Network printer – a printer connected directly to the local area network and not physically connected to any computer on the local area network. Usually, such a printer has a built-in network card
Print-Server – a device that makes it possible to turn a desktop printer into a network printer. This device usually has one or several ports that can be used to physically connect a printer and one port for connecting to the local network (RJ-45, WiFi, etc.)
Case 1:
Case description:
Administrator computer 192.168.0.1 Workstation 192.168.0.2
Workstation 192.168.0.3
All computers are connected to one network Printers:
o At 192.168.0.3:
Desktop printer physically connected to the computer and shared for network
access (\\192.168.0.3\SharedPrinter). I.e. this printer is a shared printer o At 192.168.0.2:
Desktop printer physically connected to the computer (Printer1)
Printer (Printer2) connected to the shared printer \\192.168.0.3\SharedPrinter
Task:
implement the system of monitoring print jobs Solution:
The best way to solve this problem is to install agents on both workstations and enable the Client Side Monitoring mode on them. As a result, print jobs will be monitored on each of the computers at the moment what the jobs are sent to the printer.
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Case 2:
Case description: Administrator computer 192.168.0.1 Workstation 192.168.0.2 Workstation 192.168.0.3 Hardware print server 192.168.0.4
All computers and devices are connected to one network. Printers:
o At 192.168.0.4:
Physical printer connected to the hardware print server that is connected to the network in its turn. I.e. this printer is a network printer
o At 192.168.0.2:
Local printer connected to the network printer with the address 192.168.0.4 via a TCP Port
o At 192.168.0.3:
Local printer connected to the network printer with the address 192.168.0.4 via a TCP Port
Task:
implement the system of monitoring print jobs Solution:
The only way to solve this problem is to install agents on both workstations and enable the Client Side Monitoring mode on them. As a result, print jobs will be monitored on each of the computers at the moment what the jobs are sent to the printer.
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Case 3:
Case description: Administrator computer 192.168.0.1 Print server 192.168.0.2 Workstation 192.168.0.3 Workstation 192.168.0.4 All computers and devices are connected to one network. Printers:
o At 192.168.0.2:
Desktop printer physically connected to the server and shared for network access (\\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter1).
I.e. this printer is a shared printer
Desktop printer physically connected to the server and shared for network access (\\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter2).
I.e. this printer is a shared printer o At 192.168.0.3:
Printer (Printer1) connected to the shared printer \\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter1 Printer (Printer2) connected to the shared printer \\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter2
o At 192.168.0.4:
Printer (Printer1) connected to the shared printer \\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter1 Printer (Printer2) connected to the shared printer \\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter2
Task:
implement the system of monitoring print jobs Solution:
Any variant will work in solving this problem. Again, we recommend that you install agents on both workstations and enable the Client Side Monitoring mode on them. As a result, print jobs will be monitored on each of the computers at the moment what the jobs are sent to the printer.
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Case 4:
Case description: Administrator computer 192.168.0.1 Print server 192.168.0.2 Workstation 192.168.0.3 Workstation 192.168.0.4 All computers and devices are connected to one network. Printers:
o At 192.168.0.2:
Desktop printer physically connected to the server, i.e. this printer is not a shared printer
Task:
implement the system of monitoring print jobs Solution:
To solve this problem, we recommend that you install the agent on the print server only and enable the Server Side Monitoring mode. Then, create a virtual printer for the desktop printer and share access to it on the network, i.e. the virtual printer becomes a shared printer. After this step, add printers connected to this newly created shared printer \\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter on workstation.
As a result, users sitting at workstations will actually print on the virtual printer that is a shared printer. The virtual printer will intercept print jobs and redirect them to the physical printer. Data will be intercepted only at the print server.
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Case 5:
Case description: Administrator computer 192.168.0.1 Print server 192.168.0.2 Workstation 192.168.0.3 Workstation 192.168.0.4 Hardware print server 192.168.0.5
All computers and devices are connected to one network. Printers:
o At 192.168.0.5:
Physical printer connected to the hardware print server that is connected to the network in its turn. I.e. this printer is a network printer
o At 192.168.0.2:
Local printer connected to the network printer with the address 192.168.0.5 via a TCP Port
Task:
implement the system of monitoring print jobs Solution:
To solve this problem, we recommend that you install the agent on the print server only and enable the Server Side Monitoring mode. Create a virtual printer for the local printer and share access to it on the network, i.e. the virtual printer becomes a shared printer. After this step, add printers connected to this newly created shared printer \\192.168.0.2\SharedPrinter on workstation.
As a result, users sitting at workstations will actually print on the virtual printer that is a shared printer. The virtual printer will intercept the print jobs and redirect them to the local printer that will send them to the physical printer via TCP. Data will be intercepted only at the print server.
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Case 6:
Finally, we offer you to consider one more variant that draws a line under all the above. We offer you to try to make it out how monitoring print jobs is organized.
The most interesting computer is workstation 192.168.0.2 where the agent is running and two printers are connected. And one of them is connected to a shared printer that is a virtual one. Suppose the user of this workstation sends a job to Printer2. The agent installed on the workstation is running in the Client Side Monitoring mode. Therefore, the image will be intercepted and sent to the data center, while the job will follow its way to the virtual printer created on the print server. The agent installed there will