Print Rationing

[catch22 0]

I work in the Computer science Department at Millersville University. Currently the university has a huge problem with wasting money on printing supplies for their computer labs. More or less due to the overwelming amount of printouts that students produce in the course of the semester. The Computer Science department addresses this problem by adapting a system to discourage students from printing altogether. (literally, hiding printers is something we have done in the past)

What I would like to do is set up a print server where I can give each student a "ration" of printouts per semester. For instance, Every CS major gets only 200 pages a semester, or 100 printouts a semester. I've never been sure whether this can be done or not. Only recently have I been searching for a way since new policies are beginning to make my job very tedious.

 

Currently we are using Windows 2000 for our server/workstations. Though I would like to know how to do it out of linux as well, I'll settle for windows right now.

[ViperZ2000 0]

I would think that if Active Directory were implemented, this would be an option since you can publish printers inside AD. However, I am unsure since I am just now looking into configuring W2K server with AD. I'm sure Clutch and the other forum mods will have an answer for you.

 

I've been referred this link to me for server setup questions and it has always been a big help (Thanks Clutch! )

 

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treevie...rt2/tcpch07.asp

 

Browse up to 'How-To' and you'll see the Printing section there....

[JP- 0]

This reminds me of what our IT dept used to do when i was at school. They had a system setup where you got a certain amount of print 'credits' and a b&w page cost say 5 and a colour 1 cost 10, and you had to actually go a pay for credits (with real money ) Certainly put people off wasting paper it was done with some 3rd party software but cant remember what its called atm.