01 FAQ What meters can Print Tracker Pro gather?
Print Tracker Pro can gather meter reads from networked devices that can be pinged from the workstation where it is installed and that have Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) communications enabled. It can also gather page counts from devices that are connected to the workstation it is installed on.
02 FAQ Can Print Tracker Pro gather meter reads from remote locations?
Print Tracker Pro can gather meter reads from networked devices that can be pinged from the workstation where it is installed. Devices that respond to pings and SNMP requests can have their meter data gathered.
03 FAQ From which network devices does Print Tracker Pro pull meters?
Print Tracker Pro pulls meters from imaging devices that are SNMP compliant.
04 FAQ How does Print Tracker Pro send the meter data? Is it secure?
Print Tracker Pro communicates with the web server using the HTTPS protocol, similarly to how web browsers communicate with banking websites. HTTPS is a secure protocol. All of the data is encrypted before it is sent. Print Tracker Pro operates securely.
05 FAQ What happens if new devices are added to the network or old devices are removed?
Print Tracker Pro wakes up on Monday and Thursday afternoons to perform a search of the network segments to see if new devices are available on the network. If one or more new devices are found, an emailed report will be sent immediately identifying the new device(s) highlighted in yellow. If meters cannot be pulled from a device for more than a week, meter reports will show the stale device meters highlighted in pink. If meters cannot be pulled for six weeks, the device will drop off the reports.
06 FAQ What do I do if a device is not discovered automatically?
Print Tracker Pro can gather meter reads from networked devices that can be pinged from the workstation where it is installed and that have Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) communications enabled. It can also gather page counts from devices that are connected to the workstation it is installed on.
Most of the time when network devices are not discovered, it is because the segment that they are on has not been searched. If this happens, print out a configuration page from one of the devices that has not been discovered, find the IP address of the device on the configuration page, and use the “Add Network Device” option to add it. Search the entire subnet that the device is on from the “Add Network Device” dialog by entering the first three numbers in the IP address with an asterisk. For example, enter 10.10.10.* in the IP address field to search for all devices whose IP address begins with 10.10.10.
If a particular device is not discovered, enter its IP address into the “Add Network Device” dialog. If SNMP is not enabled a message will be returned indicating that is the problem. SNMP can usually be enabled by opening a web browser to the IP address of the device and looking for the Network or Communications settings. If not, this should be set from the device console.
07 FAQ “The print server at that address DOES respond to a ping, but does NOT respond to an SNMP query.” Help!
This message usually means that Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) has been disabled, so the device does not respond to meter requests. You can usually check this by opening a browser to the IP address and looking on the Network or Communications web page of the embedded web server. You should see an Enable SNMP checkbox. If you don’t see it in the browser, you may have to turn it on from the device console. At times, this message may mean that SNMP is enabled, but the default community string of ‘public’ has been changed. Again, you should be able to check this from a browser or the device console. If this is the case, you can add additional community strings in Print Tracker Pro under Config > Advanced Settings.
08 FAQ Print Tracker Pro is having problems discovering devices at a distant remote location. Are there any settings that need to be adjusted to allow for better discovery?
Increase the SNMP timeout and/or retries under Config > Advanced.
09 FAQ When do updates come out for the software when new printers come to market?
If the new printers use the same Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) calls that previous models did, then the printer will work with the current version of Print Tracker Pro. Otherwise, a dealer will usually notice that the counters are not available. If they send in a trouble report indicating what the counter is that they are looking for, we can usually update Print Tracker Pro within a week or so to support the new model.
10 FAQ Does the software automatically update itself?
An automatic upgrade program is in place that updates Print Tracker Pro installations to the latest version. However, if you wish to upgrade an installation manually, from within Print Tracker Pro, click on Help > About Print Tracker Pro > Check for Newer Version . The latest version can then be downloaded. If you have the Print Tracker Pro Admin tool and would like to remotely upgrade a Print Tracker Pro installation, from the Installations tab right-click on the installation and select Upgrade to Latest Version.
11 FAQ How can I lock down Print Tracker Pro so the end customer can’t make changes?
In Print Tracker Pro, go to Config > Advanced > Password Protect Print Tracker Pro and shutdown the application. Print Tracker Pro will then be locked, only allowing a person to send a report unless the dealer’s password is entered.
12 FAQ Into which billing databases can Print Tracker Pro electronically enter meter data?
The Print Tracker Pro Data Processor can enter meters into e-automate, NextGen, OMD, and Great Plains. For OMD, the U/SQL driver from Transoft, which is available exclusively through OMD, is required.
The Data Processor puts the meters into the billing database based on serial number. It is installed on one of your servers that has ODBC access to the billing database. For OMD, the use of the U/SQL driver from Transoft and access to either the OMD Vision client or to I-Manager is required.
13 FAQ How do I install Print Tracker Pro to capture local print counts?
There are three ways to do this:
- install Print Tracker Pro on each workstation individually, being sure to set Include in Reports to True
- install from the USB drive, or, if the office is quite large,
- use a command line installation, run from a login script or installer utility.
14 FAQ How do I use command line installation to install Print Tracker Pro to capture local print counts?
Command line instructions coming soon.
15 FAQ How do I stop a device from sending meters?
To prevent a device from reporting meters, switch the False to True in the Include in Report column.
16 FAQ How do I make a non-included device disappear from Print Tracker Pro?
Go to View > Only Show Included devices. Once this is checked, all devices set to False will not be visible. It is best to not delete devices, as Print Tracker Pro will re-find them when it does its auto-search on Mondays and Thursdays.
17 FAQ What ports do Print Tracker Pro use?
Print Tracker Pro queries the devices using SNMP over port 161 at the location where it is installed, and then uses the SSL port, port 443, to send the encrypted data to the secure web server.
18 FAQ Can Print Tracker Pro be configured to not send the data to the default web server?
Yes. On the Registration page, enter the dealer ID followed by XXX. When the Get License Key button is pressed, you will be prompted for SMTP server information, which will be used to send the reports.
19 FAQ How much network bandwidth does Print Tracker Pro use?
Print Tracker Pro sleeps most of the time, but wakes up two or three times a day to pull meters. For a typical network segment, Print Tracker Pro will send or receive about 80 KB of data when it pulls the meters. Twice a week, Print Tracker Pro may perform a search of the network to see if new devices have been added. During these searches Print Tracker Pro will send or receive around 150 KB of data per network segment.
20 FAQ If the customer is using a proxy server and needs to allow traffic from Print Tracker Pro out to the secure web servers, how can that be configured?
Print Tracker Pro can be configured to use credentials when communicating via the internet. This is done from the Config > Advanced Settings… dialog using the Use credentials for an internet connection option. Be sure to enter the proxy server information, if it applies. If an exception needs to be made to a corporate firewall, the web server addresses secure.tc101.com and secure.nexation.com should be used.
21 FAQ Is the Print Tracker Pro software busy pulling meters all of the time?
No, Print Tracker Pro software ‘sleeps’ most of the time, waking up periodically to perform necessary tasks. Print Tracker Pro scans devices for status changes on a predetermined schedule set by the dealer (if alerts are activated), checks for messages several times throughout the day, and will auto-search networks for new devices on Monday and Thursday when enabled. If the workstation is turned off, reports will be sent when brought back on line or power is restored. If the Internet is down, Print Tracker Pro checks for a connection periodically until one is available and then sends the report.
22 FAQ Why are we receiving random reports, when we are only scheduled to receive reports on the 15th?
Print Tracker Pro wakes up on Monday and Thursday afternoons to do an auto-discovery to find new devices. If one or more new devices are found, it sends an email to let you know of the discovery. If you want to disable the Auto Discovery functionality, you can turn it off in Print Tracker Pro. Click the Config button, go to Advanced Settings , then uncheck the Enable automatic network printer searches.
