Software Contents

Printer Activity Monitor software consists of three modules:

PrinterMon.exe
- program constantly resides in memory and monitors the selected printers' queues. Information on all printed documents is stored in the database.
PrinterMonAgent.exe
- program constantly resides in memory of remote computers, monitors local printer's queues and send information to the PrinterMon server.
PrinterActivityMonitor.exe
- program designed for viewing the documents printing log and for generating various reports.

How the program works?

No office can function without a printer. The bigger the office, the more printers it has, the larger the related costs in paper, ink and additional equipment. Printer Activity Monitor is a "do-gooder" kind of program that actually makes you money, instead of wasting it, by lowering your printing costs (up to fifty dollars a year per laser printer, according to our customer survey). How? By simply monitoring each document being printed and keeping a database of all printing activity.
Printer Activity Monitor immediately identifies any employees who overuse or abuse company printers. Second, it allows you to plan you printing budget properly, so you don't have to buy extra ink, cartridges and paper "just in case". Finally it shows real use of each printer, so you can re-rout network document flow instead of purchasing new printers. The program comes in three modules. The first one conveniently sits in the tray and tracks every document that is printed. On a remote computers the PrinterMonAgent.exe (remote PAM agent) program monitors local printer's queues and send the gathered information to the PrinterMon server. The third module takes this data and generates reports and diagrams. For example, you can build a report that shows how many documents were printed with a specified printer during the past two months. Or you can have a breakdown of printer use (in pages printed) by each employee or workstation. Finally, you can have a printing budget for each department (number of pages allowed to be printed in a period of time) and put weekly statistics on the wall. The experience of our customers clearly demonstrates that printer use goes down significantly (15-40%) within the first month after the program installed and stays down after that. Some of our larger clients save over $10000 a year with Printer Activity Monitor.

Glossary

Workstation - computer in the local network.

Print Server - server with attached one or several printers. Users from workstations print documents on these printers

Desktop Printer - attached to the workstation printer

Shared Pinter - desktop printer attached to one workstation and shared for all users who work on other workstations of the local network. Usually such printers have network names as: \\WorkStation\PrinterName

Network printer - printer which connected to the local network directly and isn't attached to any computer in the local network. Usually such printers have their own network adapter.

Print-server - a device which gives you opportunity to work with a desktop printer as it is a network printer. Such devices usually have one or more ports for attaching printers and one port for connecting to the local network (RJ-45, WiFi etc).

Detailed program overview

Printer Activity Monitor can be configured for monitoring all printers in the local network.

Printer Activity Monitor is the server-based solution. It is important that all printers are hosted on a print server and print jobs from all workstations are directed via this server. This is an ideal configuration and program works better with it. But very often it's so difficult to create such configuration in a real office. The real office, for example, can have a print server with some printers attached to it and also a network printer which is directly connected to the network and more than ten desktop printers.

There are two methods for solving this problem:

  • Method 1: Reconfiguring printing infrastructure for directing all print jobs via one print server (the best method)
  • Method 2: Reconfiguring printing infrastructure and using special programs - Printer Activity Monitor Remote Agents

Method 1

This method means reconfiguring printing infrastructure and software on workstations for directing all printing jobs via one print server.

For this it is necessary to do the following steps

  • On the print server:
    • Attach all printers to the print server
    • Install all network printers to the print server
    • Map all desktop printers to the print server
    • Share these printers using standard Windows methods (Start->Settings->Printers, then right-click on the printer icon and select Sharing)
  • On the workstations:
    • Forbidding the printing on all desktop printers
    • Adding new shared printers which are now hosted on the print server

Let's study every of these steps in details

On this scheme you can see 4 departments of the virtual office. There is a print server in the first department. There are two printers attached to this print server. These printers are shared to all users using standard Windows methods, they are shared printers. On the workstations in the first department in the "Printers and Faxes" folder there are two shared printers: \\server\SharedPrinter1 and \\server\SharedPrinter2.

In the second department there is a network printer which is connected to the local network via network adapter. On the all workstations in the second department in the "Printers and Faxes" folder system administrator added one network printer 192.168.0.10 using standard Windows methods(via Standard TCP/IP Port).

The same situation is in the third department. But here the printer doesn't have its own network adapter. It is connected to the local network using a print-server. This device gives you opportunity to use an ordinary printer as a network printer. On the all workstations of the third department in the "Printers and Faxes" folder system administrator added one network printer 192.168.0.11 using standard Windows methods(via Standard TCP/IP Port).

There are 3 workstations in the forth department. And every workstation has its own desktop printer. Every user of these workstations prints his documents on the printer which is attached to his own workstation.

All workstations, print server and all network printers are connected to one local network.

For achieving an ideal configuration for Printer Activity Monitor - administrator have to do the next steps:

  • Make the print server from the Server computer. It means that this computer must be dedicated for printing purposes only, if it's possible
  • Connect the network printers 192.168.0.10 and 192.168.0.11 to this print server
  • Map all desktop printers from the forth department to this print server
  • Share all these printers to all users using standard Windows methods:
    • \\server\NetworkPrinterForDept2
    • \\server\NetworkPrinterForDept3
    • \\server\DesktopPrinter1
    • \\server\DesktopPrinter2
    • \\server\DesktopPrinter3
  • If it is necessary, limit access to each printer. It will give users an opportunity to print documents only on printers of their department
  • Delete all printers from "Printers and Faxes" folder for all users in second and third department. And then add to all users in the second department printer \\server\NetwrokPrinterForDept2 and to all users in the third department printer \\server\NetwrokPrinterForDept3
  • Deny printing on the desktop printers to all users in the forth department and add to their "Printers and Faxes" folder printers \\server\DesktopPrinter1, \\server\DesktopPrinter2 and \\server\DesktopPrinter3 accordingly

As a result you will have configuration that allows you to monitor all printers in your office. The administrator of the local network will be able to watch statistics on every printer in his network using Printer Activity Monitor installed on print server. The important feature of this method is that there is no need to move devices physically. All changes are made only in the software. And your employees wouldn't feel discomfort during these changes.

All steps in this method are very simple. Only "Mapping desktop printers on the print server" could be difficult. You can see how to do this step by step in details with screenshots here.

Advantages of this method:

  • Centralized monitoring of all printers from one computer
  • It is possible to do all changes from one place. There's no need to go from one computer to another
  • It is very simple to administrate Printer Activity Monitor in this case

Disadvantages of this method:

  • It is necessary to reconfigure software on all workstations and on the print server

Method 2

This method can be used when Method 1 does not work.

This method means installing and configuring additional programs parts on the workstations.

What you have to do:

  • On the print server:
    • Install Printer Activity Monitor
    • Start Agent Management Console
    • Configure parameters by default for all new agents which should be installed on the workstations with desktop printers attached

We will use the same scheme that was in the Method 1.

At first you have to install Printer Activity Monitor on the print server. In the settings of the Printer Activity Monitor you have to select SharedPrinter1 and SharedPrinter2 for monitoring. As a result you will be able to monitor all printing jobs in the first department.

Then you have to start Agents Management Console. This program was developed for remote installation, uninstallation, starting and stopping agents on the workstations of your local network. Using this program you have to install agents on all workstations in the second, third and forth departments.

And after that all printed documents from all computers of the local network will be immediately written to the Printer Activity Monitor data base located on the print server.

Advantages of this method:

  • It is not necessary to reconfigure software on all workstations in the local network

Disadvantages of this method:

  • You have to install remote agents on all workstations with desktop printers attached
  • You need to update your agents periodically

Printer Activity Monitor Remote Agent

PAM Agent - is a small program which can be installed on the all computers in the local network with desktop printers attached. This program is a system service. It starts immediately after the user turns on the computer and stay in the memory until the user turn the computer off. PAM Agent monitors selected printers and saves information into the file and periodically transfers this information to PAM Server (the main part of Printer Activity Monitor).

Agents Management Console

This program is for managing the remote monitoring agents on the workstations of your network.
Please read detailed information about this application here.

Program for viewing printed documents

Our Printer Activity Monitor product include special program which will give you an opportunity to watch printed documents.
Please read detailed information about this application here.