-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Am Dienstag, 4. November 2003 16:12 schrieb Henrik Edlund: > I would like to ask the members of this list to comment on the following > text that I have written about different accounting methods. I would value > if you would give insightful comments, correct factual errors and give > complimenting information. Thanks in advance. > > -- snip -- >
> > 4.2.4 SNMP > > The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) [RFC1157] is a definition of > a simple protocol by which management information for a network element > may be inspected or altered by logically remote users. Together with > companion memos which describe the structure of management information > along with the management information base (MIB), these documents provide > a simple, workable architecture and system for managing TCP/IP-based > networks. > > Two of these companion memos are of particular interest to us. The Host > Resources MIB [RFC1514] provides two status objects that can be used to > describe the status of a printer: hrDeviceStatus and hrPrinterStatus. > These objects describe many of the states that a printer can be in. The > Printer MIB [RFC1759] provides another object, prtMarkerLifeCount, which > gives us the count of the number of units of measure counted during the > life of the printer using units specified in the object > prtMarkerCounterUnit. Most often these units are impressions for home and > office printers. > > SNMP is independent of the process of sending the content of the job to > the printer. By using the two first of these objects to monitor whether > the printer is done printing and the last object to retrieve the number of > impressions before and after a job, an accurate number of actual printed > pages can be calculated. The counter is located in the hardware (printer) > and only counts the number of pages actually printed. > > Most printers on the market today support the two MIBs needed, so this > method seems to be the best option. The same general implementation would > work with several printer models from different manufacturers, as long as > the printer supports SNMP and mentioned MIBs properly. > > -- snip -- > I hope that I am not too late to add my observations. I use SNMP to count pages now for over two years. I have Ricoh 4500 and 4510, OKI C9500 and XEROX Phaser 860 printers. Most of the time it works as expected. One problem is, that the objects hrDeviceStatus and hrPrinterStatus do not give enough information to decide if a printjob is done. For instance if a user chooses manual feed, the printer goes idle and using only the above mentioned objects tells you, that the job is done, although it is not. The same happens with complex pages in postscript; printers can go idle while processing a page. I got over this by using the object, that gives the string in the display of the printer. I do not know the name of it; the numbers are: 43.16.5.1.2.1.1 The text you get this way depends on printer and language and therefore is not standardized. You must look in the documentation and experiment. Another problem with SNMP, though not with accounting, is, that the error codes I get with hrPrinterDetectedErrorState.1 are, as far as I know, not consistent for different manufacturers. They do not even follow the table in the PrinterMIB. Maybe I am wrong here. Can somebody explain the error codes to me, so I can use them reliably? regards Herbert Engelmann - -- H. Engelmann, 089-289-28836, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3in Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBP68+66hxGsmXUG+lAQFDEQP+O9v/KpbUL49T8yQjkcqgJH9AX5zTF9Js LUmYzRDfAwbhvoWeTFj2bqDOAKfmJvqac61LLcB4/Z6FNHa7HA7b+LqmmrL+/6jN OWyF9CXQ6J4xKhU91NVhkC27x+4lTD4UHJ5WfiOnPTI7v9Nu45HMqZDRxWeiIizX hI484fHsKtU= =hTG6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU MUST BE A LIST MEMBER IN ORDER TO POST TO THE LPRNG MAILING LIST The address you post from MUST be your subscription address If you need help, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] (or lprng-requests or lprng-digest-requests) with the word 'help' in the body. For the impatient, to subscribe to a list with name LIST, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with: | example: subscribe LIST <mailaddr> | subscribe lprng-digest [EMAIL PROTECTED] unsubscribe LIST <mailaddr> | unsubscribe lprng [EMAIL PROTECTED] If you have major problems, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word LPRNGLIST in the SUBJECT line. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
