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The Spool File Encryption feature keeps spool files (print jobs) secure at the printer while they are waiting to be printed. This feature works in conjunction with printers set up for Secure print release, and works in Windows environments. RequirementsNOTE Print Provider versions prior to 105.0.0 do not support encryption, so enabling Spool File Encryption on the server will not affect the actual print jobs. Summary of setup stepsEnable Spool File Encryption on PaperCut servers
Configure printers/devices to wait for user authentication before releasing jobsConfigure printers and devices to hold a print job until the user authenticates at the device. Prevent print jobs from being released on printers in errorTo block spool files (print jobs) from being released when a printer or device is in error, follow the appropriate procedure below for your environment. (Optional) Configure the directory for Spool File EncryptionYou can configure the directory used for Spool File Encryption.
Notes on downgrading a Print Provider version > or = 105.0.0 to a prior versionThere are some rare occasions where you might want to downgrade the version of Print Provider. For example, you want to upgrade PaperCut NG/MF to use new functionality, but you want to keep your current version of Print Provider for stability. Before you downgrade, if you have already enabled Spool File Encryption, you must release or cancel all current encrypted print jobs. If you don’t, the:
This section describes various usage scenarios discussing why and how to use a hold/release queue. They provide a good starting point for your own implementations. A large source of wasted paper in organizations are documents that were never collected from the printer. Some of these uncollected documents are caused by accidental printing, and others were just forgotten. But the majority of these documents end up in the bin. If the document is not printed until a user walks to the printer to collect it, then this source of waste can be mostly eliminated. To implement a Release StationPrint Release Stations place a print job on hold and allow users to release it when required. Often a Release Station is a dedicated PC terminal located next to the printers, however, Release Stations can take other forms such as a web browser based interface. Some common examples where Release Stations can be used include secure printing, approved printing, and authentication. In a secure printing environment jobs are only printed when the user arrives at the print area and confirms his or her identity. This ensures the user is there to collect the job and other users can't "accidentally" collect the document. In some organizations it may be appropriate to hold jobs until they are approved by selected individuals. A good example would be a teacher approving printing on an expensive color printer. Hold/Release queues can be used as a form of authentication in an unauthenticated environment. Users must authenticate prior to releasing their jobs allowing PaperCut NG to confirm their identity. to save paper: Set up a low-end workstation near the printer(s). Run the Standard Release Station in the default mode (Release Any mode). For more information, see Release Station Modes. In PaperCut NG/MF, enable the printer(s) for Release Station use. For more information, see Enabling hold/release support on a printer. To allow users to release jobs via the User web interfaceThe User web interface provide a range of services for users, including a summary of usage and balance history, a list of the shared accounts that the user can use for printing, the current costs for printing usage, ability to add balance by using a TopUp/Pre-Paid Card or an external payment system (when using the payment gateway module), transfer funds to other users, view a history of balance transactions, view a list of the user's recent printing, and view print jobs pending release (when using a Release Station). Release Station, also enable Release Any mode for the web tools interface. For more information, see End-User Web Based Release Interface Configuration. When users print documents that contain sensitive information, it is important that no one else picks up the document from the printer. Even when the printers are close-by, people can accidentally leave sensitive documents on the printer. Use print Release Stations to implement Secure Printing, which ensures that a document can only be released by the person who printed it and only when that person is standing near the printers. Secure printing is implemented as follows: Secure printing requires users to be authenticated on the network when printing (i.e. an Active Directory domain). This allows the Release Station to enforce the secure printing so that users can only release documents they print. Libraries and Internet cafes usually only allow printing once a user has paid for the cost of the printed document.Implementing pay-per-print can often involved deploying expensive card-based payment solutions, however, PaperCut NG/MF Release Stations allow this to be implemented in a more cost effective way. An example of how print Release Stations would be used in this scenario is: Users print documents from a workstation without any assistance from staff. The printed documents are held in the queue until released by a staff member. The user goes to the staff desk and asks for the document to be released. The staff member opens a Release Station (the program or a web page), finds the user's job, notes the cost and collects the payment from the user. The staff member clicks Print, allowing the job to be printed. The user then collects the printed document from the printer. If the user does not pay for a print, then the print job is automatically deleted without any staff interaction. To implement a pay-per-print hold/release queue: At times it is necessary to restrict access to an expensive printer (like a color laser printer), or other printer that should be used only with an administrator's permission. Instead of locking the printer away where no one has access to it; you can configure the printer so that only administrators or hold/release managers can release print jobs. In this situation:
To implement admin/manager only release interface:
You can allow a user to release jobs printed by other users. This is called Delegated Print Release. An example scenario is when a teacher needs to view and release jobs printed by their students. If you make each teacher a hold/release queue manager, they can view and release any job, including other teachers’ jobs. By using Delegated Print Release, teachers can view and release only the print jobs they need to manage. In this situation:
To implement delegated print release:
To prevent students from viewing/releasing their own jobs, only allow group "teachers" to view held jobs:
Many educational organizations want to charge for printing, which means that some users might not be able to print because of a low balance. This means that the print job waits in the Secure hold/release queue until it is either canceled, times out, or the user obtains sufficient credit to release the job. A hold/release queue manager (for more information, see Hold/release queue managers) can use the Admin web interface Release Station to override the selected account (shared accountA shared account is an account that is shared by multiple users. For example, in business, shared accounts can be used to track printing costs by business unit, project, or client. Organizations like legal firms, engineering firms, or accounting offices often have long lists of accounts, projects, clients, or matters. In a school or university, shared accounts can be used to track printing by departments, classes, or subjects. or personal balance) and charge the print job to a specific shared account, moving the cost of the print job from the selected shared account or user's personal balance to a shared account that the hold/release queue manager has access to. In this situation:
To implement Override Print Settings to charge to a shared account:
Since PaperCut MF 19.0.0 and above allows users to send print jobs with or without an account, directly to the printing device, there could be a mix of held print jobs at the device (jobs with and without accounts). Such jobs can be released/ printed only after they have an account to charge to. This means that the print job waits in the Secure hold/release queue until it is canceled, times out, or the job is associated with an account to charge to. A hold/release queue manager (for more information, see Hold/release queue managers) can use the Admin web interface Release Station to cancel the job. In this situation:
In some environments it is not possible (or very difficult) to have users authenticated when printing. This could be due to a technology constraint (like using Macs in mainly Windows environment) or could be for convenience (like having kiosk computers in the library that people can use without logging in). In these scenarios, print jobs are printed under one name, but charging is allocated to another. For example, a job is printed by a generic "library user", but you need to charge to the user's real account. In order to charge the correct user for printing, PaperCut NG/MF needs to identify the user to charge. You can achieved this using a Release Station in "Release Any" mode. This works as follows:
To implement unauthenticated printing using a Release Station: To implement unauthenticated printing using the browser interface:
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