I.T./Security Questions

What meters can Print Tracker gather?
Print Tracker 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.
Can Print Tracker gather meter reads from remote locations?
Print Tracker can gather meter reads from networked devices at remote locations as long as SNMP communication between the device and the workstation that Print Tracker is installed on is not blocked.
From which network devices does Print Tracker pull meters?
Print Tracker pulls meters from imaging devices that are SNMP compliant. You can view a list of devices from within Print Tracker by selecting View > List of Discoverable Devices. A list is available for download at http://PrintTracker.net/Discoverable_Devices.pdf.
How does Print Tracker send the meter data? Is it secure?
Print Tracker communicates with the web server using the HTTPS protocol, similarly to how your browser communicates with banking websites. HTTPS is a secure protocol. All of the data is encrypted before it is sent. It is very secure.
What do I do if a device is not discovered automatically?
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.
Print Tracker 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.
How do I install Print Tracker to capture local print counts?
There are two ways to do this: 1) install Print Tracker on each workstation individually, being sure to set ‘Include in Reports’ to True, 2) use a command line installation, run from a login script or installer utility.
How do I use command line installation to install Print Tracker to capture local print counts?
Please see the command line installation at: http://PrintTracker.net/Command_Line_Instructions.pdf.
What ports does Print Tracker use?
Print Tracker 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.
How much network bandwidth does Print Tracker use?
Print Tracker sleeps most of the time, but wakes up two or three times a day to pull meters. For a typical network segment, Print Tracker will send or receive about 80 KB of data when it pulls the meters. Twice a week Print Tracker may perform a search of the network to see if new devices have been added. During these searches Print Tracker will send or receive around 150 KB of data per network segment.
If the customer is using a proxy server and needs to allow traffic from Print Tracker out to the secure web servers, how can that be configured?
The web server domains that Print Tracker uses are secure.tc101.com and secure.nexation.com. A workstation can be configured to allow communication to the web servers by opening up Microsoft Internet Explorer and selecting Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings... If a proxy server is setup, click on Advanced and add the following to the Exceptions list: secure.tc101.com, secure.nexation.com. From within Print Tracker, you may need to go to the Advanced Settings and use the option "Use browser to send reports".
Is the Print Tracker software busy pulling meters all of the time?
No, the Print Tracker software sleeps, then wakes up periodically to perform necessary tasks. Here are the times that Print Tracker wakes up to do work:
  • 10:35 a.m. - Pull meters
  • 11:25 a.m. - Check for messages
  • 2:35 p.m. - Pull meters
  • 4:25 p.m. - Check for messages, pull meters, Auto-Search network for new devices on Monday and Thursday

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