A number of visitors have suggested we implement an improved search system for the Knowledge Base and Manual. This project is now complete and we have a new unified site search that searches over the KB, manual, blog, and the site as a whole (check out the search link on the top right-hand corner of the home page). The search is AJAX based and works by overlaying the existing page – no popups, or losing your position on the site. For the technical people interested, it’s driven by Google Custom Search.

We have a rapidly growing KB and we hope this will help PaperCut users find answers they’re after. Please give it a test run and let us know if you have any comments/suggestions.

It’s quite common to see PaperCut running alongside and complementing other applications such as web based filtering and virus protection applications. These web filtering applications tend to integrate in with proxy servers in a similar way to that undertaken by PaperCut’s Internet Quota module. Mark from Temple Christian College has been kind enough to contribute a knowledge base article detailing how he has setup PaperCut alongside Microsoft ISA Server and a web filtering application called SurfControl. You can read Mark’s article on integrating PaperCut and Surf Control here:

http://kb.papercutsoftware.com/Main/SettingUpPaperCutWithSurfControl

I’d like to thank Mark for taking the time to write this up. I’m sure it other schools would find Mark’s configuration notes useful.

I few weeks back I said I’d write something about how to deploy the User Inquiry Tool using a “zero-install” methods. I have updated the knowledge base with some instructions on how to deploy the UIT.

I’ve just finished putting together a knowledge base article detailing various methods to manage and configure printers in a school or university (academic environment). In a business environment a user normally has a desktop PC dedicated to them located on their work desk. In an academic environment users will roam between different computer labs and locations. The printers listed under Start->Settings->Printers should change depending on what computer they are using. For example, it is not appropriate to list the science lab printer when the user is login in across campus in the library! In other words, the list of printers is a function of location rather than user identity.

I’ve taken a few techniques used by a number of network administrator running PaperCut and written it up in general terms. Thanks to all that took the time to write up how they approached printer connection/setup management. You can read the article at http://kb.papercutsoftware.com/Main/AddingPrintersInAnEducationEnvironment.

One of our customers suggested that I my blog to write about using PaperCut. I’ve decided to write a Tip of the Month article every 4 weeks to highlight some of PaperCut’s “hidden” features.

This month I’ll talk about of the new features in Version 5.0. All existing PaperCut users would be aware of PaperCut’s automatic account creation rules. These helps streamline user management by automatically configurating new user accounts within PaperCut. There is still however a need to synchronize PaperCut’s user list with the users listed in Active Directory or the Domain. This is usually done manually via the “TuneUp” button. Version 5 now introduces a command-line script to automate this task. The script is located under:

C:/Program Files/PaperCut/Scripts/addnewusers.bat

Network administrators can now set this script to run automatically via the Windows Task Scheduler or out of other system maintenance scripts. Many large organizations use scripts to create user accounts. You can now incorporate this command into such scripts so PaperCut is instantly notified of the new users. This new feature brings PaperCut one-step closer to our “zero administration” goal.