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NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster

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Stoic Joker:
NANY 2010 Entry Information
Application Name Page Countster Version 1.0.0.195 Short Description Network Printer Scanner Supported OSes Windows 2k/XP/Vista/7 (x86 & x64) Web Page Currently non-Existent Download Link Page Countster v1.0.0.195 System Requirements
* Current Windows OS
* A Network Printer
* A Network :)Version History
* v1.0.0.195 Repaired Default SNMP Community bugg
* v1.0.0.190 Repaired Reporting Function
* v1.0.0.188 Added Save Default Network
* v1.0.0.175 Added Drag-N-Drop
* v1.0.0.163 Email Report Now HTML
* v1.0.0.155 Email Report Working
* v1.0.0.142 Change Display Text
* v1.0.0.138 Driver-less Test Page Printing
* v1.0.0.135 Toner Levels Working
* v1.0.0.122 Added Toner Levels
* v1.0.0.115 first relAuthor Stoic Joker Screencast
* http://donationcoder.com/nany2010/sc/pagecountster/pagecountster.html
* YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plLrAZrvq3I

Description
The company I work for re-manufactures laser printer toner cartridges as a primary (cost center) product. We needed a way to quickly find out how many printers were on a customers network, what model they were, their page counts, serial numbers, toner levels & etc. The application had to be small, portable, fast, & simple enough for the sales staff to operate... :)

Most of what I found back then was neither small nor portable, and cold network scanning speeds were slow. Most of the applications currently available are designed (primarily) to generate tons of pretty reports for the boardroom types, and leave the IT types to suffer with a bloatware mess.


Features

* Quickly find printers on a network
* Auto-detection of network address range
* Send Printer Information Report to Email Address.
* Option to save a default network configuration to Config.ini
* Quickly reopen report(s) via Drag-N-Drop into program window.
* Send a (Plain Text) test page to any network printer without needing a driver.
* Quick & easy way to replace serial number (on HP printers) if formatter has been changed...HP's method takes, 10min, an Uber secret code, & an act of congress.
* Quick & easy of changing the printer's (Ready State) Display Text to any 16 character (max) string. Granted this "feature" is primarily a toy that will be missused...But, I couldn't resist adding it.
* Can also (quickly) change/update page counts & HOST Name.
* Scan reports can be saved in either .csv or .tsv format for import into Excel, or reopened  to rescan a given group of printers. Emailed reports are in a printable HTML table format.
* Portablility: requires no install or runtimes
* Fast: Typically scans at a rate of 20 IPs per second
* Small: Currently only 282KB
Planned Features
Open for Suggestions...

Screencast


Screenshots
Main Program Window
NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster

  Start New Scan open a dialog that auto-populates with the first network address range it finds on the machine, and if crossing subnets the scan will automatically skip broadcast addresses.
NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster

  While the defaults were carefully selected, occasionally that will be to tight for network conditions or devices that don't respond quickly. There is an Administrative Options dialog (Access from scanning menu or with Ctrl + Alt + F8) that allows setting of a default IP Address range, alternate (default) SNMP Community name, and adjustment of the the wait times if you are (as an example) running the scan via VPN on a remote network etc. Clicking OK will save the changes for the current session only, and clicking save to .ini will save the settings to Config.ini in the local directory for future use. This is also where you configure the Email Report Options (if you wish to have the app Email the report).
NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster

 (by request) Emailed reports are now in a printable & presentable HTML table format.
NANY 2010 Release: Page Countster

Usage
Installation
Double-Click to run & select Start New Scan from the Printer Scanning menu.

Using the Application
The application was designed from the ground up to be simple, straight forward, and self-explanitory.

Uninstallation
Simply delete it & the Config.ini file (if it was created)

Known Issues
  Due to the high level of packet crafting required to hit the target speed of approx 20 IPs per sec, the application uses RAW Sockets and therefore requires administrative rights to scan the network. e.g. UAC will require the program be run as administrator or the scan will fail. (I can see f0dder cringing now ... sorry man couldn't be helped).

  There is a handle leak that will cause the desktop to exhaust its default handle limit (crash) if a range of 8,000 or more addresses are scanned in a single session. So... if you happen to be scanning a hospital or university (I have) it's best to scan in 4,000 IP address blocks, save the report, restart the program, reopen the report and then continue scanning. While this bugg is at the top of the list, I'm currently tied up with a production inventory management system that has to be on-line by the end of the year.

  The scanner will detect and report any brand of network printers only, locally attached devices that require share access are outside the scope of the current version of the software.

mouser:
cool stuff!!! Worked here perfectly :up:

mouser:
haahahah!!!!
not only did it work, but when i right clicked on printer and selected "WebAccess" it took me to printer web server which i never knew existed!!

Stoic Joker:
Side note: My boss doesn't quite share my rather cavalier sense of humor regarding application names ... So if anybody has a suggestion on what it could/should have been names I'm open. ;)

mouser:
I humbly suggest: "Findster and Countster Robot"

Rolls trippingly off the tongue doesn't it?

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