SICFilePlus: CPCA Server on Linux with
Samba
This product may be of help for printing on Canon iR
devices within a MS Windows environment where a Linux printer server with Samba
is used.
As governments push administrations more and more to OpenSource applications,
often a first step is a Linux print server within a traditional Windows
environment.
The Samba server assure sharing of printers with the Window clients.
The Canon drivers for Windows are once uploaded to
the Samba server.
Thereafter they are available for the Windows clients. Please note that all
Canon drivers for Windows for iR devices use CPCA (a Canon proprietary
protocol).
If the site wants to use department accounting
a problem arises. Technically the department accounting within a Windows
environment uses a special CPCA protocol to query the Canon device whether the
account does exist before printing. With the Samba server in place, this does
not work.
The SICFilePlus solution consists in this case of a
CPCA server program, which runs on the Linux server.
It receives the CPCA jobs from Windows clients, who now print without
department accounting.
But the server program has a data base which links
Windows login or user names to department accounting user IDs and/or passwords.
Thus the department accounting is done automatically, without any user
intervention on the Windows side.
To be more precise the CPCA server program on the
Linux server can:
- Redirect a job based on the Windows login or user
name to a department account with a user ID (and possibly a password).
- Redirect a job based on the Windows login or user
name to a specific mailbox.
- Redirect a job coming from a specific PC to a
department account with a user ID (and possibly a password).
- Redirect a job coming from a specific PC to a to a
specific mailbox.
If a job comes from an unknown user or PC, then either
the job will be rejected (i.e. not printed) or the job will be redirected to a
default account (or mailbox).
The CPCA server program is licenced with a software
key based on the MAC or Ethernet address of the Linux server.
The server program works both for PostScript and PCL
CPCA printer queues.
And both CPCA V1.0 and CPCA V2.0 are supported.
Currently it does not work for genuine PostScript printer queues (EFI
controlled devices).
For a SICFilePlus product you can contact your local
Canon sales representative who will make the link with SIC
International.
