[Misc] how can I present my four digit user code using unix style file redirection

[Guest]

My company has a RICOH Aficio MP C4501. It is a copier and a network printer, and it stand alone, (has no computer to which it is attached.). I got the ip address xxx.xx.xx from the system admin, and did a "net view xxx.xx.xx" to get the share name. I can print to this device fine using windows, after I provided my four digit user id when I added the printer to my available printer list. BUT, I want to use the unix convention using mks toolkit, of sending a file with pcl commands to this device.
cat mypclfile >\\xxx.xx.xx\sharename works fine to send the file mypclfile to the device, but the device does not respect my user id if it gets a file this way. I was hoping I could find some pcl command to pass the user id in mypclfile, but I cant find a way to pass this user id to the device when I want to print in this way. The copier can be put into printer mode from the console, and I can see the jobs making their way to the device, and being rejected cause I have not presented the four digit code I think. Any suggestions? I searched the pcl doc for a "userid=xxxx" option but cant find such.

[rthonpm]

For any kind of Unix or Linux system I always recommend PostScript. Native CUPS support and Ricoh's only official way of supporting Unix. If the machine has a PS chip in it, try changing your driver.

[LHickey]

software developer

I think mentioning mks toolkit is misleading. The same issue exists for dos or command line operation where I wish to copy a file to the device name. Your answer is probably the same I guess, but it seems I am so close. the printer knows it got a job. the job has the pcl commands in it and the text of the file to print. I just cant get around the network permissions that want my four digit code. Without the network permission problem, I am almost sure it would print fine. I am running windows 7. When I acquired the printer under windows, it asked me for the four digit number. I was quite sure there was some way to present this four digit number as part of the pcl code preceding the text to be printed.

[rthonpm]

That makes it a little clearer. Without knowing where in the PCL parsing the authentication code is given, it's hard to say where you'd need to add the user code.

Are colour and black and white printing locked out? If so, could black and white printing be enabled without restrictions? It may lose you half the functionality of the printer, but it would allow you to do away with the need for authentication.

[LHickey]

Yes I am restricted to black and white when printing from windows, and that would be fine too for what I want to do from the pcl file. Can I enable only black and white using a a pcl command? . I don't dive into pcl very often so I don't know what to look for in the pcl manual. Does RICOH have a customized non standard set of pcl options that maybe I don't know about unless you are from RICOH or is the pcl standard really a standard, and whatever solution there is, I don't have to wonder if RICOH has hacked the pcl specs ?

[rthonpm]

The device's user code restriction can be changed to allow black and white printing without a user code. This may be the best solution, but if memory serves it's a universal choice: either everyone prints black and white without a user code, or everyone does.

Ricoh does offer some customisable PCL drivers, but overall PCL is a universal standard which is why PCL drivers for different device can often be used for backwards compatibility without any issues. There is a print driver editor available as a download in the solutions section of the Ricoh website.

[Choro1dal]

Try setting printer job authentication to Simple(All).
Uest Tools>System Settings>Administrator Tools>User Authentication Management>User code Authentication>Printer Job authentication.
This will then prohibit printing of jobs submitted from print driver that supports authentication without a valid code. permit printing with a valid code and permit prinitng from sources that do not support authenticated drivers.
Setting Printer job authentication to Simple (Limitation) gives the same fuctionality though you can additionally limit the range of hosts submitting print requests.