[Misc] Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

[empower]

Hi there everyone, I know there are many people here who are going to cry argh not another scanrouter question but the fact is it suits our users and our devices extremely well. We trialled every other method of scanning that Ricoh\Lanier provide including their u-beaut GlobalScan and found they were nowhere near the ease of use for end users and besides that apart from 1 minor issue scanrouter "just works" with our fleet of Lanier devices both old and new. From the MP201SPF to our newest MP2852's and MP4000 series devices.

We actually had Lanier out trying to convince us and sell us on a replacement and every solution came up short especially from the users side of things.

Now that I've got that out of the way our scanrouter works perfectly, we have Scanrouter V2 Professional 2.1.3.0 running on Server 2003 Standard x32 SP2 with plenty of free drive space and RAM - we also have Desktop Binder.

The thing is everything worked swimmingly until we retired a whole bunch of slightly older devices (LD145's and stuff like that) and introduced the MP201SPF's and MP2852's to the network. Now, if I make any changes to the scanlist (so adding and removing users or destinations) scanning stops working - BUT only on the MP4000's and MP2550's not the 2852's and 201's, they keep happily scanning away without any dramas. Now the scanlist is still present on the device and the user can hit scan but no scan goes through, nothing seems to be logged in the Administration Utility or Windows error logs. The only fix is to either restart the server OR the devices, then like magic it all starts working again until the next time I update the list. Oh and restarting Scanrouters services makes no difference either.

It's got me a bit stumped and there is no way we are ditching scanrouter, it's exceptionally simple for the end users and from my pov very simple to maintain and works better than scan to email, GlobalScan, smartdevice monitor and ldap lookup.

[empower]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

oooook, this is a reply to something that has since been deleted....

Don't be impressed, we plugged them into the network added them to the device list and they worked.

The other methods of scanning required much more input from the end user, we set-up and had operating other methods including Global Scan, all were a step backwards. Global Scan was worse than LDAP actually and even though it's powerful it had lots and lots of stuff we would never use.

When all was said and done the techs from Lanier even admitted that Scanrouter did what we want in the most efficient and user friendly way.

Every other method was NOT superior.

[rthonpm]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Scan to SMB is generally even easier, especially with third generation (3xxx series) and higher models. It also gives you the ability to scan to any device that supports Samba/CIFS. In my own domain (same server you're describing), I have scanning working on Windows and Linux clients, as well as our tablet fleet (ranging from BlackBerry, Android, webOS) all without any kind of middleware to support: just an AD username and password, or a valid device password for the tablets.

ScanRouter will die off soon enough: with XP going extinct from a support perspective next year more and more customers will finally be forced onto Windows 7 or 8 (though I feel most will stay with 7). Scanrouter is now just a solution looking for a problem. All Ricoh machines from the 2075 on are really full fledged Unix terminals, that means that Samba is built into the machine itself which takes care of the network browsing.

Furthermore, you're not going to really get much support for a dead product and GlobalScan and most of the higher range solutions are just overkill in most instances outside of an enterprise or very large environment.

[empower]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

thanks for the reply, I don't actually expect support just looking for ideas.

scan to smb would not replace what we do now.

People walk up to the scanner, hit scan, select their name (no typing to search necessary) and press go. The scan is dumped in their inbox as an attachment or a folder where our OCR picks it up and processes it.

We have approximately 200 destinations, mixed shares and email addresses and 70 devices.

The same list goes to email and smb shares.

Globalscan was offered as a "better" solution but you can only have 30 projects and it was slow and laggy on the machines as well.

LDAP was quick but meant people had to type their names and search the Exchange directory (admin easy, less easy for users).

I actually feel those who say Scanrouter is a solution looking for a problem or similar things haven't seen how simple and elegant it really is.

[nmfaxman]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Why not set up a scan to FTP?
That is all scanrouter is with a couple of added programs From the Win 98 days.
Win 7 takes over most conversions now.

[empower]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Why not set up a scan to FTP?
That is all scanrouter is with a couple of added programs From the Win 98 days.
Win 7 takes over most conversions now.

We don't use Windows 7, we use terminal services and thin clients.

next.

[KenB]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

I'm quite familiar with ScanRouter - Lite, Pro and Enterprise. I actually went to Ricoh school on it. That was in 2002. I agree, it has some nice features and low overhead.

But time moves on.

As nmfaxman said, a good solution may be to set up your folders to scan via SMB, email, or FTP to, then have your OCR software work from there.

As far as maintaining the address books goes, (and assuming they are all or mostly the same) you can use WSDM (Web Smart Device Monitor) to push it out to all devices. Quite simple, actually.

Keep in mind that ScanRouter was king back when machines either could not push scan at all, and later, when they could only scan to email. Since then almost any machine with a network jack can push scan.

So much for the free stuff and things you already own....

GlobalScan embedded has a limit of 30 projects; the server version can support 100. (Tech support even got that one wrong for me when I called. grrrrrr.) In addition, the server version can OCR, where the embedded version can't. Unfortunately, it can't run on the MP201s, and requires a Java card on any of the newer MFPs - not expensive, but you likely don't have it on your machines.

Another possible solution may be NSi AutoStore. You can do some really awesome things with your scans with it, but I'll let you check that one out for yourself.

[empower]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Thanks for the response KenB, Lanier were offering the card for us on the 201's so that wasn't an issue. I was this close to pulling the trigger on Globalscan but they had a lot of trouble getting the licensing working and all sorts of stuff then we hit the 30 project limit and pulled the pin on it. They basically knew very little about the product even though it was their all singing all dancing enterprise solution.

WSDM didn't impress me either having to manually push to each device on each change (that's what Lanier AU and JPN told us).

I'll have a poke at NSi Autostore. Problem still remains with scanrouter, it was funny watching Lanier techs and helpdesk trying to convince us that scanrouter is "crap". Our requirements are simple.

Scanlist appears automagically on the scan button - tabs with users, user hits tab hits a big button with their name then go, same for a folder. I actually don't want LDAP as well as I don't want the Exchange directory on the devices.

Even when we had Globalscan going, it was ungainly and not to mention slow on the devices. And I had to push it on changes, scanrouter is picked up by the devices automatically.

[Eric1968]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Content Central from Ademero works great for us (). Easy to install, works with all devices, creates searchable PDF's, can automatically file all your scans to the database, and the program is webbased so the only thing you need for the users is a browser.

[KenB]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Thanks for the response KenB, Lanier were offering the card for us on the 201's so that wasn't an issue. I was this close to pulling the trigger on Globalscan but they had a lot of trouble getting the licensing working and all sorts of stuff then we hit the 30 project limit and pulled the pin on it. They basically knew very little about the product even though it was their all singing all dancing enterprise solution.

The 201s can't run GlobalScan, even with a Java card installed, as they don't have the display to support it.

WSDM didn't impress me either having to manually push to each device on each change (that's what Lanier AU and JPN told us).

WSDM can push out address books to multiple machines at the same time. SDMA (Smart Device Monitor for Admin), on the other hand, is one at a time.

I'll have a poke at NSi Autostore. Problem still remains with scanrouter, it was funny watching Lanier techs and helpdesk trying to convince us that scanrouter is "crap". Our requirements are simple.

Scanlist appears automagically on the scan button - tabs with users, user hits tab hits a big button with their name then go, same for a folder. I actually don't want LDAP as well as I don't want the Exchange directory on the devices.

Even when we had Globalscan going, it was ungainly and not to mention slow on the devices. And I had to push it on changes, scanrouter is picked up by the devices automatically.

My comments on the above are in red.

ScanRouter truly is not crap; your environment is proof of that. Unfortunately, right or wrong, it is being forced to give way to the newer solutions.

Given that, I cannot strongly enough urge you to start considering newer alternative solutions before it's too late and you get stuck in a very unenviable position.

[empower]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

Thanks again KenB, we were told that the 201 would be fine we would just have to make different projects and stuff for it to support it's display. Anyway I don't think GlobalScan is happening anyway.

We can put other methods in, tbh we'd probably end up with LDAP and something else for shares.

As for your suggestion Eric1968 all ours scans are TIFF, that's what our OCR supports and TIFFs are much smaller in email. So searchable pdf's isn't something we would use.

I might have another look at WSDM, I stopped looking at it for some reason. Can't rightly remember why, it's been an ongoing thing ever since we signed the new printer contract about 12 months ago.

Funny thing is when the 4000's and other printers of that vintage go, there will be no issue as the new machines don't have a problem anyway, lol.

I'm not in a great rush as there are still another couple of years at least left on the printer contract for the new machines. It's just a minor annoyance but not a dealbreaker right now. The server hosting scanrouter could be virtualised when the h/w goes as well so we could have it forever

[empower]

Re: Very minor but irritating scanrouter issue

for posterity and for those interested it turns out we had some old devices in the Set I/O Device list that were no longer present and I basically just removed and re-added a few and it's been fine ever since.

Onward Scanrouter and upward!