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Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 10:23 am
by stanstrad
A issue with a ward in the stake has has come up that I was hoping someone could help clarify. in the latest Meetinghouse Technology Policy it states;
"4.1.3 Local Unit Provided Equipment: Local unit budgets cannot be used to purchase computers".
The question has come up that it does not mention printers. Does anyone know if the policy includes printers (and other peripherals...monitors etc).
I understand that the FM group does provide printers, however if a ward because of problems with or lack of functionality wants to provide an additional printer, are they prohibited from using budget funds to do so?
Trying to keep in compliance, and would like to understand policy and intent.
Thanks.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:56 pm
by johnshaw
A WARD should NEVER EVER EVER EVER use budget funds for something like this. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you have that much more money, give the Activity Day leaders a couple bucks to spend.

The real solution is to get the Library copier on the network, then the local ward can use the local printer for most things, and the inconvenient things can be sent to the material's center printer.

I realize the path of least resistance is to just use the budget funds unwisely, but it is better all round to do the right thing.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:18 pm
by drepouille
In fact, I did exactly that yesterday. I plugged the MFP in the meetinghouse library into the adjacent Ethernet port, then set it to use a static IP address. Now it is available to any computer in the building that knows its IP address (or hostname) and happens to have the correct drivers installed.

By the way, the default administrator password for the Xerox Phaser 3635MFP is "1111". I had to use that to change the IP address, Gateway, DNS, etc. within the printer's control panel.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:29 pm
by Mikerowaved
Our ward needed a new printer in the clerk's office, and for reasons I won't go into here, the ward leadership desired a laser printer that also had scan/copy capability. Since the FM group did not offer such a printer to a ward, we were left on our own. With the permission of the stake president, we found such a unit on Amazon for a reasonable price and bought it. That was about 5 years ago and it has been a real blessing to the ward.

While it's preferred to stick with the standard equipment issued from the FM group, the decision to use budget funds for a different peripheral than what the FM group offers can be made by the ward and/or stake leadership.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:01 pm
by drepouille
I wonder if the Amazon price was lower than the Staples price. Probably.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:32 am
by JeffTurgeon
drepouille wrote:In fact, I did exactly that yesterday. I plugged the MFP in the meetinghouse library into the adjacent Ethernet port, then set it to use a static IP address. Now it is available to any computer in the building that knows its IP address (or hostname) and happens to have the correct drivers installed.

By the way, the default administrator password for the Xerox Phaser 3635MFP is "1111". I had to use that to change the IP address, Gateway, DNS, etc. within the printer's control panel.

Do you know if a member is able to search for the Xeron Phaser 3635MPF as a network printer and see it?

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2014 10:55 am
by drepouille
I'm not sure if a search for printers would discover it, but it might. I usually manually enter either the IP address or the hostname of the printer when I configure a computer to use it.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 2:16 pm
by KD7UFS
My Branch President would also like to print on the clerk's printer. The printer used to be on the network, so he could print to it. The church changed addresses on the network recently, and the printer is at a fixed address that cannot be changed. The FM group says network printers are not authorized. No, the Branch President does not want to print confidential church reports on the Media Center printer. Is their a solution?

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:03 pm
by JeffTurgeon
Our network printers are all hardwired and are on the isolated hardwired network. Our wifi users are isolated from our hardwired static ip devices by our design. If you configured the printer for access by your wifi group, theoretically, not likely, one could see what was being printed and this would not be well received. Can you use bluetooth pairing with your specific printer? That may be an option or else another private wifi network hub at the printet if you really want to find another means.

Re: Meetinghouse Technology Policy on Printers

Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 5:49 am
by drepouille
kd7ufs wrote:The FM group says network printers are not authorized. No, the Branch President does not want to print confidential church reports on the Media Center printer. Is their a solution?
I think it is obvious that network printers are authorized. Lexmark printers in FHCs are networked and given a static IP address. Apparently, your Media Center printer is also networked, since your statement implies it is available on your network.
In my stake clerk's office, the Xerox Phaser 3250 is connected to the computer, and shared. (I configured all admin computers to use the "Work" network type, rather than Public.) I also connected a Xerox copier in the stake clerk's office to the network, and assigned it a static IP address. So I can print to either printer/copier from my laptop.