PaperCut NG Internet Control

The optional PaperCut Internet Control module allows you to monitor, charge, and quota Internet usage in real-time. PaperCut can be setup to perform any of the following functions:

• Charge your users for their Internet access
• Place Internet quotas on your users
• Silently monitor your users' Internet usage (used by many businesses)
• Disallow Internet access once users run out of credit

Time Based Charging

• Stops people wasting time surfing the web
• Useful when computer resources are scarce
• Charge for time used, not data downloaded
• Easy for your users to understand
• Choose a time period duration and a cost per period

Data Based Charging

• Useful when bandwidth is expensive
• Encourages careful use of bandwidth
• Stops people downloading large files like video and streaming audio

PaperCut requires a supported proxy server to track and restrict the Internet access. As of PaperCut NG 7.0 the following proxies are supported:

	Supported Log Format	Can deny access
Squid (More info ...)		when using: Squid with Active Directory, or with Samba 3.0.7+ and Winbind
SquidNT "Squid for Windows" (More info ...)
MS ISA Server 2000/2004/2006 (More info ...)
MS Proxy Server
Free Proxy (More info ...)	(using W3C log format)

Manage internet usage

• Set reasonable limits for internet usage
• Charge / quota users by data transfer, time used or a combination of both

  How time based charging works:

  1. You choose the duration of each chargeable time period
  2. Each day is split into time periods of this duration
  3. When a user accesses the Internet within a time period, they are charged for using that period
  4. The defined charge for the period will be deducted from the user's account
  5. If the user has no credit, they will be disallowed access to the Internet
  
  
• Optionally don't charge for cached data, upstream data or certain sites

Charts and statistics...

• One-click access to charts, statistics and reports
• Find out how the average user is using the internet

Detailed reports...

• Find out:
  • which users are using the internet most (or least!)
  • which department / class is using the internet most
  • how long users are on the internet, and how much they are downloading
  • the days and times that the internet is used most
• Use the information to make informed decisions about your organization's IT needs

Investigate usage anomalies...

• Spot unusually high usage quickly from statistics, charts, graphs or reports
• Drill down to find out the details

What you don't see...

• Highly efficient log file processing, even across a network share
• Adds/removes users from a predefined domain Internet access group to optionally "lock out" users who have exceeded their quota
• Logs daily internet usage for reporting and tracking
• Provides users with near real-time reporting of their internet usage