How can I disable printer access on a managed account (guest/kids)?

Question

How can I disable printer access on a managed account (guest/kids)?

Is there a way to disable printer use on a managed user account? I have created a limited user account for my kids to use. The problem is, sometimes they visit these websites that allow them to print their "works of art" and by doing so they use up a lot of my printer toner and paper. I don't want to have to turn off the printer and create a giant printer queue as the printer is a network printer shared among other computers. I rather just disable their printing capabilities. Deleting the printer from their user account also deleted it from my main (admin) account. I'm posting this in hopes someone out there knows how to do what I'm asking for. Thank you.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 15, 2012 11:03 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 16, 2012 3:30 PM in response to Community User

Hi,

I'm new to this topic too, but I think the answer may be through CUPS. It's installed by default with Mountain Lion, though you need to enable it before you can use it. After that, it seems it should let you manage user access.

I hope you don't mind if I let you investigate further yourself, because we're both coming at it as beginners anyway.

HTH.

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Answer 2

Oct 16, 2012 5:50 PM in response to Community User

Scotch_Brawth has the basic steps outlined. A few additions I would make is that CUPS is already running on your system in the background. It is the underlying printing system for OS X. The easiest way to control the users of printers is through the web interface to CUPS. This is what is disabled by default in Mountain Lion. You can enable it by using the Terminal (/Applications/Terminal). Copy and paste the following command into a Terminal wndow and then hit Enter or Return:

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

Now you can use any web browser and go to http://127.0.0.1:631/printers/. Click on the link to the printer you want to control. There will be two drop down menus near the top of the page -- Maintenance and Administaration. Use the Administration menu to select Set Allowed Users. The page that will appear lets you enter a list of users to either allow to use the printer or prevent from using the printer. Make the appropriate choices and click the Set Allowed Users button. You will be prompted to enter your administrator's user name and password.

You only need to enable the web interface once. It will then be available unless you use the Terminal to disable it or until an Apple update turns it off again.

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