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Xerox Fax Driver Contacts File Location

aaron — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:24:54 +0000

I hate spending even 15 minutes trying to find a file on my computer just to figure out that the file resides in a common location, such as My Documents. I was assisting a user that recently lost all of her fax contacts in the Xerox fax driver. She asked me, what happened to them? Where are they stored? At the time I had no idea.

The Xerox LAN Fax Phonebook data is stored in the user’s My Documents folder. The file is named default.pb.

If you want to import into this address book, follow the link below:

http://www.office.xerox.com/support/dctips/dc00cc0114.pdf

-Aaron

PPD Files

aaron — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:51:47 +0000

During a recent printer deploy project, I had two requirements that I had some difficulty resolving: (a) color control for Xerox printers for both Windows and Mac; and (b) permanently disabling banner sheets.

The specific configuration was that all print jobs are sent through a Windows print server, serving Windows natively and Mac through Unix services Line Printer Daemon (LPD).

For Windows, I was able to control the color output and banner pages through features in the driver configuration on the server, which propagated to all Windows machines. Obviously, this propagation does not happen for LPD on a Mac. Even if the specific queue in Windows is set to BW only and no banner, a color job from a Mac still produces color and the banner is still produced.

The resolution? Modify the Mac PPD for each print queue.

PPD?

A PPD is a PostScript Printer Definition, a text based configuration file that defines the scope of the printer, such as the capabilities, defaults and restrictions.

Since PPD files are based on PostScript, how a PPD is defined is determined by Adobe. Please visit the following link for more information: http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/ps/5003.PPD_Spec_v4.3.pdf

Xerox PPD and Color Control

The Xerox printer driver for Mac has a PPD that defines that printer. Inside the PPD I modified two lines to disable color output:

*ColorDevice: False
*DefaultColorSpace: Gray

Although I changed both, it was only at the time that I changed the DefaultColorSpace that the color output stopped. Even though the Mac user still has the option to specify color at print time, the output will remain BW.

Xerox PPD and Banner Page

In the same PPD, I modified one tag that permanently removed banner pages:

*DefaultJCLBanner: False

PPD Location

In the Mac environment, custom English PPD files are located in:
\Hard Drive\Library\Printers\PPDs\Contents\Resources\en.lproj

To copy files in to this folder you will need to authenticate using a username with Admin permissions.

All tag information, such as * DefaultJCLBanner, is in the document provided by Adobe, as was provided above.

FollowYou Printing Configuration Issue

aaron — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:50:56 +0000

Setting up a Xerox printer with the Xerox Secure Access feature allows one to use the FollowYou printing capability of the Xerox MFP devices. For those that do not know, FollowYou printing enables users to send a print job into a Secure Access queue, which will wait to be printed at any Secure Access configured printer in a company’s printer fleet. On the MFP, there is an icon on the main screen named, Release my documents, which contain the Secure Access print jobs.

Problem

If you receive the following error when attempting to initialize the FollowYou printing from the Xerox Secure Access Unified ID System Configuration, change the system password on the Xerox device, as specified in the above paragraph.

Error: FollowYou Printing Failed.
Specifics: “C:\PROGRA~1\Xerox\SECURE~1\Tools\SAXeroxEIPRegistration.exe” -i [printer ip] -r [Xerox SA print server IP]

Note: If you run that command in the error box from a command prompt, you will receive the following error:

Registration failed for device [printer ip]: The security token could not be authenticated or authorized.

Resolution

Most of the Xerox MFPs have the configured username, 11111, and password, x-admin, as the default system credentials. Unfortunately, the Xerox Secure Access FollowYou printing capability requires that the MFP devices use username, admin, and password, 1111. To do this, open the web interface for the copier, go to Properties -> Security -> System Administrator Settings. For the Administrator’s Login ID, enter admin. For Administrator’s Passcode, enter 1111.

Change the system username and password and this issue should resolve. Keep in mind that if you change the Xerox printer system username and password and do not remember what you set it to, it is difficult to regain access.

Disclaimer

Also keep in mind that I am not responsible for how the above information affects your equipment. This information is provided warranty free and for informational purposes only. What you do with your equipment and how you do it, is your responsibility.

HID Cards and Xerox Printers

aaron — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:50:19 +0000

HID cards use RFID and are considered a proximity card with a set of bits that is read when it is placed near a compatible reader. The number of bits read from the card range from the supposed standard 26 bit (Wiegand) to proprietary 36 bit to over 80 bit, all depending on the vendor reselling the HID card.

Encoded / Decoded

Initially I was confused on how the card was encoded. What I misunderstood at first was that the terminology encoded does not mean encrypted. Encryption is something completely different, such as applying a key to scramble and unscramble information, whereas with encoding, a piece of an encoded string is easily converted to something legible, let me explain:

The binary string, 011010101111010100001110101110, is 448611246in decimal format. Now, if you take a piece of that binary string, say bit 10 to bit 19 (or 1101010000), and convert to decimal format, you would get 848. The number 448611246 could mean absolutely nothing, whereas 848 could be a relevant number, such as the badge number.

011010101111010100001110101110
aaaaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbcccccccccc

The bits from a (0-9): 427
The bits from b (10-19): 848
The bits from c (20-29): 942

Review the first link from hidcorp.com to get a better understanding.

Xerox Proximity Card Reader

Xerox has a fairly new product that allows one to use current facility HID cards as an authentication method for scanning to email, et cetera. As stated above, HID cards when scanned will produce a binary number, which will contain encoded information typically pertaining to card # (badge #), facility #, et cetera.

The card reader, by Equitrax, integrates with the Xerox Secure Access application allowing users to authenticate for scan to email with a HID badge. The Xerox Secure Access application is the middleware between the Equitrax card reader and your specific directory service, such as Active Directory or eDirectory.

Card Reader Problem, HID Card Reads as Base 8

Unfortunately, the Xerox card reader or the Xerox Secure Access software produces a base 8 representation of the HID binary number.

Using the HID decoding as specified in your card access system or as specified by HID will not work correctly as the offsets now relate to a base 8 versus a base 2 (binary) number, effectively shortening the number length. The binary number, 011010101111010100001110101110, is 3257241656 in base8, going from 30 digits to 10 digits.

Resolution

Currently, the only resolution I have found for this problem is use the full base8 output of the HID card and associate that number with the specific network user account.

Links

Understanding Card Data Formats: http://www.hidcorp.com/pdfs/undrstndg_card_data_formats.pdf

Format and Facility (Site) Code explained: http://www.identisource.net/format_and_facility_codes_expl.cfm

The Standard 26 bit Format: http://www.identisource.net/26_bit_format_layout.cfm

Base Conversion: http://fclass.vaniercollege.qc.ca/web/mathematics/real/Calculators/BaseConv_Calc_1.htm