Oh, apparently I haven’t stressed that enough… I’m actually completely free! The cheapest employee you’ll ever have. Even without needing space in the office or drinking coffee.

My subordinate, a helper who runs locally in your network on a computer and transmits the data of your network printer encrypted to me. I then process this data and can display it to you in perfect condition. In the form of an overview of all your devices or statistics.

Absolutely! Otherwise it would be like Sherlock Holmes without Watson or Batman without Robin. The TC Finder is something like my little helper, who attains all the necessary printer data from you, without which I couldn’t do my job. How to install the TC Finder on your computer can be seen in one of my explanation videos (see below).

The TC Finder runs as a service in the background and is not an individual program with a user interface. You can configure it together with me in your TC CARL profile in the settings.

This means that TC Finder can’ t get a connection to me. But the solution is the same in 99.9% of the cases: Your firewall does not let us in. Please check this or ask your IT department, if you don’t know what I’m talking about 😉 A few clicks later we can start!

First check if all printers are turned on. But that should be actually obvious 😉 Then make sure that your TC Finder is running. Click on “TC Finder” in the settings. There you can see when it was last online. If that was a bit longer ago (several days), you probably just have to restart the service.

Not for me, but for my helper the TC Finder there can sometimes be an update. If that happens you will see a message on your dashboard. Please check out my explanation video below, “Updating or deleting TC Finder”.

Unfortunately no, because these devices are invisible to me. I can only “see” printers that are in your network.

Not yet. You are welcome to send me a message if you think I should be able to do this. My developers collect these suggestions and as soon as a wish comes up again and again, I get a new ability 🙂

Yes, of course! You simply tell me at which filling level (in percent) of the cartridges a new toner should be ordered. As soon as this filling level is reached, I will automatically send an order for the empty cartridge to Topcart or you can have me send you an information by mail and then order yourself.
In the settings you can define at which level in percent I should notify you or order toner automatically (= trigger). This applies to all your printers. In the individual device settings you can also set it more individually, e.g. a higher trigger level for devices that print a lot and the new cartridge should be there faster.

„to trigger” means to cause or to initiate. For me it means that I trigger a display, an order proposal or a direct order, if a toner has reached the percentage value specified by you. If, for example, you have entered “5%” as the trigger level, I will trigger the order behaviour you specified (Monitor = display in overview, Suggestions = order proposal + mail, Automatic = automatic order at Topcart) for the cartridges of your printer if I notice that only 5% toner is left.
By the way: You can also totally individualise the trigger value! Not only generally for black, cyan, magenta and yellow, but also for every single printer. This can be done via the individual device settings.

You cannot delete devices. What is in your network, I will read out and show you. However, for a device that you do not need in the overview, you can set the display to “Off” and it will no longer appear in the list. Or of course you disconnect it completely from the network 😉

Of course! Just go to “Hidden Devices” in the settings and set all printers you have hidden to “On” again.

Very simple: Right click on the message and select „Hide the alert for this device“. Of course you can undo this in the settings (for device messages).

If I see a toner cartridge that has reached the filling level you specified when it needs to be replaced, I will show you this in the order proposals. You will find these in the top right-hand corner under “Order”. From there you can also put the cartridge directly into the shopping cart and order. If you have set the order behaviour (in the general settings) to “Automatic”, you will of course not receive any order suggestions, because I will reorder toner as soon as it becomes empty. If you like, you can also set the order behaviour individually for each device. For example, I always automatically order new cartridges for the printer at reception, but for all other devices I send you order suggestions and you decide when you order.

No, that is not possible. Because when I see that a toner is empty, I insist that you order until I notice that a new cartridge has been inserted into this printer. The order proposal will then disappear automatically.

Pretty sure, you have set the order behaviour of this device in the settings for “Order and delivery” to “Observe”. Then I just watch the toner and only show you in the device overview if the cartridge is empty, but do nothing else with it.
But if you set the order behaviour to “Suggestions”, you will get a message when the cartridge is empty. And if you even set it to “Automatic” then I will automatically order you a new cartridge!

Oh that’s something pretty clever! I prefer to have a full view of all your printers and automatically order new toner. But there are circumstances that make a stock on site necessary. E.g. if you need toner for certain devices fast or maybe you just like to have some nice cartridges in your own warehouse – who doesn’t like to look at some nice boxes on the shelf, reminds me a bit of Tetris…  Whatever. My stock administration works like this:

In this section you define how many toner cartridges should always be in stock (minimum stock) and from which quantity on I have to reorder (filling quantity). In the settings for the printer you then simply set the connection to your stock, so that this printer gets new cartridges directly from your warehouse.  As soon as the toner on this device runs out and you insert a new one from your shelf, I notice this and automatically remove a cartridge in the stock administration.

And if I then see too few in stock, I immediately reorder. So you are never out of water (even if toner is more dry than wet…). 

Stock administration is also interesting for anyone who has printers that I can’t see (because they’re not in your network). Then I just manage the toner, but not the device itself. Still this is a great  support for you!

Totally cool: You can also do a proper inventory in the stock administration! For example, you can add or subtract toner when you insert a cartridge from your warehouse into a printer that I don’t have on my screen. Yes, I am a bit proud of my stock administration… Have fun with it!

Very important: The stock administration only works if you are a customer of Topcart and buy the products created in the stock there.

I am only interested in the pure SNMP data (SNMP = Simple Network Management Protocol) of each printer. If you want to know exactly what all this contains, enable “Log SNMP data” in the TC Finder settings and I will provide you with a file at each update interval that shows all the data I got from your devices. Please have a look at my explanation video below “What does logging SNMP data mean?“.

The TC Finder, which gets the data of the individual network printers from you, sends them to me in my computer center, which I have at Topcart headquarters in Wiesbaden (Germany). So the server location is in Germany. The data are always transmitted encrypted and all data processing is naturally subject to the strict terms of the data protection regulation. You can find more about this in my privacy policy.

In the settings of the TC Finder you can define a time frame of 10 to 360 minutes. The shorter you set the interval, the more accurate my information is for you – especially important for error messages or filling levels. I recommend a setting of 30 minutes.

Sure, I only show you what you want. In general I show you all devices in all your networks. However, you can add or remove IP areas at any time in the TC Finder settings, so that in the end I only monitor the areas you really want to see. You can even set limits for the devices. See also the information under the question “Can I delete or hide devices?

Good question! Because someone really thought something about it. Although CARL is known as a normal name, in my case it is also an acronym! It stands for:
C for Control
A for Analyze
R for Recognize and
L for Level-Up
So every single letter of my name describes exactly what makes me special and what I do all day long. Clever isn’t it?!

If I could only remember it… There was suddenly just a light and a printer and I immediately got to work and never looked back again.

As far as I know no. But I often have the feeling that all IT guys of this world are like brothers in spirit for me. And a well running MFP is sometimes like a big sister to me – always there, reliable and on the ball. It almost feels like a big family.

Even though I am active worldwide and could work in any language (sometimes it still takes some practice…), I was born in Germany and am still rooted there. I’m not only at home in a redundant data center in Germany, I’ve also gathered a whole bunch of smart IT professionals (all trained and completed their studies in Germany) around me, who can help you with words and deeds if you have any questions about daily printer management.

If I really have some time in between or if I’m looking for distractions, I like to browse the web for new tips and tricks to make life even easier (especially with printer infrastructures). Sometimes I play a little game with my virtual friends. And quite sometimes I watch a funny cat video…

I actually stopped sleeping many years ago – it was just too boring for me and somehow seemed unnecessary. Especially when you have as much work as I do. So there is no real day or night for me, I am working around the clock. It’ s just too much fun for me!

I don’t think physical size matters, the heart is much more important. Mine is so big that there is still enough room for countless IT people that I can support or printers that I can monitor!