Help with slow print performace

[Clayton]

Hi,
I am at a lost to figure this one out.

I have installed a Printer on a computer locally and have shared the printer on
the network for other computers to print to it.
I have 12 workstations using this printer on the network and 5 of these
computers seem to be very slow at bringing up the the print dialogue box when
you select File/Print. also very slow when you open a .pdf, .doc and just
selecting the print icon.

I have contacted Brother about the printer and they said to reinstall the
drivers on the computer that the printer is connected to and add the printer
again to the workstations which I have done and it's still the same.

1 of the 5 computers that were having problems came right after I remove the
network printer from that computer and added it again, but doing this to the
others did not work.

What else I did on one troubled computer was delete the network printer and
added another network printer from another computer with a printer connected to
it and it was fine.

Some work ok and some don't so I am at a lost, all workstations are identical as
in installation and configuration of Windows XP.

Thanks for any help

Clayton

 

[Malke]

Hi,
I am at a lost to figure this one out.

I have installed a Printer on a computer locally and have shared the
printer on the network for other computers to print to it.
I have 12 workstations using this printer on the network and 5 of
these computers seem to be very slow at bringing up the the print
dialogue box when you select File/Print. also very slow when you open
a .pdf, .doc and just selecting the print icon.

I have contacted Brother about the printer and they said to reinstall
the drivers on the computer that the printer is connected to and add
the printer again to the workstations which I have done and it's still
the same.

1 of the 5 computers that were having problems came right after I
remove the network printer from that computer and added it again, but
doing this to the others did not work.

What else I did on one troubled computer was delete the network
printer and added another network printer from another computer with a
printer connected to it and it was fine.

Some work ok and some don't so I am at a lost, all workstations are
identical as in installation and configuration of Windows XP.

Thanks for any help

Clayton

You are always going to have problems trying to share a locally
connected printer among that many workstations. Either get a network
printer and connect it directly via ethernet or buy a print server and
connect the printer to the network that way. In addition, you didn't
say whether you are using Pro or Home, but you may also be running into
the concurrent connections limitation. Making the printer connect to
the network instead of locally will solve this.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314882 - Inbound connections limit in
XP

concurrent connections:

10 for XP Pro/Tablet/MCE
5 for XP Home
49 for SBS 2000
74 for SBS 2003
Unlimited for full Server O/Ses

Malke

 

[Clayton]

All computers are running XP Pro and the printer server computer is 98, it was
working ok before with that many computers on the network but all the computers
then were running Windows 98, now I have replaced them with XP Pro machines.
The only thing that has change since this problem started is that all the
computers went from 98 to XP and most of the pc's went upstairs which the
network was added on by running a cable from the downstairs switch to the new
upstairs switch, I rang the network guy today and told him about it and he said
can you use the file sharing with other computers ok and I said yes that side is
not a problem then he said there is nothing wrong with the cabling then and it's
the computers, I said why are the ones downstairs ok and the ones upstairs not,
he didn't have an answer for me, I have tried changing the cables from the patch
panel to the switch into another port and some pc's upstairs worked fine but I
still have problems with the other 3, the printer is a network printer which is
a Brother 4000CN but not sure how to configure it directly to a outlet?


| Clayton wrote:
|
| > Hi,
| > I am at a lost to figure this one out.
| >
| > I have installed a Printer on a computer locally and have shared the
| > printer on the network for other computers to print to it.
| > I have 12 workstations using this printer on the network and 5 of
| > these computers seem to be very slow at bringing up the the print
| > dialogue box when you select File/Print. also very slow when you open
| > a .pdf, .doc and just selecting the print icon.
| >
| > I have contacted Brother about the printer and they said to reinstall
| > the drivers on the computer that the printer is connected to and add
| > the printer again to the workstations which I have done and it's still
| > the same.
| >
| > 1 of the 5 computers that were having problems came right after I
| > remove the network printer from that computer and added it again, but
| > doing this to the others did not work.
| >
| > What else I did on one troubled computer was delete the network
| > printer and added another network printer from another computer with a
| > printer connected to it and it was fine.
| >
| > Some work ok and some don't so I am at a lost, all workstations are
| > identical as in installation and configuration of Windows XP.
| >
| > Thanks for any help
| >
| > Clayton
|
| You are always going to have problems trying to share a locally
| connected printer among that many workstations. Either get a network
| printer and connect it directly via ethernet or buy a print server and
| connect the printer to the network that way. In addition, you didn't
| say whether you are using Pro or Home, but you may also be running into
| the concurrent connections limitation. Making the printer connect to
| the network instead of locally will solve this.
|
| http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314882 - Inbound connections limit in
| XP
|
| concurrent connections:
|
| 10 for XP Pro/Tablet/MCE
| 5 for XP Home
| 49 for SBS 2000
| 74 for SBS 2003
| Unlimited for full Server O/Ses
|
| Malke
| --
| MS-MVP Windows User/Shell
| Elephant Boy Computers
| www.elephantboycomputers.com
| "Don't Panic"

 

[Malke]

All computers are running XP Pro and the printer server computer is
98, it was working ok before with that many computers on the network
but all the computers then were running Windows 98, now I have
replaced them with XP Pro machines. The only thing that has change
since this problem started is that all the computers went from 98 to
XP and most of the pc's went upstairs which the network was added on
by running a cable from the downstairs switch to the new upstairs
switch, I rang the network guy today and told him about it and he said
can you use the file sharing with other computers ok and I said yes
that side is not a problem then he said there is nothing wrong with
the cabling then and it's the computers, I said why are the ones
downstairs ok and the ones upstairs not, he didn't have an answer for
me, I have tried changing the cables from the patch panel to the
switch into another port and some pc's upstairs worked fine but I
still have problems with the other 3, the printer is a network printer
which is a Brother 4000CN but not sure how to configure it directly to
a outlet?

If the printer is network-ready, which means it has a network adapter
installed in it, you would just plug in an ethernet cable and assign it
an IP address. Refer to the manual that came with your Brother or look
for information on their website.

In addition, make sure that all firewalls are configured to allow your
lan as Trusted. Service Pack 2 automatically enables the Windows
Firewall. If you are not running a third-party firewall, go to the
Windows Firewall applet in Control Panel and enable File & Printer
Sharing on the Exceptions tab. If you are using a third-party firewall
(and have properly configured it to allow your lan traffic as Trusted),
then turn the Windows Firewall off. You don't want two firewalls
running, and a third-party program will be better than the WF. All
firewalls must be properly configured to allow lan traffic as Trusted.

Malke