Snail pace printing through wireless link

[Guest]

This is your chance to solve our mystery where all others have failed

We have asked for advice on about five user groups and nobody seems to know
the answer!

We have three PCs and a laptop on a wireless network all running Windows XP
Home Edition.

We have D-Link DWL G520+ PCI Adapters on the PCs and a Linksys USB adapter
on the laptop. They communicate through a Linksys Broadband Gateway.

Previously there was a dial up connection with a D-Link Wireless Access
Point. At that time we had PC1 and the laptop running Windows XP HE and PC2
and PC3 running Windows 98SE.

We had great problems with the link breaking down from PCs 2 and 3 both to
the internet and to the printer (Epson R200) which is connected to PC1 by
USB.

Our supplier told us that the PCs were old and worn out and if they were
upgraded and running XP everything would be fine.

We eventually succumbed and we now have new machines so everything is on
Windows XP HE.

Everything is fine apart from........... being able to print from PC2.

Small documents - say, a few lines of a Word doc or a small email print out
OK but if it is something bigger then it takes forever. For example printing
a 165kB PDF file can take over 45 minutes. The printer dialogue box showed
the status as Printing...Spooling and the size as anything up to about 9mB
before it
printed out. That's if you are lucky - sometimes it will not print at all. It
makes no difference which program you are using.

However, if you open the same document via the wireless link in PC1 or the
other machines and print from there it will print within seconds.

PC 1, PC2 and PC3 are about eight feet apart (on apexes of a triangle) and
the Linksys Gateway is about six feet above PC2. The laptop works effectively
up to 30 feet away through 2 feet thick stone walls.

This has now gone on for months and I cannot get any sense anywhere - the
most Iget is people say its a Printer Spooling problem but cannot offer any
real help.

Can somebody help please?

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

You can solve your issue by purchasing and installing a
print server:
http://www.dlink.com/products/category.asp?cid=10&sec=0

D-Link Network Configurator
http://www.dlink.com/configurator/?vendorID=dlink

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

---------------------------------------------------------------------------­----------------

:

| This is your chance to solve our mystery where all others have failed
|
| We have asked for advice on about five user groups and nobody seems to know
| the answer!
|
| We have three PCs and a laptop on a wireless network all running Windows XP
| Home Edition.
|
| We have D-Link DWL G520+ PCI Adapters on the PCs and a Linksys USB adapter
| on the laptop. They communicate through a Linksys Broadband Gateway.
|
| Previously there was a dial up connection with a D-Link Wireless Access
| Point. At that time we had PC1 and the laptop running Windows XP HE and PC2
| and PC3 running Windows 98SE.
|
| We had great problems with the link breaking down from PCs 2 and 3 both to
| the internet and to the printer (Epson R200) which is connected to PC1 by
| USB.
|
| Our supplier told us that the PCs were old and worn out and if they were
| upgraded and running XP everything would be fine.
|
| We eventually succumbed and we now have new machines so everything is on
| Windows XP HE.
|
| Everything is fine apart from........... being able to print from PC2.
|
| Small documents - say, a few lines of a Word doc or a small email print out
| OK but if it is something bigger then it takes forever. For example printing
| a 165kB PDF file can take over 45 minutes. The printer dialogue box showed
| the status as Printing...Spooling and the size as anything up to about 9mB
| before it
| printed out. That's if you are lucky - sometimes it will not print at all. It
| makes no difference which program you are using.
|
| However, if you open the same document via the wireless link in PC1 or the
| other machines and print from there it will print within seconds.
|
| PC 1, PC2 and PC3 are about eight feet apart (on apexes of a triangle) and
| the Linksys Gateway is about six feet above PC2. The laptop works effectively
| up to 30 feet away through 2 feet thick stone walls.
|
| This has now gone on for months and I cannot get any sense anywhere - the
| most Iget is people say its a Printer Spooling problem but cannot offer any
| real help.
|
| Can somebody help please?
|
| --
| Simple Swansea Jack

 

[Guest]

I don't understand why I need to purchase additional bits for PC2 since PC1,
PC3 and the laptop work perfectly well on the same network - surely there is
something wrong with PC2?

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Is PC2 running an extra firewall or other internet security application?
--
Cari (MS-MVP)
Printing & Imaging
http://www.coribright.com/windows

 

[Guest]

Don't think so

There is Microsoft Spyware which I think came with XP

XP Firewall
AVG Free Edition
MSGTAG - which sends back confirmation that an email has been opened

There used to be Norton Antivirus before AVG was installed

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

Microsoft Defender is not installed by default on XP.

Check the XP Firewall is allowing File and Print Sharing on both the PC with
the printer and the problem unit.

Check the Symantec website for an uninstall utility to check NAV is
completely removed. I think of it as borgware, a piece of software which so
assimilates the PC as to make it almost impossible to get rid of (other than
a format and clean install)

 

[Lem]

This is your chance to solve our mystery where all others have failed

We have asked for advice on about five user groups and nobody seems to know
the answer!

We have three PCs and a laptop on a wireless network all running Windows XP
Home Edition.

We have D-Link DWL G520+ PCI Adapters on the PCs and a Linksys USB adapter
on the laptop. They communicate through a Linksys Broadband Gateway.

Previously there was a dial up connection with a D-Link Wireless Access
Point. At that time we had PC1 and the laptop running Windows XP HE and PC2
and PC3 running Windows 98SE.

We had great problems with the link breaking down from PCs 2 and 3 both to
the internet and to the printer (Epson R200) which is connected to PC1 by
USB.

Our supplier told us that the PCs were old and worn out and if they were
upgraded and running XP everything would be fine.

We eventually succumbed and we now have new machines so everything is on
Windows XP HE.

Everything is fine apart from........... being able to print from PC2.

Small documents - say, a few lines of a Word doc or a small email print out
OK but if it is something bigger then it takes forever. For example printing
a 165kB PDF file can take over 45 minutes. The printer dialogue box showed
the status as Printing...Spooling and the size as anything up to about 9mB
before it
printed out. That's if you are lucky - sometimes it will not print at all. It
makes no difference which program you are using.

However, if you open the same document via the wireless link in PC1 or the
other machines and print from there it will print within seconds.

PC 1, PC2 and PC3 are about eight feet apart (on apexes of a triangle) and
the Linksys Gateway is about six feet above PC2. The laptop works effectively
up to 30 feet away through 2 feet thick stone walls.

This has now gone on for months and I cannot get any sense anywhere - the
most Iget is people say its a Printer Spooling problem but cannot offer any
real help.

Can somebody help please?

Did you install the latest R200 driver on PC2? [epson11220.exe - 7.9MB - posted
on 10/06/04]
(I don't remember the details, but it seems to me as if under some circumstances,
a PC with XP and a printer installed will automatically download a driver to
another PC connecting over a network if the remote PC doesn't have the correct
driver. Even so, it shouldn't take 45 minutes to transmit and install the
driver, even if it's almost 8MB large. And I'd think it would only have to do it
once.)

Assuming that the 165 KB file resides on the hard drive of PC2, what happens if
you open Adobe Reader on PC1, access the file across the network, and then print
(locally on PC1)?

How long does it take just to copy the file from PC2 to PC1? And then what
happens when you try to print the copy on PC1?

 

[Lisa K]

On our office network, I found that only some computers will run into the
slow printing problem and the pages seem to pause between each one being
printed. Turned out it had to do with an upgraded driver and the system
just plain not liking it. When I rolled back the driver to a PCL5 or PCL5e,
the documents printed out just fine and quickly. When I had it as a PCL6,
it was snail paced.

Just a thought to check different drivers for the printer.