SP2 network printing problems

[TC]

Hi

I have four PCs on a small lan. Two are Win98 SE, two are WinXP pro. One of
the Win98 PCs has all the printers attached and other PCs point to these
printrers accross the network.

All ran fine with printing on the XP machines and although not as fast as
having a local printer, printing was still fine. Then I snstalled SP2 on the
XP machines. Since then any contact with the printer takes ages. When I open
a doc in word (97) it takes about 30secs as it appears to be trying to
contact the default printer. If I set the default to a local (PDF) printer
it all opens v quickly. The firewall is off and otherwise the LAN appears
fine.

Has anyone else found this problem and if so what should I be doing. The
slow operation of word is driving me crazy !

Thanks

 

[Richard]

I bought a small netgear print server and took printing off of the PC. Then
was able to use the prining to an IP address function in XP. This gave me
HUGELY improved printing control from XP though from older systems the
printing was largely unchanged. It was a slight fiddle to sort out and I
would not use the Netgear software for an XP machine as performance was
terrible, but otherwise the improved service has been a tonic. [XP does
tend to look for all the network resources it thinks it needs or may need
before it gets on with anything, on the other hand it handles missing
network drives rather better than older systems.]
Richard

 

[SlowJet]

Set Winprint = raw (especially on P/C using shared printers.)

Check Use print spooler and sub check start printing emediately.

If a lot of printing is occuring, more memory on the printer may allow an
I/O buffering so more prints can be downloaded to the printer. Usually a
certtain amount reached turns thse features on.

If you are not using print spooler and have mimimum printer memory, your
waiting on the printer to phyically print. If you use EMF the output will
need to be converted to raw on the other side and take longer. If your
printers are low on memory your screen founts will be download over and
over. Increase memeory or use founts on printer.

SJ

 

[TC]

This sounds like a good solution. I've never tried a print server - which
netgear unit did you use (PS101 mini ?)and apart from the software are you
happy with it ?

Thanks, Tobit
________________________________

I bought a small netgear print server and took printing off of the PC.
Then was able to use the prining to an IP address function in XP. This
gave me HUGELY improved printing control from XP though from older systems
the printing was largely unchanged. It was a slight fiddle to sort out and
I would not use the Netgear software for an XP machine as performance was
terrible, but otherwise the improved service has been a tonic. [XP does
tend to look for all the network resources it thinks it needs or may need
before it gets on with anything, on the other hand it handles missing
network drives rather better than older systems.]
Richard

 

[Rex]

This sounds like a good solution. I've never tried a print server - which
netgear unit did you use (PS101 mini ?)and apart from the software are you
happy with it ?

Thanks, Tobit

I am using a Netgear PS110 print server, it has two parallel ports.
Netgear software works without a problem with XP.

Rex

 

[Guest]

I would go into each computer on your network and take out of the regisrty
these two keys under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RemoteComputer\NameSpace\
delete the key (folder) called {2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} and
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}. These are the only two keys under
NameSpace.

The other thing that I would do is go into Device Manager of each XP machine
and take the check out of "Allow the computer to turn off this device to
save power" under the "Power Management" tab of the network card in the
computer..

 

[Guest]

Try this in the DOS command line (cmd.exe)
in a single line:

net use \\computer_name_with_printers_installed\IPC$ /persistent:yes

You shoul make a *.cmd file to put this command and then make
it start after you have logged in into your pc (scheduled tasks).

I have exacly the same network configuration as you
and this command have helped me a lot.

I start having this same problem after the SP2 upgrade.
Without this command "net use" when i try to use the printers
or just open the printer properties in a SP2 machine the
number of connections (or TCP ports) open to the win98 pc TCP port 139 with
the printers , starts to grow and never stop until i stop using the printers.

Here´s a log of the connections, made with "netstat -a -n" just by opening
the printers and faxes window, after 5 minutes, before the "net use".

C:\>netstat -a -n

Ligações activas

Proto Endereço local Endereço externo Estado
TCP 0.0.0.0:135 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:445 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:1025 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:1030 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.2:139 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.2:1029 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1030 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1031 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1032 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1033 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1034 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1035 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1036 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1047 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1048 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1049 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1050 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1051 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1052 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1054 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1057 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1058 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1059 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1060 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1061 192.168.1.5:139 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP 192.168.1.2:1062 192.168.1.5:139 ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.2:3589 194.65.79.140:80 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP [::]:135 [::]:0 LISTENING 0
UDP 0.0.0.0:445 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:500 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:1031 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:4500 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:123 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:1064 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:1135 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:1900 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:123 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:137 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:138 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:1900 *:*

And this should be the problem with the SP2, he´s unable to re-use
automaticaly the connections made to a win 98 machine , so he just starts to
open multiple connections and this can slow down the printer system.

This is my log now that i have entered the "net use" command:

C:\>netstat -a -n

Ligações activas

Proto Endereço local Endereço externo Estado
TCP 0.0.0.0:135 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 0.0.0.0:445 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:1025 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 127.0.0.1:1030 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.2:139 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING
TCP 192.168.1.2:2021 192.168.1.5:139 ESTABLISHED
TCP 192.168.1.2:3589 194.65.79.140:80 CLOSE_WAIT
TCP [::]:135 [::]:0 LISTENING 0
UDP 0.0.0.0:445 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:500 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:1031 *:*
UDP 0.0.0.0:4500 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:123 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:1064 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:1135 *:*
UDP 127.0.0.1:1900 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:123 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:137 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:138 *:*
UDP 192.168.1.2:1900 *:*

 

[TC]

Thanks for all the help guys

I have moved the printers onto a print server as suggested by richard
(netgear PS110) but with no noticable difference. The SP2 machine is still
very slow while the 98 machine is very fast

Blaster - I think you have isolated the problem.

C:\>netstat -a -n on the SP2 shows many CLOSE_WAIT lines (like you before
your fix)
C:\>netstat -a -n on the 98 machine shows only one CLOSE-WAIT (like you
after the fix)

cmd line does not seem to work - it is this

C:\net use \\Psa5edbc\IPC$ /persistent:yes

Is the syntax correct (I've not got much DOS experience ?)
I saved it as a notepad txt file and then changed the suffix to cmd, then
put a shortcut in scheduled taskes at login (I don't use a password, but I
dont think this matters does it ?)

Tobit

 

[Guest]

If you don´t use a password to acess your Win XP computer you are not able to
schedule tasks with your username, that is, without changing the Win registry.
The simple way to keep your pc without a password and make this printer
problem go away type this, after changing it to your system, in the command
line "cmd.exe" in a single line:

net use LPT9:
\\computer_name_with_printers_installed\one_of_the_printers_shared_name
/persistent:yes

To make this more simple in my system i typed this:

net use LPT9: \\serv_m\epson_sc_600 /persistent:yes

This makes the win XP SP2 to always have an open connection to the pc with
the printers an you even can print DOS jobs into the LPT9 local port.

The Win XP automaticaly makes an entry into the registry to make this
activate always at system start, so you do not have to type this every time
you start your PC.

You can modify the LPT9 to other number of LPT if that LPT is not already in
use in your WIN XP system .