TCP/IP Printing Problem

[phillip0]

I have an application that I’m developing that sends prints to a
TCP/IP printer using LPR. Whenever I send the print, I only get about
2% network utilization. I’ve done searches on the web for this issue,
but I’ve yet to find anything of value. The only thing that I found
so far is here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=816627. The only
thing is that SP4 is on the machine in question.

However, following the instructions laid out in that KB article, I did
a net monitor to see if the problems were the same. I did see a 0.2ms
delay after every 3rd packet, but I don’t know enough about the
monitor to tell you anything more. I looked at the files specified in
the above link, and while the dates on my files are actually
6-19-2003, the version numbers are less than the ones in the KB
article. Hmmm....

The best part about all of this is that it also happens on my XP Pro
machine. Double Hmmm....

The only thing I can figure is that the print server is somehow
limiting the ability to stream the print data.

Anybody have any suggestions/directions?

 

[phillip0]

I have an application that I'm developing that sends prints to
a TCP/IP printer using LPR. Whenever I send the print, I only
get about 2% network utilization. I've done searches on the
web for this issue, but I've yet to find anything of value.
The only thing that I found so far is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=816627. The only thing is
that SP4 is on the machine in question.

However, following the instructions laid out in that KB
article, I did a net monitor to see if the problems were the
same. I did see a 0.2ms delay after every 3rd packet, but I
don't know enough about the monitor to tell you anything more.
I looked at the files specified in the above link, and while
the dates on my files are actually 6-19-2003, the version
numbers are less than the ones in the KB article. Hmmm....

The best part about all of this is that it also happens on my
XP Pro machine. Double Hmmm....

The only thing I can figure is that the print server is
somehow limiting the ability to stream the print data.

Anybody have any suggestions/directions?

Okay, so I figured out part of my problem. I installed Print Services
for Unix to resolve this issue with network utilization.

Here’s my new problem: I have a printer installed as a local printer
on LPR port to LPD print server. The advanced settings on the printer
include "Print directly to the printer" instead of spooling because
of the very large spool size (20GB?). When printed directly to the
printer the spooler saves the output to a temporary file that occupies
a little more than 2GB. When the spooler finally starts printing to
the LPD print server, the file size is misrepresented as a negative
value. A little packet sniffing verified this -- a negative value.
Nice. So this has to be a bug in Windows, I’ve determined.

Anyone have any suggestions?

MS Windows 2000 SP4, in case you’re wondering.

It seems that it works on MS Windows XP SP2.