Slow showing of network printers when trying to print preview or prinSo it isn't netowrk performnce

  • Thread starter Thread starter Nathan Simpson
  • Start date Start date
N

Nathan Simpson

Hi,

We have an issue that if we have machine (xp OR 2000) that connects to
multiple network printers it can take a really long time to do a print
preview or bring up a list of printers to print to.

Some of the printers are connected using HTTP and if the printer isn't
turned on it can take up to 5 minutes for the pc to acknowledge the printer
not being there and freeing up the application so I can choose a printer
that is turned on.

This isn't a network performance issue, it happens to local as well as
remote printers.

Why is this happening?

How can we stop it?

If the printers are over a WAN it can become unbearable even printing a 1
page document.

Any ideas?

TIA

Nathan Simpson
 
NS,

We experienced this problem quite heavily, and we found out that is
was related to Word preview. The WYSIWYG functionality in programs
like Word and Acrobat Reader make the client to convert unknown fonts
via a download of the driver (the first time it is used during the
session). This downloading is slow.

Additionally we found that many of our "perfomance charts" were based
on a template that originally was created in Word2.0. This still
included many W2K unknown TTF fonts. Because most colleagues used this
template daily, the problem was appearing for everyone and as such
flooding the network (WAN).

So we removed the fonts (Tools, Options Font compatability) from all
templates and forced Word to use known fonts. So we prevented the
download of the driver and as such the problems.

/Bram
 
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