Slow Printing (2nd Attempt)

[Craig Huckabee]

  ( I thought I sent this message out before, but never saw it in the digests )

  Configuration :

     Windows NT 4.0 clients printing to Samba 1.9.18p8 running on Solaris
     2.6/2.51 machines.  The Samba servers are setup like this :

     ...
     security = server
     password server = %m
     encrypt passwords = yes
     networkstation user login = no
     ...

     So the server uses the client as the password server.
     

  Problem :

     Bringing up a print dialog from any application on the NT clients, or
     bringing up the properties dialog for any printer takes between 10 to
     30 seconds or more.

     A debug run at level 10 shows the client and server doing the 
     authentication chat.  I've also just noticed that the server
     also runs the 'lpq command' for each printer the client has installed
     whenever I open the "Printers" folder on the client, or whenever I
     attempt to print/get properties of any one of the printers.
     I would guess that is adding to the slow response if not being the 
     sole cause of it.

     Is this expected behavior ?  Is there a way to tune this ?  Is the 
     'lpq command' supposed to run for all printers each time I open the
     "Printers" folder ?

     Or is it the authentication chat that is taking so long ?

     Any tips/pointers/help/patches are greatly appreciated.

     --Craig

Craig Huckabee 				E-Mail : huck at cs.wisc.edu
Computer Systems Lab, Computer Sciences Department			
University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~huck/