Slow printing/Server authentication

[Corcoran, Tim]

I am running Samba 2.0.6 on HP-UX 10.20.  I serve out print services
sitewide to a couple of hundred printers.  They are networked, jet direct
connected.  However, they show as local devices on the server (we
implemented BSD printing on the HP ourselves).  I have up to about 600 users
utilizing this service.  We use security set to server with an entry for
everyone in the password file.  The password server line points to our NT
PDC's.  They are running NT 4.0 with SP5 applied.

I recently found that bringing up the print requestor from a windows
application (Word, Outlook, you name it) can take a long time to display and
'freeze'.  In fact it was taking anywhere from 5-25 seconds.  People
complained.  I looked into the situation and made two changes as suggested
from the mailing lists: 1) Change the LPQ command to cat out a file that
echos "no entries" and 2) upgrade to 2.0.6.  Neither of these made a
difference.

The one piece I haven't shared yet is what I found to be the most
interesting.  As I said, we use security set to server and point to our NT
PDC's for authentication.  In getting down to the packet level, I am seeing
that the first connection sent to the NT box has the user name and all of
the password set to 1F's.  the negotiation results in an "access denied
error 5" message.  Here is where the delay can be verified.  After this, the
Samba server sends the username with the password and is authenticated.

Any clue as to how I may get this delay time down?  I think, from a users
point of view, a 2 second delay is about all they'll except.  I'm
afraid...that my time....is....running.....out.

-Tim Corcoran
Siemens Power Corporation
Tim_Corcoran at nfuel.com