[Samba] printing in dos slows

[John Benedetto]

Afraid that I don't have any _direct_ experience with DOS printing to a 
Samba printer...

However, if it works like what I do know, the delay may be due to how you 
are printing via DOS.  You don't say which Windows you are using (9x?  NT? 
2K? XP?).

In 9x (when I last had to do DOS printing), the LPT1: port is 'captured' to 
the network printer.  As far as the DOS program knows, it is sending the 
job to the LPT port, and all is fine.  Problem is that Windows has know way 
of knowing when the DOS program is done printing, except to guess: "Gee, I 
stopped receiving stuff for LPT1 15 (or 30, or 45) seconds ago, I guess it 
must be done. I better send the print job to the printer."

While I think you _can_ adjust the timeout period, if you set it too short, 
you may corrupt your print jobs, depending on the complexity of what you 
are printing (text only? graphics? that sort of thing).

The "best" way to fix it is to get your clients off of DOS! :-)  (yes, yes, 
I realize this may not be an option in the real world, before you 
complain...)

- john

--On Saturday, September 14, 2002 4:17 AM -0400 Joel Hammer 
<Joel at HammersHome.com> wrote:

> I don't know anything about dos printing.
>
> Frequently odd delays like this are due to attempts of the windows client
> to authenticate in ways that samba is not expecting or supporting.
>
> Or, there may be a name resolution problem and the delay you see is a
> timeout waiting for a non-existent host to respond.
>
> I have had success using tcpdump to track down this sort of problem.
>
> Have you looked in the samba logs?
>
> Joel
>
>
> On Fri, Sep 13, 2002 at 09:41:32PM -0400, Dominic Deferia wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have an issue in dos printing. My okidata dot matrix printer is
>> directly connected to linux box and is a shared printer in  samba . I am
>> using lprng. My problem is with dos printing. When i print, it spools
>> first indicated in the windows printer window. It takes a minute before
>> it actually sends to the linux box, you will see an indicator of spooled
>> bytes. Once it is submitted it prints right away. Is there a way I can
>> speed this up a little bit. My clients are complaining about this. I
>> tried options of print directly to printer, but it is the same result. I
>> use the net use lpt1 \\server\printshare option to make dos apps print
>> work. Any help or link is highly appreciated.
>>
>> Thank you.
>>
>>
>> Dominic Y. Deferia