bstrong@sleepy.bmd.trw.com (03/27/91)
Hello,
I have what is probably a very simple problem. Among the various
printers on our AppleTalk network, one of our zones has a HP LaserJet IIP
with a LocalTalk card, 4 MB memory and a Postscript cartridge. Here is
the problem:
Most of the time printing, say a one page pie chart, takes
2-3 minutes from time sent to time printed out. However,
on occasion it (the same one page job) will take nearly an hour.
When this happens, the HP status will read (blink) PS Busy and
the MAC printing will have "...status: Job Processing..." until
the job goes thru. Some background: We have several AppleTalk
zones, but only one in the building this printing is from.
However, we do have two Nuvotech TurboStar Hubs (16 ports each)
to allow us to handle all our MACs and other devices in one zone.
My question, is this sporadic delay an AppleTalk hangup or a
problem with the HP (insufficient memory, buffering problems,
job processing, ...) ?????
Could anyone who knows the answer (probably everyone who reads this, but me)
let me know either thru e-mail or a posting? THANKS in advance.
++---------------------------------------------------------------++
Bryan Strong TRW/OEO * Ogden, UT * USA
Computing Services / Software Support
Internet: bstrong@oz.bmd.trw.com
Phone: 801.625.8090tom@wcc.oz.au (Tom Evans) (04/01/91)
In article <1310.27ef1f73@sleepy.bmd.trw.com>, bstrong@sleepy.bmd.trw.com writes: > Hello, > I have what is probably a very simple problem... > > Most of the time printing, say a one page pie chart, takes > 2-3 minutes from time sent to time printed out. However, > on occasion it (the same one page job) will take nearly an hour. > > However, we do have two Nuvotech TurboStar Hubs (16 ports each) > to allow us to handle all our MACs and other devices in one zone. How many devices do you have on the one network? From the fact that you have two 16-port repeaters I gather you could have more than 30. If you have devices chained off the repeaters, you could have even a lot more than 30. Since one Mac can saturate a single LocalTalk network (make it 100% busy), "N" Macs trying to use the network at the same time only get 1/N of the bandwidth. This can cause the AppleTalk protocols to retry unnecessarily - making it worse still. You could have a device out there jamming the network. Try disconnecting parts of your network and see if the problem goes away. Best of all, use Interpoll to measure these things rather than measuring LaserWriter printing time. ======================== Tom Evans tom@wcc.oz.au ** ADD ".au" MANUALLY (don't trust "reply") ** Webster Computer Corp P/L, 1270 Ferntree Gully Rd Scoresby, Melbourne 3179 Victoria, Australia 61-3-764-1100 FAX ...764-1179 A.C.N. 004 818 455