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Hi All - I just setup a workgroup on my XP non-domain network at work, and started to share printers. Now, the printers are printing slower...even locally (in other words, even users who print to their direct printers are getting slwoer results). Any ideas?

Hey GQ,

Welcome to PCHF. We have a wonderful team of techs here, and I feel certain we can help you resolve this slow down.

First of all, can you please tell us how you have the printers installed on the network? How are your users accessing the printers?

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

Thanks! As far as how they are connected I'm not sure sure what you mean. All the clients are on a workgroup, and all the clients have local printers via the USB port. I just enabled sharing on all the printers. All the clients run XP.

Does that answer your question?

Actually, it does, thank you very much. I think I want to check with our resident networking specialist, but I am concerned that that may be your problem. Are all of the printers the same? Are they all Network compatible? How many folks are using the printers? How many people do you have connected.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

I have a total of 5 clients that are networked. The printers are as follows: HP Officejet Pro L7650 All-in-one, HP Officejet 7310 All-in-One, hp psc 2410 photosmart all-in-one, and a Dell 3100cn. The Dell is a laser printer and does not seem to be affected, but the others are all inkjets. They are all fairly new printers, and I can't imagine them not being network capable (they may be inkjets, but they are the higher end inkjets designed for small businesses).

Hi GQ,

Yes, I agree, they are new enough that they should be network compatible. My concern is that they are all in ones. Except for your lazer of course, . Those printers tend to have very memory intensive installs. Do you have the software for each printer installed on each of the 5 pcs?

Have you done any tests to see if the queues are slowing down the process?

Just curious, but if each of the users has their own printer, why are you networking anything but the lazer?

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

No, the only drivers installed are whatever the client automatically installs when I enable sharing (when I map a network printer to a client, the client automatically installs a basic driver for that printer). As far as why, well, it's more about information flow than anything. The guy with the laser needs remote access to a color printer. The rest of us transfer information so much, that we will just print the info out on the printer of whoever that info needs to go to. Sounds weird, but it works for our office environment.