NetWare 4.1/9000 Print Services

C-7
Optimizing Network Printing Performance
Printer Configuration
Printer Configuration
Polled versus Interrupt Mode
When configuring printers in NetWare Services, the default is polled mode.
Polled mode, while theoretically not as fast as interrupt mode, still sends
data faster that most printers can process it.
The advantage of polled mode is that it eliminates any possibility for
interrupt conflicts with different hardware configurations. However, on
complex printing setups with multiple printers running off a single
workstation, polled mode may noticeably slow the execution of other tasks
running on that workstation.
On a workstation that is running only NPRINTER with no other operations
assigned to it, interrupt mode should be faster than polled mode.
On a non-dedicated workstation, polled mode usually provides the best
performance.
Buffer Size
On workstations running NPRINTER, throughput is affected by the buffer
size defined for the printer. On dedicated workstations, no non-printing
resources require memory on the machine, so larger buffers will speed up
your printing without degrading the performance of other workstation tasks.
With no load on the network, maximum data rate can be achieved with any
buffer size larger than 5KB. The default buffer size is 3KB. As network
traffic increases, packet delays decrease throughput for any buffer size. For
very busy networks, a buffer size of 20KB may be desirable to ensure having
enough data stored to carry over long packet delays. The buffer size needed
for maximum data throughput will range from 6KB to 20KB depending on
the traffic load on any particular network.
On non-dedicated workstations, you should normally use the default buffer
size of 3 KB. A high buffer size may slow down your workstation because it
requires more memory, even though printing speed may increase.