NetWare 4.1/9000 Print Services

C-8
Optimizing Network Printing Performance
Printer Configuration
Try different settings to get best performance from your own setup. For
example, if the printer is printing a lot of graphics data, you may want to
increase the buffer size.
Timer Tick Values
If your workstation is bogging down due to printing, increase the timing
interval when you load NPRINTER. This is done by adding the /T=<1-9>
option to the NPRINTER command.
The higher the tick setting, the faster the overall workstation performance,
but with this increase in overall performance comes a decrease in printing
performance.
A timer tick value of 2 takes twice as long to service a job as a timer tick
value of 1. The allowable range is 1–9.
The timer tick value in polled mode is proportional to the length of time a
job will take to print, assuming that the printer is capable of printing at the
data throughput speed.
Queue Sampling (Polling) Interval
Set the queue sampling (polling) interval in your printer configuration to fit
your network's usage patterns
The delay between the time a job enters an empty queue and when it starts
printing is determined by the printer's Sampling Interval setting. In NetWare
Services, this parameter can be set in PCONSOLE or the NetWare
Administrator. The default is 5 seconds. The maximum is 255 seconds.
When a printer is idle, the print server assigned to that printer queries the
assigned queue at regular intervals. The sampling interval is the number of
seconds between each query.
This interval also represents the maximum wait-to-start time for a print job
once it enters an empty queue (assuming no other queues are involved and
the printer is ready). On average, the wait will be half of the maximum time.
For single-page, text-only jobs, this delay may be the bulk of the total wait
time.