Very slow printing on 10.6 server

Question

Hi,
I've got a Mac Mini Server running up to date SL server. I have two printers hooked up to it, one HP laserjet and one Canon Pixma. Both up to date drivers. The printer server is set up and both printers work perfectly when printing locally from the server. The printers are shared using IPP and are visible through Bonjour as 'printer @ server'
The problem arises when I print from my MB. Printing does work but it's painfully slow, taking up to five minutes to start printing. The job doesn't appear in the print server log until well after i've sent it. I have tried both n wifi and gigabit ethernet connections (small text docs take as long to start).
Has anyone else experienced this? Have you resolved it? If so, how?!
Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Answer 1

Hi,
I have exactly the same problem. I find that clients, Windows, Mac, Linux and OS/2 all exhibit the same problem as you describe when they attempt to print over the network to USB connected printers located on the server while printing from the server itself presents no problems.
The Mac clients provide most information suggesting that the system seems to be searching for something critical to the print process and taking quite some time to find it. When the client finally connects, the print job executes with normal speed. The connection process can take 2-3 minutes on my network.
Attaching the printers to a print server or another client restores printing efficiency. As this essentially provides an ethernet based printing capability, it suggests that the problem relates to operation under USB.
I also learned that OSX Snow Leopard Server does not natively support sharing of USB printers and must be shared through the CUPS process at localhost"631.
Unfortunately, while this allows the printers to be shared across the network, it doesn't provided a solution to the slow printing problem.
I've checked to see that print sharing is active from the Server Admin window and also that queues had been established for the printers. Clients were set up to print directly to the IPP queues and while the print job would eventually print, printing delays still existed.
I also looked at DNS configuration and local host naming but found everything to be in order.
For practical reasons, I have been forced for the moment to service printing requirements by hosting printers on ethernet based print servers or PC/MAC print servers which operates effective but requires in my view an unnecessary additional investment in hardware.
As both of my printers are still quite serviceable, I have no intention of re-investing in ethernet capable printers to work around this problem.
What I think is required is additional coding within Snow Leopard Server to support native USB printing. From what I've seen here in this discussion group, it's current and prolific problem which Apple should be addressing.