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From: tom@wcc.oz.au (Tom Evans)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk
Subject: Re: Printing Strangeness
Message-ID: <1669@wcc.oz.au>
Date: 1 Apr 91 04:57:42 GMT
References: <1310.27ef1f73@sleepy.bmd.trw.com>
Organization: Webster Computer Corp, Melbourne, Australia
Lines: 31

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