FAQ

Why does the 12th. lpr job pause printing from Windows NT?

Under Windows NT 4.0, if you send small print jobs in quick succession, using the Line Printer Remote (LPR) protocol with a Line Printer Daemon (LPD) Server, the 12th job will halt anywhere from 2 to 4 minutes and then print normally. If 12 or more jobs follow, the same delay will again occur on the 12th job.

LPR is limited to 11 ports at a time. If you send 11 jobs quickly, the 11 ports will be allocated. Subsequent print jobs must wait for an open port, which is when the halt occurs. The Windows TCP/IP protocol waits approximately 3 minutes before setting a port free to protect against lost data.

The following steps describe how to solve this problem by allying a fix to Windows NT 4.0 Server.

In Windows NT:

Run REGEDIT.EXE to run the registry editor.
From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:-\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\LPDSVC\LPR
Change the Value setting from 0 to 1 next to the IP address of the output printer. This will allow local buffering of the documents and you will not experience the problem described above.

In Windows 2000:

Run REGEDIT.EXE to run the registry editor.
From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:-\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\LPDSVC\LPR
Add New Dword value "IP address of the LPD device", Double click device and add value 1, to allow local buffering.