Home networking - why does opening applications involve ethernet activity?

[noamwevel]

I've been reading about networking with a lot of interest since my partner got a new computer (Gateway 835M, running Windows XP Media Center 2005) and made off with the HP Laserjet 1012 printer that was formerly connected to my old Gateway (Gateway Essential 667, with Windows 98SE)! We have DSL service from Verizon, with the Linksys BEFW1154 broadband router and Westell modem connected directly to my computer (no convenient phone jacks near her computer) and a Linksys wireless adapter connected to hers. So Internet sharing has been no problem; connection used to be somewhat slow occasionally on her old computer, but works great now.

The issue for me is wanting to share the HP printer. I tried many slightly different specifications for the network, and most all of them made it very slow sometimes for my computer to access my partner's, especially when trying to print, AND for some reason resulted in it taking forever to open applications like Word and Wordperfect which had previously opened on my computer very quickly. Anyway, I've finally gotten things to work as best as they have, I think by:

(1) Making both machines use IPX/SPX protocol; on the Windows 98SE, I installed and selected this as the default protocol and deselected TCP/IP, and on the XP, I unbound TCP/IP from File and Printer Sharing and Client for Microsoft Networks.

(2) Turning off the XP firewall for wireless network and LAN.

Printing can be a little slow from my computer while the info is being sent wirelessly, but not so slow that I can't live with it. BUT it's still taking longer than it used to to open Word and Wordperfect on my computer - whether I open the program directly or via a word-processing file - and when it's doing so, I can see the Ethernet light flashing on the Linksys router. Once the application is open, if I immediately start opening other files, then it's not too bad ... but the Ethernet light still flashes. And if I leave the program for a while and come back to it, sometimes it then takes a while again to open files.

So my questions are:

(i) Why is my computer accessing the Ethernet when it's just opening non-Internet applications? Is it sending information about my application use to somewhere in the LAN?

(ii) If so, is there some other way I can set up the network so that this doesn't happen?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Devistater]

Well one thing to try is setting your default printer to something like a local (not shared) dot matrix printer (I mention that because it doesn't need to be plugged in for it to install.) . See if that helps. I had one funky email program that was always looking for a printer when it started up. Doing that fixed it for me. I think I used the panasonic KXP-1124 dot matrix selection on the add printers screen. Of course it introduces the hassle of having to pick the printer everytime you print. But its worth a shot to see if it fixes your issues. If it doesn't work, just remove the dot matrix printer selection. This will find out if the delay in starting a program is because they are looking for a printer.

(i) That would be my best guess about why a program like wordperfect would access ethernet when started, to check printer status. Something like word, I have no idea. MS puts all sorts of internet communications stuff in thier software, like windows media player likes to report to MS when you play stuff. Theoretically you can disable the media player from doing that. Word might be checking for updates maybe. I know adobe does that.

(ii) If you are concerned about these types of packets, get a firewall software that can block outgoing TCP/IP packets on a program by program basis. Like ZoneAlarm

I've had multiple computers with mixed OS's (XP and 98se) sharing printers before, never had issues like what you mention. When I print from my XP computer to the XP computer that has all the printers, it starts printing the first page within a couple seconds of the time it takes if I print it locally. We can also print fine from a laptop that is usually wireless (see note on this further on).

One other thing you can try is manually assigning IP addresses. We did that with the computer that had all the printers plugged into it. The laptop had some problems trying to connect with it, but when we gave the printer computer a manual IP number and then told the wireless laptop the location of the printer was the IP address instead of the computer name, that fixed it up. I.e. normally a printer might be located at (under the shared tab in the printer properties):
\\mycomputername\HP 1220 laserjet
we changed it to on the laptop that was wireless:
\\192.168.3.5\HP 1220 laserjet
We just had to make sure that that address was manually configured so it would stay that way. If you do want to manually configure the IP address, check what IP it typically gets automatically for a guide.

 

[noamwevel]

Devistater, many thanks for your suggestions. The light bulb went off for me regarding printer selection before I read your reply; I wondered if Word and WordPerfect were always reformatting the documents for the networked printer, so I switched the default printer to the HP1012 driver installed locally on my desktop, and that did the trick!

I'm interested in the option of assigning IP addresses manually if that will speed printing up on my end, so will give that a try and see what happens.

Re software firewalls, I used to run ZoneAlarm, but haven't in a while. I'm assuming that my Linksys broadband router is a good hardware firewall, though I guess the best thing to do is to have a software back-up as well, so I might look into ZoneAlarm again.

 

[Devistater]

You were asking how to prevent certain software from sending packets OUT to your network. The only way to prevent that is a locally installed software firewall to stop them before they hit the network. Otherwise they are already out there on your LAN by the time you stop them 🙂 Plus a good software firewall can be set to block outgoing on a program by program basis.

Regarding a router, the vast majority of consumer routers do not stop anything outgoing. Only unsolicited incoming. Blocking outgoing makes it kinda hard to communicate with anything outside your own network 🙂

Normally the type of routers (actually more of hardware firewall appliances) that stop outgoing are more commercial in nature for schools/businesses. Then they can stop p2p packets like kazaa or bit torrent, they can stop games, stop instant messenger traffice, etc.

 

[dnoyeb]

There are configurations in word and wordperfect to tell it not to format for the default printer when you open the document. Otherwise the program will go find the printer, and format the document to fit it. If that printer is elsewhere on the network you will see network activity. Also many applications check for updates when they start. Also many applications check for files on their recently used list when they start, and some files could be on remote computers. If you want to know for sure what is happening, install blackice firewall product. The free version. Anytime any software accesses the network it will pop up and ask you if you want to allow it or not. Then you will know for sure.

Also mixing XP and older windows is inadvisable. MS has a way of causing hell for their older programs with their newer ones.