Buffalo Forums

   I have an HS-DH500GL LinkStation and I have enabled the print server to work with my Brother HL-5040.  I have four computers (XP) on the network (peer-to-peer) that have no problem printing to it.  However, after each print job I find a "Remote Downlevel Document" remaining in the queue from the last print job.  Some brief googling suggested that this was a virus, but all of the machines are clean.  Using the LinkStation utility to delete files in the queue removes it, but it's always back after the next job.  What is this and should it be left in the queue?

   

Well, I seem to have more issues.  The print driver I am using is PCL for the Brother.  I understand that the LinkStation prefers PS?  I can probably try a different driver (there's a PS driver for the Brother HL-5050), but I'm not sure that's the issue I am seeing.

 

What's happening is that there is some constant dialog going on between the LinkStation and whatever computer it's hooked to.  If the LinkStation is selected as the default printer, applications such as Word, PowerPoint, etc., constantly hang (hourglass icon and all) intermittently as you work with them.  If I deselect the printer as the default, the applications don't hang anymore, but there seems to be a persistent pinging going on between the LinkStation and the computer.  If I completely remove the printer from the list, everything is back to normal.

 

What is going on?  Do I need to apply some kind of registry hack to keep the PCs from constantly pinging the LinkStation?  Any help or guidance is appreciated.

You can disable bi directional communications on the printer.  Most printers have this as an option. 

   

Thanks, however bidirectional is not set and the checkbox is even grayed out in the printer properties, which I find a bit odd.

 

Any other ideas?

The information I was able to find out was about the Funlove virus,but seeing that this virus is almost 10 years old, I doubt you have iton your network.

 

I found this, and I think it pertains here

 

" There are two simple options to solve the issue. One is to simple ignore the addition of this printer, and
simple keep the one originally setup as the default, and the second is to turn off this feature which is
located in the options while setting up the printers, and then delete the automatic printer when it
shows up while keeping the original network print driver as your default."

   

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One is to simple ignore the addition of this printer, and simple keep the one originally setup as the default,

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Hmmm, that could be it, if they mean by the one originally setup as the default my original default printer.

 

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and the second is to turn off this feature which is located in the options while setting up the printers, and then delete the automatic printer when it shows up while keeping the original network print driver as your default."

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This one is a little more confusing.  I'm not sure what feature they are talking about.  What is the automatic printer?

 

You wouldn't happen to have the original link to this discussion, would you?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

 

   

Can someone re-word this so it makes sense, please?: 

 

" There are two simple options to solve the issue. One is to simple ignore the addition of this printer, and simple keep the one originally setup as the default, and the second is to turn off this feature which is located in the options while setting up the printers, and then delete the automatic printer when it shows up while keeping the original network print driver as your default." 

 

I have the same problem reported in this thread, and seeing that there may be a virus involved, I am a bit concerned. I also suspect a virus since I hear a constant hard drive read/write, even when no computers on my network are powered on.  Thanks in advance.

   

Well, I seem to have found a solution to part of my problem, as described below: 

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...What's happening is that there is some constant dialog going on between the LinkStation and whatever computer it's hooked to.  If the LinkStation is selected as the default printer, applications such as Word, PowerPoint, etc., constantly hang (hourglass icon and all) intermittently as you work with them.  If I deselect the printer as the default, the applications don't hang anymore, but there seems to be a persistent pinging going on between the LinkStation and the computer.  If I completely remove the printer from the list, everything is back to normal.

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I found that one of the services, BrSplService, that had been originally loaded with my printer drivers appears to have been causing the hang ups.  It only seems to apply to advanced printing services, such as duplex printing, but it is not necessary for standard, workhorse printing.  I disabled that service, reselected the lp as the default printer and everything seems to be working fine.

 

I still have not found anything regarding the Remote Downlevel Document, although one shows up in the print spool for a user after their print job.  There it remains until the next print job when it is replaced by another user's Remote Downlevel Document.  Don't know why, but it doesn't seem to be doing any damage at the moment.

   

I have suffered the same sort of problem for about a month now. After a bit of really frustrating searching around, including on these forums, I have found a fix that worked for me. I cannot take credit for the actual fix, please see the article at the following link:

 

http://www.alexfalkenberg.com/2009/10/06/linkstation-windows-printing-problem-solved/

 

Follow the instructions in the article and the linked Microsoft Support HOW-TO page, and you should be up and printing again.

 

One note; when you get as far as specifying your "Name or address of server providing lpd:" and "Name of printer or print queue on that server", you will enter the networking name (HS-DHGL###) and "lp", respectively. I am running XP Pro SP3, and there may be minor variance in what these fields are called on other versions of Windows. No slashes, forward, reverse, or otherwise, should be entered into these fields.

 

On a positive note, this also appears to get rid of the annoying "Remote Downlevel Document", or whatever it was called, being left in the print queue all the time. Not that it ever made much difference...

 

On a negative note, it appears I formatted/reformatted, initialized, updated firmware, etc., and deleted all my shared files for nothing. If you did the same during your troubleshooting, and are having strange circular reference problems with "pictures" and/or "usbdisk1" folders on your NAS, disable "PCast" and reformat your drive(s) again to fix this error.

 

Finally, two closing comments:

1. BUFFALO, shame on you for incorporating such a flimsy print server into so many of your products. This print server / utility barely supports Windows printing, which is without a doubt the most common method of printing in the technical world. We as consumers should not have to rely on private individuals to patch your shoddy software/hardware. However, now that someone has fixed the problem for you, how about you incorporate this fix in a firmware / software update for all your consumers that are suffering now, or soon will be?

2. Thank you, Alex Falkenberg / alexfalkenberg.com for providing a fix to my and likely so many other BUFFALO NAS users' printing problems.

 

My setup: NAS - BUFFALO LinkStation Live HS-DH500GL, firmware 2.11v101b (2.10 before this incident), USB Disk 1 - BUFFALO DriveStation HD-CE1.0TU2, USB printer - Canon imageCLASS D340

 

I hope this helps!!

   Thanks for the kind words; very glad it worked for you. fwiw, I've had no printing problems at all since doing this. I have no doubts at all that tons of people are affected by it; I very strongly agree with the "shame on you, Buffalo" sentiment as well (as noted in my blog post).